GOVERNMENT-BAILED out toll motorways will be free of charge to use from midnight tomorrow (Monday) every night until 06.00 in the morning, as the ministry of public works confirmed towards the end of 2018.
From 06.01 on Tuesday morning (January 15), toll prices on these motorways will be 30% lower.
Spain's previous government began the process of 'buying back' motorways run by ailing toll companies, and the new socialist cabinet, which came into power in June, continued to see the plan through.
Both governments had announced buy-backs and non-renewals when toll company franchises on most of Spain's pay-per-use motorways expired, with the next ready for de-privatisation being the AP-7 between Silla, just south of Valencia, and San Juan, a few kilometres north of Alicante, on January 1, 2020.
From midnight on Monday, the AP-7 Alicante ring-road and, a few kilometres further south, between Cartagena (Murcia) and Vera (Almería) will be free of charge overnight and 30% cheaper by day, along with the AP-36 through Castilla-La Mancha, between Ocaña (Toledo province) and La Roda (Albacete province), the M-12 between Madrid city and the airport, and four of the outer Madrid link roads or 'radial' highways.
The 'radial' roads connect the capital city to motorways heading in all directions across the country – the R-3 joins the A-3 Valencia trunk road at Arganda del Rey; the R-4 connects to the A-4 Cádiz motorway at Ocaña; the R-5 links to the westbound A-5 referred to as the 'Extremadura motorway', at Navalcarnero, and the R-2 merges into the A-2 Zaragoza motorway at Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha).
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