Dylan Wagemans
THE Costa del Sol toll road has been slammed for raking in the cash while offering no discounts to the drivers who use it every day.
Known as the AP-7, it runs all the way from Malaga to Sotogrande and is one of the most profitable bits of infrastructure for the state in Andalucia.
The road collects around €30 million each year through driver’s taxation, according to an economic report.
However, regular users of the AP-7 toll road get nothing in return.
There are barely any discounts, bonuses or programmes in place to benefit the users of the road.
The government has announced a subsidy of €1 million – a figure that would result in an eight cent discount per user.
The cost for the whole journey on the AP-7 toll road from Guadiaro to Malaga varies depending on the season:
Jose Ignacio Landaluce, the mayor of Algeciras, has denounced the unfairness of the policy of motorway bonuses.
“It’s incomprehensible that the most expensive toll motorway in Spain does not receive similar treatment to that of other regions,” Landaluce said.
He hints at other Spanish toll motorways that have received significant amounts of funding, such as the AP-9 in Galicia, which has received a subsidy of €84 million.
Another example is the AP-66 between Oviedo and León. That road has received more than €15 million in subsidies.
“The government is dividing citizens into classes according to their political convenience”, Landaluce criticizes.
“It seriously harms the people of the Gibraltar region and the Costa Del Sol.”
The mayor has urged all the municipalities of the Gibraltar region to demand for ‘fair and equitable treatment’ in the subsidy policy.
Since its inauguration in 1999, the AP-7 has generated some €1.3 billion in revenues.
The government has no plans in place to bring back those charges on roads where tolls have been removed.
