NLEX, SCTEX integration completed ahead of Holy Week

The integration of toll collection on the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway has been completed just as the motoring public prepares for the annual Holy Week exodus from Metro Manila.

Under the integrated toll collection on the two expressways, a motorist will only have to get a ticket at his or her point of entry and then pay at the exit.

Before, a motorist had to pass through five toll gates from Balintawak to Subic. With the integration in place, he or she only has to go through two.

According to the Manila North Tollways Corp., the integration project cost P650 million but assured that no toll increase will be forthcoming.

The kilometers-long queues at the separate toll gates of the NLEX and the SCTEX have been blamed for the heavy traffic on the expressways during the rush usually over the Holy Week, on All Saints' Day, and over the Christmas holidays.

An estimated 200,000 vehicles pass through NLEX daily. Some 30,000 use the  SCTEX every day.

The almost 12-hour traffic jam experienced by thousands of motorists en route to Baguio City on December 26, 2014 was blamed on the separate toll collection systems of the two expressways north of Metro Manila. —NB, GMA News