discounts for taking the highway around Toulouse, it's over!

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According to a regular, “it was a must-have » for motorists forced to take the motorway to go to work: the Zap31 devicewhich for 25 years has allowed you to benefit from rebates on tolls in Haute-Garonne, will disappear early 2025. After having already reduced its aid 10 years ago, the Departmental Council has just announced pure and simple shutdown of its participation and therefore of this system which was initially intended “to help users in commuting”.

The Department “will no longer finance discounts” announces Sébastien Vincini

In a letter received Wednesday November 6, 2024 by the subscribers at Zap31, one of the formulas of the Ulys de Vinci Autoroutes electronic toll system, the president of the Departmental Council announces in person the “evolution” of the system.

“I inform you that as of January 1, 2025, like many other departments of France, the Departmental Council will no longer finance discount on the ZAP31 subscription,” Sébastien Vincini states straight away in this letter. “The company Vinci Autoroutes will soon offer you other formulas adapted to your travel needs.

“I have around twenty euros off per month,” says a subscriber

Thanks to this help from the Department, the Zap31 subscription is for its beneficiaries much more interesting than the other formulas Ulys electronic toll station. The principle? For a modest subscription of 1.50 euros per month, the motorist pays 15% less on its preferential route around the Pink City from the 1st to the 22nd passage. And the reduction climbs to 80 % from the 23rd to the 44th passage.

Florian is one of our long-time subscribers. “It was a lot more interesting before 2014. But I still use it to get from home to work, and it's a significant reduction on my daily journey between Le Palays and Villefranche, for which the toll costs 2 euros,” he says. “In months other than holidays, I am entitled to around twenty euros reduction on average.

Specifically, the rebate represents almost a third of its monthly toll expenses: “Last June for example, I should have paid 72.10 euros, but I had a reduction of 20.85 euros. And in May, I would have had it for 75.10 euros, and I got a 21.74 euro discount.” Unless there is a big effort on Vinci's side, his budget transportation will therefore increase in 2025.

The relevance of the system questioned

Why stop Zap31? The head of the Departmental Council explains that after “an in-depth evolution of this system, it appears today that it in no way guarantees that it benefits those who need it mostnor that it only finances home-work travel.”

On the other hand, explains the Department questioned by Toulouse News“with teleworking, part-time work or videoconferencing, working practices have evolved towards less travel”. And suddenly, number of subscribers would no longer benefit from the reduction, because they do not reach the required number of trips each month… “According to the figures communicated by Vinci, on the 50,000 subscribersonly 8,000 use the system currently,” explains the community.

In times of ecology, the Department is banking on carpooling and cycling

In its letter to subscribers, the Departmental Council also explains that it wants to promote “home-work travel solutions more compatible with environmental issues of today.” And in passing he highlights his other actions to “support daily journeys”, and “promote solutions alternatives to the car individual”, by financing “the development of carpool areasthe development of express bike networks”, or even the public transport in the Toulouse metropolis”, with “in particular the extension of the metro network”, before tackling “tomorrow the metropolitan RER project”.

Already downsized ten years ago

Already ten years ago, the system was first planed by the Department. Before 2014, the subscription only cost one euro, and above all, the system offered at the time completely free for the most frequent users (beyond 22 journeys per month), which represented a substantial saving for certain beneficiaries…

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