Information AboutHighway 407 |
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Sold to a private consortium in 1999, Highway 407 was formerly a provincial freeway designed as a bypass of Highway 401, the main trunk route though Southern Ontario and the world's busiest highway with well over 500,000 average daily trips on a section between Highway 427 and Highway 404. Major freeway junctions are located at (from west to east) the Queen Elizabeth Way , Highway 403, Highway 401, Highway 410, Highway 427, Highway 400 and Highway 404. Other major street junctions include Bronte Road ( Halton Regional Road 25), Hurontario Street, Highway 27, Yonge Street and Markham Road (Highway 48). Overall there are 40 different junctions on Highway 407 connecting the toll road with the main transportation network in the Greater Toronto Area. UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS The 407 uses a system of cameras and Transponders to toll vehicles automatically. There are no toll booths, allowing the 407 to be designed as a normal freeway with interchanges. A radio antenna detects when a vehicle with a transponder has entered and exited the highway, calculating the toll rate. For vehicles without a transponder, an Automatic Number Plate Recognition system is used. Monthly statements are mailed to users. The name ''Express Toll Route'' (ETR) is used since there are no toll booths to stop at. The 407 is the world's first highway to feature this system throughout. Safety concerns The original section of Highway 407, between Highway 410 and Highway 404, is one of the better-designed freeways in the Province of Ontario due to its recent design. It was the first freeway in almost thirty years since Highway 427 to be surfaced with concrete instead of asphalt, which despite being more a costly initial investment, lasts significantly longer and has better reflective capabilities (although motorists have a noiser ride). Because of its wide median, it has the capacity to be expanded from six to ten lanes (maximum of eight lanes through Thornhill) without having to reconstruct existing bridges and interchanges. Braided ramps were used to avoid weaving when there were closely spaced interchanges. The high-capacity junction with Highway 400 is considered one of the best designed interchanges and it is currently the only 4-level Stack in Ontario. When the freeway was opened in 1997, many critics complained that it had skimped on safety features to save money. The 4-way interchanges with Highway 410, Highway 427, and Highway 404 were intended to be 4-level stack interchanges but they were reduced to 3-level stack/cloverleaf junctions, with low capacity loop ramps serving freeway-to-freeway traffic. Experts were also concerned about the decreased loop ramp radii and a lack of protective guardrail at sharp curves. The lack of a concrete median barrier separating the carriageways has also been a worry, but it was argued that the large grass median separating the carriageways was sufficient to prevent cross-over collisions. Inadequate signage leading to 407 has been criticized for being misleading; with motorists incurring bills for accidentally driving onto the 407 and as a result there have been several serious collisions when motorists realized 407's status as a toll road and tried to back out of (one-way) ramps. Further controversy has centred on the westward extension from Mississauga to Burlington; despite the majority of traffic not using that section of Highway 407, the interchanges at the ends are nonetheless designed with that segment as the mainline through traffic. While this design would have been well-suited to the original design which was intended to be used for an extension of Highway 403 , this no longer applied when it was redesignated 407 and the private owners merely recycled original designs. Because most current Ontario freeways are designed with right-hand exits (while through traffic stays on the left), left-hand exits to the 407 have caused a great deal of confusion with cases of drivers unintentionally driving onto 407 from eastbound 403. Since the sale of the highway, there has been a noticeable decrease in design standards, including straight-sided overpass structures (rather than the sloped design common on most provincial highways), the conversion of dual exit lanes to an exit lane and an additional travel lane in Mississauga rather than paying to widen the carriageway and maintaining two exit lanes, the reduction of the central median and the use of temporary concrete barriers rather than maintaining the median width, and the use of asphalt paving rather than concrete on the Burlington to Mississauga and Markham to Pickering sections. Due to the highway now being owned by a private corporation, the provincial government has no control over design standards. The 407 is not a government-owned highway, though it does operate under a leasing agreement with the government. A 99-year lease to was sold by the provincial government to 407 ETR International Incorporated for approximately 3.1 billion Canadian Dollars in 1999. Highway 407 is believed to be the first financially successful privately-owned toll road in North America . Plate denial Following a judicial decision by the selected by the Ontario government. Previously, as of February 2000, the Ontario government would suspend Driver Licenses for unpaid 407 bills; however, this practice was quickly suspended after 407 ETR sent out many incorrect bills, often to non-users. HISTORY Highway 407 was the eighth 400-Series Highway planned for Ontario, to serve as a bypass of Highway 401 through Toronto and to serve as a major east-west corridor across the sprawling Suburb s to the north of the city. Land adjacent to a hydro corridor was acquired for Highway 407 in the 1960s but it sat vacant for almost thirty years, because the Ontario government opted instead to widen Highway 401 to a 12-lane collector-express system. The Highway 401 expansion project was considered a success and construction of Highway 407 was put on hold until 1987. The first section was completed in 1987 as a temporary routing for Highway 403 in Mississauga and Oakville (after a change in plans, this segment would be permanently part of Highway 403). The next phase to begin construction was a short connector between Highway 427 and Highway 400 , and the upgrading of Highway 7 through Richmond Hill to a six-lane grade-separated expressway, which although originally planned to become incorporated into the 407 routing, today runs parallel to the highway. In addition, cross-street overpasses and ramps for the interchange connections to Highway 427 and Highway 400, and modifications to accommodate the highway at the Highway 403/QEW interchange, were constructed by the Ministry of Transportation in the early 1990s. To construct the highway more quickly and to save much-needed provincial funds during an economic Recession , the provincial government resorted to a Public-private Partnership to facilitate construction of the highway. Two firms bid on the project, with Canadian Highways International Corporation being selected as the operator of the highway. Financing for the highway would be paid by user tolls lasting 35 years, after which it would return to the provincial system as a typical, un-tolled 400-Series Highway. The highway opened in 1997, and highway cost roughly $ 1.6 billion. As part of a controversial plan to finance revenue for tax cuts, the highway was sold to a conglomerate of private companies in 1999 for $3.1 billion. The deal included an unprecedented 99-year lease agreement, unlimited control of the highway and its tolls, as well as a clause protecting the corporation from any competition, not the least of which includes a ban on construction of any nearby provincial highways that may reduce toll revenue. When purchased, the highway ran from the junction of Highway 403 in Mississauga to Markham Road in Markham . Extensions westward to the Queen Elizabeth Way and eastward to Highway 7 and Brock Road in Pickering were constructed by the corporation, as mandated in the lease agreement. Both of these extensions were not part of the original Highway 407 plans, rather, these protected corridors were to be future, non-tolled 400-Series highways. The westward extension from Highway 403 in Mississauga to the Queen Elizabeth Way in Burlington was initially intended to be part of Highway 403 . Today, the highway is valued at over $10 billion, and the Progressive Conservative party has been heavily criticized for the poor terms of sale including underestimating the value of the road. Many "905ers" in the rapidly growing Greater Toronto Area who had been expecting to be served by a much-needed non-tolled Highway 407 consider its sale and skyrocketing toll rates a sellout and this significantly eroded the Conservative's formerly strong support base in that region. The CAA considered the 407 contract a fiasco and adopted a platform where they would not support the tolling of any new or existing highways. Even though the succeeding Liberal government have been unsuccessful in their attempts at legal action against the 407 ETR operators, the contract still reflected badly upon the opposition Conservatives who defended it. Current Conservative leader John Tory has distanced himself from his predecessors on this issue and has said that he would not have sold Highway 407 if he had been Premier. The company, known as 407/ETR International Incorporated is 30% owned by the Australian Macquarie Infrastructure Group , one of the largest private developers of toll roads in the world. The company is also owned by Spanish and Quebec-based companies. FUTURE OF THE 407 Recently, the Ontario provincial government has quarrelled with 407 ETR over toll rates and customer service. On 2004 , an independent arbitrator affirmed that 407 ETR has the ability to raise toll rates without first consulting the government. The government filed an appeal of this decision but was overruled by an Ontario Superior Court decision released on January 6 2005 ; however, a subsequent ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal on June 13 , 2005 granted the government permission to appeal the decision. Legal troubles have placed future eastward extensions of the highway on hold, and it is unknown when construction may begin. The rising toll rates have made Highway 407 more of a "luxury" rather than a bypass on existing congested roads as it was initially intended. Parallel roads that Highway 407 would have supplemented ending up continuing to grow congested just a few years after Highway 407 opened. As a result, the Ontario government had to revisit costly widening projects of Highway 401 and the QEW. Demographics showed that mostly businessmen and professionals used Highway 407 because they were able to write off the tolls as expenses. BILLING A controversial point is the billing practice in which Highway 407 ETR operators may continue to contact customers to pay bills, even in cases where the bill is incorrect or has not been incurred. Bills have even been sent to Northern Ontario and even Scotland, despite the recipients never hearing of Highway 407 ETR. Another billing problem is a lack of consolidated account information. For example, an account is only created and maintained if a driver uses a transponder. However if the transponder does not always operate ideally, an automatic plate identification will result in a "Video Toll Charge". This then creates a separate account, all of the additional costs required to maintain the separate account. Drivers with transponders will think they only have one account, which they pay and keep up-to-date, when in fact they have two, because of transponder malfunction. The second account rapidly mounts up fines due to non-payment, as the driver is unaware. Drivers with transponders must be alert and listen for the exit tones from the transponder when leaving the 407, and be vigilant with making 407 customer service aware of transponder malfunction when it occurs. TOLLS The base toll, as of 1 February 2006 , for vehicles under 5,000 kg is 16.25 cents/km during peak hours (6am-10am and 3pm-7pm weekdays) and 15.50 cents/km during other hours. Heavy single unit vehicles pay twice the toll, and heavy multiple unit vehicles pay three times the toll. Additionally, there is a $2.15/month charge for the transponder (or $21.00 per year) and a 50% discount for the second and additional transponders on an account. Autos without transponders are charged $2 for each month with activity, plus a $3.50 video toll charge per trip. For heavy vehicles, transponders are mandatory, with their absence punishable both as a traffic offence and by a $50 video toll charge per trip. LANE CONFIGURATIONS FROM WEST TO EAST INTERCHANGES FROM WEST TO EAST
FUTURE 407 EAST INTERCHANGES FROM WEST TO EAST (EXIT NUMBERS ASSUMED) SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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