Later this year — just in time for the Thanksgiving trip to Aunt Minnie’s in Goshen, perhaps — Illinois motorists with I-PASS transponders will get the same discount on the Indiana Toll Road that Hoosiers now get on Illinois tollways.
Although this is good news, the better news is that I-PASS users will get the 40 percent discount without any hassle. Indiana officials agreed Thursday to drop a requirement that out-of-state electronic toll payers register to qualify for the reduced rate.
“Thousands of northwest Indiana residents benefit from electronic toll discounts on Illinois toll roads,” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a statement. “It is right and fair that we reciprocate with a gesture of friendliness and neighborliness.”
The Indiana Toll Road Oversight Board on Thursday affirmed Daniels’ recommendation. The decision effectively ends an I-PASS vs. i-Zoom feud that had been brewing for two months.
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority officials were angry when they learned in April that only Indiana residents would be eligible for the 40 percent discount for using electronic tolling instead of cash on the Indiana Toll Road when i-Zoom takes effect this fall.
Tollway officials called this unfair, because Indiana drivers with I-PASS transponders get the same 50 percent discount as Illinois motorists who use electronic tolling.
Tollway officials even threatened to end the discount for about 90,000 Indiana residents who have I-PASS accounts if Indiana didn’t reciprocate.
Losing the discount would have cost Indiana drivers about $9 million a year, the Tollway estimated.
Last month, Indiana officials offered a compromise by which motorists using Illinois’ I-PASS would be eligible for the discount, but only after signing up on a Web site.
But tollway officials rejected that, saying I-PASS users should not have to “jump through hoops.”
Tollway officials also accused Indiana of violating the principles of the E-ZPass Interagency Group, a multistate consortium of toll authorities. E-ZPass is intended to provide reciprocity so travelers won’t have to juggle multiple transponders and accounts when using toll roads and bridges in various states.
In its decision, the oversight board said it would offer the discount “in the spirit of cooperation, fairness and interoperability.”
Tollway officials were pleased with and relieved by Indiana’s decision.
Executive Director Brian McPartlin said: “We are pleased Indiana has reconsidered their position and decided to offer our I-PASS users the same level of customer service with no strings attached.”
Matt Pierce, a spokesman for ITR Concession Co., a private firm that has a 75-year lease to operate the Indiana Toll Road, said electronic tolling should be available starting June 25, but it will not be fully implemented along all 157 miles of the highway until November.
Motorists on the toll road won’t notice the discount until November, when electronic tolling is fully implemented and cash tolls will increase. Until then, motorists using either cash or transponders will pay the same rate, about 3.2 cents per mile, Pierce said.
Indiana’s i-Zoom transponders will be available starting Friday, Pierce said.
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rwronski@tribune.com
