Detroit/Windsor Tunnel Toll Trolls

Gosh, there may be a new troll in town at the border but not under the bridge. The troll may have taken residence in the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel:

"I want somebody to stop the 'toll trolls,'" said Emerald Mountain resident Robin Pate about Michigan-based Alinda Roads LLC, which owns two toll bridges in Elmore County."

Does Alinda also operate the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel now or not and will we say the same as Mr. Pate soon if tolls are dramatically increased at the Tunnel? I'll explain why below.

I quoted an article about Alinda operating the Tunnel ["BLOGEXCLUSIVE: The Tunnel Secret Is Out" on February 22, 2007] but we have seen nothing in the Star about it (must be those radio gigs that take up time), nothing official from Alinda, nothing official from DCTC, nothing official from the Mayor's office, nothing official from the WTC Chair (ooops that is the Mayor too!)

Now I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to help out the Bridge Co. by sending traffic to their bridge. Perish the thought. I know now not to mess with the Star! But I am torn. I want to continue using the City-owned Tunnel but should I? And it is all Mayor Eddie Francis' fault!

I wish His Worship would come clean with us and tell us what is happening at the Tunnel. Ever since the Tunnel Plaza Improvements public open house was unexpectedly and mysteriously cancelled with no new date in sight, rumours and gossip have been circulating. Why just at the end of November, 2006, the Mayor said in relation to deals such as the Canderel leases and Spitfires deal:

• "Francis insisted he would prefer to have such agreements made public. "It's easier for me to have the information out there to prevent speculation and rumours, and that doesn't help us in any way; it doesn't help us when we're trying to attract business."

So why is there no information about the Tunnel "to prevent speculation and rumours." I have guessed that perhaps the Alinda deal, assuming there is one, has caused a problem or a massive cost over-run at the three Governments Tunnel Improvement Project or problems with security or financial difficulties since the dividend is going away. Who knows what it is.

I am in the in the throes of a dilemma. The Tunnel is convenient for me but Alinda is my issue.

Why would Alinda be a problem? Alinda bought a bunch of bridges and supposedly operates the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel now. Here is what they are doing with the bridges:

• Black Warrior Parkway: toll increase from 75 cents to $1.25 (67% increase)
  
• Foley Beach Express: toll increase from from $1 to $1.50 for Orange Beach residents and from $2 to $3 for others (50% increase)
• Alabama River Parkway: toll increase from from $.75 to $1.25 (67% increase)
• Emerald Mountain Expressway: toll increase from $1 to $1.50 for non-commercial vehicles and from $2 to at least $3 for commercial vehicles (50% increase)

Now to be fair, CEO Gordon Jarvis said

• "that the fee increases were to pay for overdue infrastructure needs...[and] said the fees never had been increased since the Alabama River Parkway bridge opened around 1998 and there had been only one 25-cent increase at Emerald Mountain since it opened in 1994."

Alinda also said:

• "The extra money generated by the increased tolls will be used for bridge maintenance and expansion...to add a second span to the Foley Beach Express bridge to double its capacity" and to build some new roads"

So there are good business reasons to increase tolls but those percentages are pretty big. I am sure that there are good business reasons to increase tolls at the Tunnel too, especially if big bucks were paid to buy these assets and operating agreement. (It might be $70M for the Tunnel alone for the acquisition and refinancing of the second busiest US-Canada border crossing.)

If the Tunnel increases are anywhere near the magnitude of the Alabahma increases, we could be looking at tolls rising from $8.75 now to about $10-15 for a round trip depending on what the increase is and on which side of the Tunnel or both (New tolls could be: Entering US [now $4] $6-6.50, Entering Canada [now $4.75] $7-8)

Now I do not expect them to rise that much with the cheaper Ambassador Bridge private enterprise tolls at $8 (sorry Brian Masse and Transport Canada...that's what market competition does) but I would expect them to go up.

So perhaps we Tunnel users should consider now what the good folks in Elmore County, Alabama are threatening to keep tolls down BEFORE an increase is introduced:

BOYCOTT THE TUNNEL

In fact, even before the scheduled boycott there, a news report stated:

• "Days before the scheduled boycott of the Emerald Mountain toll bridge, alternate routes into Montgomery are so gridlocked that sheriff's deputies have been posted at the busiest intersections.
  
  In the past, many of these commuters used the toll bridge, but it appears they now are using U.S. 231, observed Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin.
  
  "There is no doubt this traffic backup is a direct result of the boycott already being successful...
  
  The toll bridge could be in trouble if this trend continues," Franklin said."

Now what will the Mayor/Chair of WTC do? He and Council have a problem. Will they support a boycott and send traffic to the bridge thereby helping to put the City owned asset into a deeper financial mess, do nothing and see traffic go to the bridge anyway or what? Or have they solved that problem already?

Will the increase, if it comes, further kill the tourist business but for the Bridge Co.'s lower tolls? Oh my, Mark Boscariol and the DWBIA will have a fit! Mark fussed recently about "the Bridge’s proposed plan to move tunnel customs to the bridge," the advantages of which for Windsor downtown I still do not think Mark grasps. I wonder what he will say about the Alinda risk.

Don't you wish we knew what is going on in our City? I wonder what the Tunnel traffic volume for February was? In the meantime, I hope that the Bridge Co. is ready for more vehicles and US Customs has those booths at the bridge fully staffed.