Motorway tolls will increase by 0,92% on average in 2025

This average increase is also "lower" than the increase in tolls in 2018 and 2019, "i.e. before the health crisis and before the energy shock linked to the war in Ukraine", noted this source on condition of anonymity, confirming figures revealed by the newspaper Le Parisien.

Contacted by AFP, the entourage of the Minister Delegate for Transport, François Durovray, also confirmed these elements.

"This decision is the result of a real battle that the minister led to defend the purchasing power of the French, as he is well aware of the daily weight that mobility represents in household budgets," according to his entourage.

This increase, applied every February 1st, a recurring political-economic soap opera, had been around 3% on average this year and 4,75% in 2023, a consequence in particular of inflation.

The Bank of France currently estimates that price increases will reach 1,5% next year.

In addition to inflation, the annual change in motorway tariffs is calculated on the basis of the investment plans of the concession companies.

On November 13, Mr. Durovray said he was determined to "reinvent the model" of highways at the end of the current concessions, after a meeting with their managers.

The ministry had then announced that a conference on the future of financing mobility planned for early 2025 would include the issue of "management of the motorway network". The end of the main concessions is planned between 2031 and 2036.

On October 23, a report submitted to the Senate recommended maintaining motorway tolls at the end of the current concessions, which are very profitable for their managers, but reforming their model in depth, by reducing the duration of contracts and the number of kilometres of each concession to avoid the takeover of a handful of big players.

The price of tolls could remain stable, but part of the sums collected could be devoted to the maintenance of non-concession motorways, national roads which are deteriorating, or the railway network, according to this report by the centrist senator from Eure Hervé Maurey.

In 2015, Ségolène Royal, then Minister of Ecology, obtained a price freeze, but it was counterbalanced by increases from 2019 to 2023 as part of an agreement which also provided for an extension of concessions and a plan motorway recovery of 3,2 billion euros.