All NLEX toll plazas to reopen cash lanes

GUIGUINTO, Bulacan , Philippines — All toll plazas along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) will open cash lanes by Dec. 16.

Kit Ventura, NLEX Corp. assistant vice president for corporate communications, said some toll plazas would reopen cash lanes tomorrow.

“We will be opening cash lanes in all toll plazas during this transition toward 100 percent cashless transactions. For the smaller plazas, where there are limited lanes, we will have an exclusive RFID (radio frequency identification) lane beside a combined cash and RFID lane,” NLEX Corp. president and general manager Luigi Bautista said.

It was earlier announced that cash lanes would be reopened only in big toll plazas, such as Balintawak in Caloocan and Bocaue, Bulacan.

Bulacan mayors called for the return of cash lanes until technical issues on its RFID stickers, which resulted in road congestion, are resolved.

NLEX, which cuts through several provinces in Bulacan, connects Metro Manila to Central Luzon.

As agreed upon during a dialogue with the Toll Regulatory Board, NLEX said it would also implement a “barrier up” procedure in some RFID lanes.

“This means that in these RFID lanes where the lane barriers are kept raised, RFID subscribers need not stop and go during their passage even as scanner readers continue to operate and record toll transactions,” the company said.

NLEX officials recently met with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority general manager Jojo Garcia and local government officials to discuss measures to address traffic issues with the implementation of a cashless transaction scheme in expressways.

“NLEX will always be ready to contribute to helping solve Metro Manila’s daily traffic bottlenecks and alleviating the traffic woes of motorists during the holidays,” Bautista said.