The cost of using the Costa del Sol toll road has been increased by 62% over Easter, sparking fury among locals and politicians.
The surge has been in place on the AP-7 since April 11 and will remain until Sunday, April 27, coinciding with a huge increase in traffic over Semana Santa (Holy Week) and school holidays.
It means anyone travelling along the AP-7’s Costa del Sol stretch during this period faces paying up to €18.85 one way.
Driving from Malaga to Marbella, for example, will set you back €14.92, instead of the typical €9.20.
The price gouge, which happens annually, has been heavily criticised by the conservative Partido Popular party, who see it as an opportunity to attack Pedro Sanchez’s government in Madrid.
The PP in Malaga said Sanchez’s government should be ‘promoting the suspension or reduction of the Costa del Sol tolls’, not increasing its cost.
PP minister Elias Bendodo accused Madrid of ‘continuing to make money out of the people of Malaga.’
Speaking last Friday, Bendodo blasted Sanchez’s administration for failing to heed ‘the public’s clamour to reduce the most expensive highway per kilometre in Spain, which generates €30 million in taxes annually.’
‘Not only is the government not offering discounts to users, as it does in other parts of the country, while offering a solution to the traffic congestion through a rail alternative, but we are also seeing the toll rise by 62% during Holy Week,’ he said.
‘The people of Malaga contribute much more to the state’s public coffers than the government invests in Malaga; that’s the reality… They invest in other provinces; not here, in Malaga they collect.’
