Here's everything you need to know as the Tyne Tunnel goes cashless - How to pay the toll
This morning (Monday, November 8) marked the opening of the crossing’s new ‘open road tolling’ system where vehicles drive straight through the tunnels without stopping to pay at the toll booths on their north side.
Barriers and traffic lights have been scrapped as cameras have been installed to automatically register journeys instead.
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Hide AdThe new ‘Tyne Pass’ system means there will be no way of paying a toll in cash or with a contactless bank card at the tunnel itself.
Motorists now have the responsibility to pay their tolls by midnight the day after their journey.
Users will have the option to either pay their fee via a pre-paid account with tunnel operator TT2, which can be found here or do so before midnight the day after their journey using an online pay later service, an automated telephone line, or at PayPoint tills found in shops.
The switch is the biggest change that motorists will have experienced at the busy crossing since the second tunnel was opened in 2011.
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Hide AdBosses have promised that people will experience faster journeys as nobody will have to stop at a toll booth, claiming it will save 1,944 hours a week in queuing time, and a colossal 90% reduction in CO2 emissions around the tunnel thanks to traffic no longer being brought to a standstill.
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon, who chairs the North East Joint Transport Committee, said the scheme would “deliver major environmental benefits for our region”.