Increased revenue from tolls on the Golden Ears Bridge means that TransLink is no longer considering lowering rates to drive across the year-old bridge -- in fact, tolls will increase starting Thursday.
Tolls are scheduled to go up on by a maximum of 15 cents.
Just two months ago, TransLink was considering a reduction in tolls to address lower-than-expected traffic volumes, but spokesman Drew Snider told ctvbc.ca that option is now off the table.
In June, an average of 25,200 trips were made across the bridge each day, for a total of 755,600 for the month, according to TransLink statistics released on Wednesday.
Although the average number of daily trips increased by 1,600 over May's total, the numbers are still several thousand below what was predicted when the bridge was planned.
"It is below what we forecast in 2004, but things such as the global economic situation -- that wasn't forecast at that time," Snider said.
Bridge toll revenue, on the other hand, is slightly higher than predicted in the 2010 budget. For the first half of this year, the bridge brought in $13.83 million, up from the budgeted $13.75 million.
Snider said that he expected both traffic volume and revenue to continue to increase. "People are getting back into their commuting patterns."
