Halifax Harbour Bridges speeding up transition to stickers for MacPass

Motorists who use old transponders to pay Halifax bridge tolls have until the end of the year to get an upgrade.

Halifax Harbour Bridges said on Thursday it's accelerating the transition from hard-shell to sticker MacPasses.

The hard-shell transponder system is around 25 years old and is coming to the end of its lifespan, a spokesperson with the bridge authority said.

"They've generally worked pretty good, but they're not working as well as they had. Sticker transponders are easier [and] more effective at the tolls," said Steve Proctor, communications manager with Halifax Harbour Bridges.

The sticker transponders first began to be issued three years ago. There are a total of 350,000 active MacPass transponders and around half still need to be replaced by the sticker version, Proctor said.

The bridge authority is telling motorists about the transition now to give people enough time to make the change, Proctor said.

"You can use the next few months to consider it and actually make the change. It's all online, so it should be very simple," he said. 

Ordering a new transponder takes about 10 minutes, he said, and they arrive by mail.

The transition also affects commercial vehicles that use MacPasses, Proctor said, so it may take some companies with large fleets longer to make the change.

Transition to electronic tolling

The transition to sticker passes is part of Halifax Harbour Bridges' long-time plan to move to complete electronic tolling, Proctor said. 

The bridge authority has considered removing the physical toll booths for a decade and is now making steps in that direction, he said. 

"There's a lot of work we were moving forward, but it's going to be two to three years before anybody actually sees that coming to fruition from a physical point of view. But that's part of why we're doing this," Proctor said.