Commuters between Chester and Liverpool who use the Merseytravel Fast Tag could be about to save an extra £2 a week.

Tunnel tolls on the prepayment scheme will drop to £1.20 per journey under proposals to be put before councillors on February 4.

The standard cash payment would be frozen at £1.70 for a second year and trips under the river would be free on Christmas Day.

Wirral council leader Phil Davies said: “As promised during the devolution deal negotiations, we are reducing the cost of commuting for Wirral residents.

“While we still need to overturn the Mersey Tunnels Act to give local residents full control over the setting of tolls, we are reducing the weekly cost of a Fast Tag by £2 a week for commuters, and freezing the cash tolls for visitors and occasional users.

“In fact, commuters who are still paying cash for their tolls will make a saving of £5 a week if they switch to Fast Tag.”

Prices were frozen last year at £1.70 for car drivers and £1.40 for Fast Tag users.

Savings for Fast Tag users

Under the latest proposals, those who pay cash will still pay £1.70 and the cost per journey through the tunnels for Fast Tag users will be 50p less.

The report to Merseytravel also recommends that tunnel tolls for designated emergency vehicles are waived in 2016/17 as well as to “approve the waiving of tunnel tolls between 10pm on 24th December 2016 and 6am on 26th December 2016”.

In 2014 Merseytravel had pushed the price for car drivers using the Mersey tunnels up by 10p to £1.70.

Under the 2004 Tunnels Act, the tolls should automatically rise in line with inflation, but there is the option for a lesser rise or freeze of the tolls based on “economic or social” pressures.

The Tunnels Act would allow tunnel tolls to be increased to £1.90 for car drivers in 2016-17.

Since April 2014, the tunnels have become assets of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, made up of leaders of the councils in Merseyside and Halton.

They have will have the final say on tolls when they meet the day after the Merseytravel committee, although the tunnels are still operated on a day to day basis by Merseytravel.

The report said: “The Act does, however, give the Combined Authority discretion to depart from the authorised toll if, after consideration of matters of an economic or social nature within the City Region, it determines that charging at the level of the auhorised toll would not be appropriate.”

Do you commute between Chester and Liverpool? Will you be affected by the price drop/freeze? Let us know in the comments below.