Erroneous toll tickets include hike

Frank Carberry of Winthrop said he paid an extra 25 cents to drive home after visiting his daughter in North Adams on Saturday - when his toll ticket specified that he owed $4.10 at the Weston booth, instead of the usual $3.85.

He wasn't hallucinating, at least as far as the toll ticket was concerned.

The Turnpike Authority acknowledged yesterday that it has been handing out tickets printed with the wrong toll amounts at some booths since April 30, but insists drivers have not been overcharged. The magnetic strips embedded in the tickets were programmed to charge the correct amount, said Jeffrey Mullan, the agency's acting director.

"We've done an internal review. We've checked our computer records and we're confident that no one's been overcharged," Mullan said. "If people believe they've been overcharged, they should let us know."

Carberry said he handed the toll taker exact change - $4.10 - and did not look at the screen next to the booth or get any change before he drove off.

After he thought about it, and worried that other drivers may also be paying more, he took the issue to an antitoll group called stopthepikehike.org and wrote an e-mail to the Turnpike Authority.

"There's a real trust issue here," said Michael Kelleher, president of stopthepikehike.org. "When were these tickets ordered? Why were they ordered this way? Is that their ultimate plan?"

Mullan, who began his job this week, said the authority ran out of cards with the correct toll amounts and did not want to spend $22,000 ordering new ones, given that toll rates could increase July 1.

The agency decided to use cards that were printed up earlier this year when a 25-cent increase was slated to take effect. The authority ultimately backed off that toll hike, under pressure from the Legislature, but will impose a 50-cent increase July 1 if lawmakers don't follow through on their promise to bail out the Pike.

The authority has not explained anything about the incorrect tickets to the public, and even when Carberry wrote in to complain this week, he received incorrect information. An e-mail response told him the erroneous toll tickets were printed in advance of the July 1 rate hike.

Carberry said the 25 cents is not the issue for him, and he praised the Turnpike Authority's responsiveness to his e-mail.

"It's really more just about the inefficiency and how many people might be going through and paying that," he said.

Mullan said the authority made an error in not publicizing that incorrect tickets were being used. He said the authority would paste up explanatory fliers at tollbooths this morning.

"In hindsight, I will tell you that we probably should have communicated this to the customer, and we will do that next time," Mullan said.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.