The free ride is over for motorists using the newest stretch of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), with toll collection set to begin Sunday after three months of free use.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) said Saturday that the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) had approved the start of toll collection on CALAX Subsection 3, the 7.88-kilometer stretch connecting the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange to Governor’s Drive in General Trias, Cavite.

The price of the quicker drive: P35 for Class 1 vehicles, P70 for Class 2 vehicles, and P106 for Class 3 vehicles.

Motorists making the longer trip from Governor’s Drive in General Trias to Greenfield in Laguna will have to dig deeper, paying P117 for Class 1 vehicles, P234 for Class 2 vehicles and P351 for Class 3 vehicles.

The charges will end a three-month toll holiday for nearly 9,000 motorists who have been using the new segment every day since it opened for free on 4 May.

“The 7.88-kilometer CALAX Subsection 3 was built to provide a faster alternative route for commuters and businesses, bypassing heavily congested local roads along Cavite’s growing industrial and residential corridors,” MPTC said.

With Subsection 3 now operational, CALAX stretches 26 kilometers from the Greenfield-Mamplasan entry in Biñan, Laguna, giving motorists a longer escape from the traffic-choked roads below — though, starting Sunday, that escape comes with a price.

Once completed, the expressway is projected to handle as many as 65,000 vehicles a day, improving the movement of people, goods and services across Cavite, Laguna and southern Metro Manila.