Dear Transportation Commissioner Murray: I have been disappointed by the lack of an automated toll collection system in New Hampshire. Surrounding states, some with vastly more complex toll rate structures, have been collecting tolls electronically for years. I have refrained from complaining in the hope that New Hampshire would eventually adopt the available technology and that all would be well.

Sadly I was mistaken. Our state has not only been slow to obtain the electronic toll system, but the implementation has been textbook bureaucratic ineptitude. This bungling started by massively inconveniencing those who wanted to buy transponders, progressed into delays caused by inadequate facilities and now has culminated in a threat to the state's highway bonding.

As examples:

q An associate has placed an order and had her credit card billed but has not received transponders. She has not been able to get information as to when they will arrive.

q At both the Hooksett and Bedford toll plazas, there is only one E-ZPass lane in each direction. When there is traffic, it is faster to use cash. On the New York Thruway, every lane accepts E-ZPass. Maybe too much to expect, but what about E-ZPass on all exact change lanes?

q At Exit 11 in Hooksett, which I use most frequently, there is no dedicated E-ZPass lane. If I arrive behind a group of vehicles that all need change and receipts, I move at their pace, which largely does away with the supposed advantages of electronic collection. If the excuse for this situation is that there are not enough lanes at Exit 11 for an E-ZPass lane, then the state should accept reality and build what is needed.

The people who provide bond ratings are not vindictive, though they might become so if they tried to use E-ZPass in New Hampshire. The possible reduction in the state's rating is based on the fact that the Department of Transportation has done a thoroughly inadequate job of implementing electronic toll collection.

What remedial efforts are being made to respond to the criticisms detailed above?

BILL MISKOE

Pittsfield