# Bad Deal M50



## Niallm (21 Sep 2007)

What on earth is going on there? The road is a bottleneck and now they want to charge us more for using it. There is a lot of people who have no choice and this is just another charge on the working Man / Woman 

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0921/toll.html
West Link toll to rise by 10c in January

 
The National Roads Authority has announced a 10c price increase for motorists using the M50 toll bridge on Dublin's West Link from the beginning of next year. 
The toll will go up from €1.90 to €2 in January - an increase of more than 5%.
Motorists who do not have pre-paid tags in their vehicles will also be charged up to €3 to use the motorway when the planned barrier-free tolling is introduced in August 2008. 

More than 100,000 vehicles pass through the toll bridge each day


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## bacchus (21 Sep 2007)

Niallm said:


> The toll will go up from €1.90 to €2 in January


 
Great, that should speed things up as people will not have to root through their loose change to get 4 coins (€1 + 50c + 20c + 20c).


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## Niallm (21 Sep 2007)

That many be the case but then they will raise it again to €2.10


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## Markjbloggs (21 Sep 2007)

Niallm said:


> That many be the case but then they will raise it again to €2.10



No, the next increase wil be a 7.6% increase, equating to 15.2 cent, which will have to be rounded up to €2.20.

I'm not joking - this is what they did at the time of the Euro changeover!!!!  Of course, none of our guttless politicians pulled them up for this.


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## GeneralZod (21 Sep 2007)

Markjbloggs said:


> Of course, none of our guttless politicians pulled them up for this.



Won't those future above CPI increases be going to the politicians to ineptly spend on inefficient services as the buyout deal payments to NTR are only linked to CPI.


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## Marathon Man (21 Sep 2007)

I live in Cork. I use the M50 toll station only about a half-dozen times a year, (say 12 trips through the plaza = 6 x 2). 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think my choices are 

a) Pay 12 x €3 = €36.

or 

b) register and pay, 12 x €2 = €24, PLUS a monthly charge of €1.21 (€1 +VAT) = €14.52 AND maintain a minimum of €12.70 in the account. 

So for my 6 round trips, I need to put €51.22 minimum into my account or pay €3 per trip.

Talk about Rip-off Republic!

btw, for the year ending 31st Mar 2007, NTR reported annual revenue as "tolling and other business" as €53.5 million.


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## Caveat (21 Sep 2007)

Didn't I hear something on the radio a couple of years ago (The Last Word maybe?) from an 'insider' who claimed that the intended revenue to be accrued by the M50 toll was exceeded years ago and that the intention was then to remove the toll altogether? The guy was claiming that the toll has been 'money for nothing' for some time now. Anyone remember anything about this?


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## Purple (21 Sep 2007)

Marathon Man said:


> I live in Cork. I use the M50 toll station only about a half-dozen times a year, (say 12 trips through the plaza = 6 x 2).
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think my choices are
> 
> ...



You can use your easy-pass on any toll road in Ireland.
An extra charge on those users that choose to slow down traffic for other users is fair enough in my view. Also remember that the state gets over half of the toll charge in the form of a direct cut and VAT. They also take corporation tax from NTR. NTR are also involved in many other businesses, I do not know what proportion of their turn over comes from the M50.

That said €2 is not cheap and I think easy pass customers should be rewarded in some way at the moment for speeding up traffic flow, even if it's only to the tail-back at the other side of the toll.


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## Jock04 (21 Sep 2007)

Caveat said:


> Didn't I hear something on the radio a couple of years ago (The Last Word maybe?) from an 'insider' who claimed that the intended revenue to be accrued by the M50 toll was exceeded years ago and that the intention was then to remove the toll altogether? The guy was claiming that the toll has been 'money for nothing' for some time now. Anyone remember anything about this?


 

I don't, but come on now Caveat, just cos Scotland did away with the Erskine bridge toll to ease congestion (after the build costs had been met) doesn't mean it's going to happen here!
(then again, they were only getting £0.60 -about 87 cents- a time there)


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## ubiquitous (21 Sep 2007)

The monthly charge and the minimum a/c level of €12.70 are unfair in my view and, while presumably fully legal, are nevertheless of symptomatic of a monopoly.


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## Caveat (21 Sep 2007)

Jock04 said:


> (then again, they were only getting £0.60 -about 87 cents- a time there)


 
Must have killed them that - you know the scots and their money


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## Jock04 (21 Sep 2007)

Caveat said:


> Must have killed them that - you know the scots and their money


 

Aye, shrewd with money alright.

Sure, we've been making money from cyber-cafes there for ages now


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## Caveat (21 Sep 2007)

Jock04 said:


> Aye, shrewd with money alright.
> 
> Sure, we've been making money from cyber-cafes there for ages now


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## Marathon Man (21 Sep 2007)

Purple said:


> You can use your easy-pass on any toll road in Ireland.


 Ok, I'll use the Fermoy by-pass on the same trips to Dublin, other than that....probably won't be going through a toll booth...so....little benefit. 



> An extra charge on those users that choose to slow down traffic for other users is fair enough in my view.


 Perhaps.....but 50% extra over other users??....and an overall increase of 57.9% (€1.90 to €3.00). I generally go through at off-peak times, so the issue of slowing down traffic isn't really an issue.

Choice?? My point was that I either pay them €6 for a single round trip or shell out a minimum of €22.33 (2 x €3, plus €12.70 plus 1.21 for, say, 3 months -to keep the account active)



> Also remember that the state gets over half of the toll charge in the form of a direct cut and VAT. They also take corporation tax from NTR.


 I can rest more easily, knowing that the extortion is going to a good cause!  



> NTR are also involved in many other businesses, I do not know what proportion of their turn over comes from the M50.


 See my earlier post...


> btw, for the year ending 31st Mar 2007, NTR reported annual revenue as "tolling and other business" as €53.5 million.


 Not all the revenue comes from the West Link but a HUGE proportion does!

BTW, NTRs overall turnover, for the year ending 31st Mar, was nearly half a Billion euro!


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## Yachtie (21 Sep 2007)

ubiquitous said:


> The monthly charge and the minimum a/c level of €12.70 are unfair in my view and, while presumably fully legal, are nevertheless of symptomatic of a monopoly.


 
This is the case with EasyPass. e-Toll T&Cs are different and it's a lot better deal. It will not only let you through all the toll bridges in the country but will also allow you to get in and out of a multi-storey car park by deducting the parking fee off your account.


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## Rovers1901 (21 Sep 2007)

Isn't e-tolling or barrier free tolling meant to be introduced on the West Link by the end of 2008?


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## Caveat (21 Sep 2007)

Rovers1901 said:


> Isn't e-tolling or barrier free tolling meant to be introduced on the West Link by the end of 2008?


 
Who knows?

Wouldn't hold my breath - see my above post (no. 7).


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## tallpaul (21 Sep 2007)

Rovers1901 said:


> Isn't e-tolling or barrier free tolling meant to be introduced on the West Link by the end of 2008?


 
IIRC the toll plaza (in its current configuration) is being dismantled in August 2008...


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## oopsbuddy (21 Sep 2007)

Purple said:


> That said €2 is not cheap and I think easy pass customers should be rewarded in some way at the moment for speeding up traffic flow, even if it's only to the tail-back at the other side of the toll.



I agree that €2 is not cheap, but if you use the M4 Enfield bypass, you have to pay €2.60 (up from €2.50 for its first few months). Why so much for a relatively short stretch of road? If you lived west of Enfield and wanted to use the motorway (I know you can drive around the toll by using the old Dublin road) to get to the airport, it can cost up to a tenner in tolls alone for a round-trip. Why is every new stretch of road not tolled, ie, why some and not others?


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## RainyDay (25 Sep 2007)

ubiquitous said:


> The monthly charge and the minimum a/c level of €12.70 are unfair in my view and, while presumably fully legal, are nevertheless of symptomatic of a monopoly.


But it's not a monopoly anymore - since all the electronic toll systems are interchangable now.


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## z104 (3 Dec 2007)

What is the purpose of the toll on the M50. What are you getting for your money?


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