Westlink Action Group - Horror Stories

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Westlink Action Group - Wasted Focus?

I've been commuting on the M50 now for the last 3 weeks. From 7-8am in the mornings and from 4.30-5.30pm in the evenings.

I was dreading starting this because of all the furore created mainly by Sen.Shane Ross, 98fm, and Eamonn Dunphy - and reading some of this stuff - [broken link removed].

Yet, in the last 3 weeks, I'm not sure if I'm being stupid or what, but it's not the M50 that's causing the traffic delays on the M50.

It takes 10-15mins to get from the start of the Blanch turnoff to the far side of it. And the same, if not more for the Lucan and Naas exits. Yet, it's taking me no time to get up to and go through the toll.

Does Sen.Ross even travel this road to see where the problems actually are? Are we going to be in a situation now where we'll possibly end up spending a fortune to buy a couple of bridges when the money would have more positive impact if we implement motorway junctions similar to the UK rather than putting traffic lights on every off-ramp?

Seems to me that if the Government themselves had come up with the idea of buying the bridges and opening them up, they'd have been attacked "Eddie Hobbs" style for wasting public money on something that wasn't a problem.
 
I have been using the M50 every wworking day since it opened and I couldn't agree more with your comments. It takes 25 minutes to go from Rathfarnham to Finglas/Glasnevin in the morning (leaving at 7.00am) and 30 minutes to get home in the evening (leaving between 6.30 and 9.30).
The problem areas are the on and off roads, the naas and lucan exits being the worst.
 
I'd agree with that. And my objection to the Tolls have never really been about the disruption to Traffic. The Tolls are an unneccessary disruption to traffic IN ADDITION TO the other disruptions.

Certainly I queue up to get into the Toll Booth, and I drive away at speed from the other side. Would we average out to the same overall speed if the Toll Booths weren't there? I don't know.

My objection has always been to the principle of making people pay for the same bit of infrastructure over and over and over again.

There was a case for allowing a private company to build the West Link at a time when the country was broke and in return they deserve a return.
But to be pushing ahead with Tolling more and more other roads around the country in the current climate is unacceptable.

The country can easily afford to build the necessary infrastructure. It will always be cheaper to borrow the money to pay for a road once than allow a private company to charge for it's use and end up paying for it over and over again.

If I have to endure the Delays at the Naas and Lucan junctions, I'd prefer to do with with my €1.80 still in my pocket.

-Rd
 
daltonr said:
Certainly I queue up to get into the Toll Booth, and I drive away at speed from the other side. Would we average out to the same overall speed if the Toll Booths weren't there? I don't know.
Click to expand...
Why not use to speed up your passage through the tolls gates?
 
Has anyone actually driven south (i.e. from N32/M1 roundabout to Tallaght) in the morning? Traffic is usually bumper to bumper all the way from the N32 to the N4. I don't think that this is necessarily down to either the tolls in isolation or the junctions, probably a combination of both.
 
ClubMan said:
Why not use to speed up your passage through the tolls gates?
Click to expand...

If you look carefully at the advertising pitch by NTR for Eazypass, they say it's the "faster way to pay", not "the faster way to get through the toll booth".

I actually have the Eazypass and have found most days that it's quicker to avoid the Eazypass lane altogether and use the coins only lanes instead.

There are a couple of reasons for this, mainly idiots trying to pointlessly skip one or two cars on their way to work. Like one or two car lengths ahead in M50 traffic is going to get you to work sooner.

The key reason to avoid Eazypass lane is because you have jokers who hang on in the outside lane heading up to Eazypass lane hoping to skip ahead of the other traffic. Then, when they need to duck out at the last minute, and they aren't immediately allowed change lanes, they hold up the Eazypass traffic while they're indicating left.

Secondly, and in three weeks, this has happened 4 times in early morning rush hour, there have been English and Northern registered cars zipping up the Eazypass lane hoping the barrier won't come down as they tailgate past someone who has paid. And then, when the barrier does come down, they're caught and have to pay, and end up holding up the queue for everyone else.

Eazypass is a joke, and you're paying extra for the privelage.
 

I travel that route occasionally on Monday mornings between 06:30 and 07:30 (when I'm in the mood for a swim before work). Progress is slow but steady up to the toll booths. However the experience of a previous poster, who refers to driving away from the barriers at speed, is different to mine. Leaving the toll booths heading south, I usually come to a complete stop at the junction with the Galway road (N4 ?). And then again between there and the N7 junction.

Can't blame NTR for that.
 
> Why not use to speed up your passage through the tolls gates?

Apart from Ronan's points above:

I have no intention of paying an additional €15 per year (+ Potential charges for
late payment +potential charges to replace tags) for the privilage
of occasionally getting through the bridge marginally faster. As I mentioned
the Delay isn't my bigest concern it's the principle of paying. Why would I
choose to pay more?

-Rd
 
I wasn't aware of the issues with charges and EazyPass gate access and was just throwing the idea out as a potentially constructive solution to a problem that was raised earlier and people are free to disregard the suggestion if it does nothing for them.
 

Maybe you should have done your research and backed your statement up with facts/figures as you require of others? Then we wouldn't have had this confusion in the first place.
 
EazyPass may still be suitable for and of interest to others in spite of the issues raised so it's not irrelevant to the discussion in hand. FACT!
 
Ive used eazy pass pretty much since its inception as Im a daily user of the tolls. I find on average it is quicker. The other posters are correct with the chancers and the english/NI reg cars holding up the lane which is VERY infuriating. The other holdups are when someone easi pass just doesnt work but this has happened to recently when its internal battery gave up. I was issued a new one the day after.
Whilst not seeing why theres an extra charge as in theory there should be less admin, hence less costs, the 15e extra per year I can live with for the ease of use as it saves having to carry the change. But thats my own preference.
Theres no doubting its easier and quicker to use but it just doesnt guarantee a quicker journey, which it definitely should.
 
car said:
Ive used eazy pass pretty much since its inception as Im a daily user of the tolls. I find on average it is quicker. The other posters are correct with the chancers and the english/NI reg cars holding up the lane which is VERY infuriating.
Click to expand...

Maybe those idiots should have to pay a double toll or some other penalty if they use this lane.
 
I heard an NTR guy on the radio say that there is legislation going through the Dail at the moment to enable them to fine people who drive through the gates without paying. He said that when this happens they will keep the barriers up all thee time on the easy pass lanes. This will speed things up considerably at the gates. The problem will be when the traffic at the Lucan road exit backs up to the toll gates.
 
I think we're losing sight of the original proposition.

Even if NTR have the toll gates up all the time, or if Eazypass did it's job enormously efficiently, we'd all still be hosed on the M50.

The Toll Bridge isn't the problem, in my opinion. It's the traffic management scheme for exiting the M50 that's the problem.

Buying out the M50 Toll Bridge from NTR, ala Sen.Shane Ross, will not do anything more than be another enormous waste of money. That money should be spent on improving junction exits.
 
You are right Ronan, that is the key issue. Sen. Ross is good at being a populist but not much else. He is up there with Eddie Hobbs for constructing a diatribe on partially thought out problems brought half way to an illogical conclusion.
 
>The Toll Bridge isn't the problem, in my opinion. It's the traffic
>management scheme for exiting the M50 that's the problem.

I go back to my original point. The Toll bridge isn't CAUSING ALL off the congestion on the M50. And Yes if you took the bridge away you still be stuck in traffic a little further up the road. But that's not a reason to get us out of this crazy deal. And it's not a reason to accept tolling on up to a dozen roads accross the country.

You are going to be stuck in traffic anyway. That's life. Dublin's city center wasn't designed for traffic and it's outskirts have been designed in such a way as to maximise the need for the car. The population of Dublin is expected to go through the roof in the next 15 to 20 years. The CSO have suggested that the population of the greater Dublin area will increase by 500,000 to 2 Million people by 2021. That's a 33% jump from current levels.

Where I live in Firhouse it can now take up to 30 minutes to drive the 1 mile to the M50. The same journey used to take 5 minutes a year ago. Why?
Because hundreds of new houses have been built and all must use the same one lane in each direction road to get to the M50. There are now mornings when you get stuck in traffic leaving our driveway.

So the situation is getting worse. It will continue to get worse. If we're lucky in 2021 they'll have created a transport system capable of dealing with the population as it stands today. You'll still have 500,000 people too many trying to get to and from work.

So the question is, In light of the fact that getting stuck in traffic is simply a fact of life, and for many of us things are getting worse instead of better. Why should we also be paying higher and higher Tolls to use these roads?

What is the logic of making motorists pay 5 or 10 times over for a road network, on top of high VRT, High Road Tax, etc. The logic is simple. Squeeze as much money as possible out of the public.

Tax revenue's this year are 1 Billion ahead of projections. Spending by the government is almost 1 Billion below projections. That's 2 Billion in cash that the government has that it didn't expect to have. IN LESS THAN A YEAR.

The government have focused so much on finding ways of increasing Revenue that even they wasteful as they are can't keep up with spending it.

There is NO EXCUSE in the current climate for Tolling roads and handing a big chuck of money to private investors when the state could easily afford to build such infrastructure themselves.

Even if they really really feel the need to toll the roads doesn't it make sense to build the infrastructure themselves so at least all of the Tolls go back into the Public Purse?

There is and has always been something rotten at the heart of Fianna Fail's dealings with Public Private Partnerships. Do we have to wait another 10 years so that on top of Tolling us, we also have to pay for a Tribunal.

Ronan is right, let's shift the talk about Tolls away from congestion. That's the easy way of drumming up support because it's intuitive.
It's like using the health risks of Passive smoking to support the smoking ban.

The immediately obvious reason is not always the best reason to do something, and in some cases it's not even a valid reason to do something. But that doesn't mean the something isn't worth doing.

-Rd
 
Enda Kenny was on dunphy this morning and said if he was taoiseach, he'd lift barriers on the west link at peak time.
Dont know if he meant personally.
 
car said:
Enda Kenny was on dunphy this morning and said if he was taoiseach, he'd lift barriers on the west link at peak time.
Dont know if he meant personally.
Click to expand...

Don't know. Doesn't strike me as much of a heavy lifting type of guy.

Besides the point, that's an absolutely ridiculous statement to make on the part of someone hoping to be Taoiseach.

That's like saying "when I'm Taoiseach, I'm going to make pints of guinness free before 6pm on a Friday evening".

As Taoiseach, what power does he have over a private company in order to restrict their ability to legitimately earn money - which is what he'd be doing by lifting NTR's barriers.

Unless of course, he's intending on buying out the bridges, keeping the toll in place most of the time, and lifting it only at peak hours. Part of which defeats the ridiculous intention of buying out the bridges in the first place.
 
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