Motorways in Ireland
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NTR’s half yearly toll revenues up 7%
April 03, 2006 12:06
NTR, which operates the West Link toll bridge on the M50 motorway around Dublin as well as other road toll plazas, has reported a 7% increase in toll revenue to just under €50m for the 12 months to the end of December 2005.The number of cars paying to pass through the company’s toll operations – which also include the East Link in Dublin and the Drogheda by-pass on the M1, increased by 4% to just under 48 million vehicles. An average of 130,700 vehicles use the company’s toll bridges every day.
The company said today that use of its Eazy Pass system is up 28% on last year and 40% of peak traffic now uses EazyPass.The company also announced today that it is to become a leading international developer and operator in the renewable energy and waste recycling markets, where it currently generates 80% of its revenues.
NTR also announced today that it is seeking to list its Irish Broadband division on the Irish Stock Exchange.
In relation to open roads tolling, the company said that talks with the National Roads Authority were ongoing with a veiw to meeting the NRA’s deadline of July 2008.
I agree that HGV’s pay a lot more but given that the Port Tunnel only carries 2000-3000 HGVs per day and allowing for local traffic of say 3000 per day and that probably leaves the split at 12-15 cars for every HGV.
This €50m covers all three bridges and is gross revenue i.e. before costs such as ticketing, maintenance, cash collection, staffing and head office costs.
The first 27,000 vehicles revenue goes to NTR, the next 18,000 the get 65% and thereafter it is 50% but they must pay all costs plus their head office and directors etc. The net revenue from this is probably less than €20m p.a.
@PVC King wrote:
However buying the bridge at 2 or 3 times its value is a suspicious transaction given the creation history of the arrangement. What was not considered was to develop a public transport network prior to sanctioning
This is Ireland: Roads = Votes. Public transport = No votes. Cullen could promise all the (public transport) wonders of the world – half the people wouldn’t believe anything he says and the other half won’t care anyway. Building a few roads and making people think tolling will get better is a much more efficient way to get elected.
What disgusts me almost as much is Bertie’s statement saying yesterday that the M50 would remain a single tolling point, even after the buyout, change to automated tolling and road widening.
Another way to look at this is that the price paid is determined by the buyer and not by the profit margin for the seller. NTR may only stand to gain 300m by retaining the concession but the government may stand to gain far more than 600m if removing the toll bridge enables them to toll the entire motorway. An analogy is the case where a developer stands to make €1m by obtaining a narrow strip of land that provides access to a building site. If the value to the current landowner of this strip is €1,000, then what is a fair price to buy the land for?
I have another question. As parts of the M50 were supported by European ‘Cohesion Fund’, is it legal to toll those sections?
According to the Sunday Times, the M50 is the most congested motorway in the world…
And I think I can remember someone from the AA saying it was the only tolled ring-road in Europe.We don’t do things terribly longsighted in Ireland, do we?
not true. the dartford crossing on the m25 is tolled & subject to much the same criticism as our own toll. In fact the m25 actually breaks at this point (its not a complete loop) to allow local traffic access the crossing, through traffic is forced to use slip roads to rejoin the m25 proper.
The crosssing comprises a cable stay bridge & two tunnels all of which are at capacity so alternatives are being looked for. I very much doubt the m50 is the most congested motorway in the world, don’t be minding conor faughnan, he spouts populist guff most of the time.
@fergalr wrote:
According to the Sunday Times, the M50 is the most congested motorway in the world…
And I think I can remember someone from the AA saying it was the only tolled ring-road in Europe.We don’t do things terribly longsighted in Ireland, do we?
Here in Paris, the ring road “Boulevard Périphérique†is not tolled, it gets gridlocked at rush hours but otherwise moves reasonably okay which is not a bad achievement seeing its proximity to the city centre.
There is however a suburban motorway: â€the A86†that runs in a north-south axis of Paris, again this isn’t a tolled road but it gets really very congested at peak hours, we’re talking about ¾ hour to drive 6km (when there are no accidents or broken down lorries), don’t know how that fairs with the M50.@constat wrote:
There is however a suburban motorway: â€the A86†that runs in a north-south axis of Paris, .
Ah, the dreaded quatre-vingt six. It was built as an outer ring road to keep the trucks away from the Periph. Never saw it as bad as the M50, in fairness. And ze French are at an advanced stage of planning for a new outer outer ring road……… while we are rebuilding the M50! Quoi de neuf!
KB2When a road is congested and untolled, people still pay to use it – they just pay with their time. They queue in traffic jams. The amount of time they are willing to devote to waiting in traffic is proportional to the value they obtain from the journey and inversely proportional to the value they place on their own time. The perverse result is that an untolled congested road tends to have a combination of people who really need to be there and people who have sod all else to do that day and don’t mind listening to the radio for an hour.
Frank Taylor wrote:Another way to look at this is that the price paid is determined by the buyer and not by the profit margin for the seller. NTR may only stand to gain 300m by retaining the concession but the government may stand to gain far more than 600m if removing the toll bridge enables them to toll the entire motorway. An analogy is the case where a developer stands to make €]
I was wondering that too. Seems odd to me. I remember when they built the Jack Lynch tunnel in Cork they wanted to toll it, but because it was built with EU funding, the EU quite politely told them what orifice they could shove their funding up if they tried to toll.Would be interesting to know what the EU think of them NOW trying to toll large sections of the M50 even though it was structural funding that built it.
I see that Bertie has said that there will continue to be a single toll point on the m50. Although NTR’s concession was due to expire in 2020, the givernment will now toll the bridge until 2035.
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20061115.xml&Node=H2&Page=3In the past Bertie said that a buyout of the bridge was ‘not an option’, so I guess you never know what will happen
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0202/tollbridge.htmlIt’s worth considering what might have happened if the M50 had been originally built to the upgraded spec with more lanes and free-flowing junctions. I would guess that the edge city would have developed even more and that the centre city would have lost business and land value.
mmm maybe, but building it back at the start with 3 lanes each way and colossal freeflow junctions would have seemed like a huge white elephant at a time when the country had little money. So I can understand why it was built as it was.
That said, they should have started the upgrade several years ago, and should have linked the barrier free tolling arrangements in with the Port Tunnel opening. What we have now is a mishmash of different schemes, and we are now in the middle of the problem points inbetween their completions.
@PVC King wrote:
3> A free M50 would simply attract more traffic rendering the €]
Looks like the €800m has grown 25%; the line that the roads programme is now on time and on budget is pure waffle as the new cost is a billion all ten figures for an upgrade:
That is presuming it doesn’t rise still further.
D
rivers face mayhem on M50 as upgrade begins
From The Irish IndependentFriday, 13th April, 2007nullFRUSTRATED motorists can expect further disruption on the M50 when construction work on upgrading the Red Cow roundabout begins today.
Drivers have been warned to keep within the 60kmh speed limit along the stretch of the motorway under construction, or risk a court appearance.
Yesterday, South Dublin Co Council (SDCC) announced details of new traffic arrangements which will apply on the N7 Red Cow interchange. It will be a central part of the €107m upgrading works.
The council and the National Roads Authority also revealed that the Luas will be separated from road traffic when the upgrading is complete in December next year, with trams no longer forced to share road space with other vehicles.
Freeflow
The Luas track will no longer cross the traffic lanes of the roundabout when this phase of the upgrading is completed in December 2008, and the roundabout will become freeflow with all traffic lights removed.
This will lead to considerable time savings and motorists will no longer have to queue to exit the M50 onto local roads.
The programme will involve works along a 7.5km stretch of motorway from the Westlink toll plaza to the Red Cow interchange.
The main changes are:
* Changes to the traffic layout at the N7 Red Cow interchange with a temporary road through the Luas car park to serve westbound traffic.
* A section of the N7 roundabout to be removed with traffic from the city centre going onto the M50 northbound to be diverted to make a u-turn at Monastery Lane.
* Monastery Lane will become a two-lane carriageway, and bus stops will be moved.
* Traffic lights to the northwest of the roundabout to be removed.
Frank Coffey, Director of Transportation with SDCC, said that the project was proceeding as planned.
“The works carried out to date have been reasonably successful, but the congestion has not been helped by the works. We are on programme and works are progressing well.
“New local diversions at the N7/Red Cow interchange will be well signposted as we begin new major works to construct the new freeflow interchange.”
Two fixed speed cameras had been mounted on the carriageway and another two are to be installed over the coming weeks. Gardai will also operate speed checks to ensure that construction workers are protected from speeding motorists.
“The important thing is to ensure public safety,” he said.
“We have had a 60kmh limit in place since the work started. This has become an issue because a certain number of motorists are not complying. We need to ensure there is a safe average speed at the area of the works. There is no option but to ensure the speed limits are adhered to,” Mr Coffey said.
Details of changes to the N4 were also announced. They include closing the N4 westbound to M50 southbound freeflow until July, with traffic coming from the city centre to access the M50 via traffic light signals. The M50 northbound to N4 westbound freeflow will open in June, with traffic modifications to remain in place until August this year.
The new Ballymount interchange will open next month, while traffic on the M50 will be moved into new lanes in the middle of the roadway from May so that new lanes can be built on the outer verges.
“When the work on this section of the M50 is complete in 2008, each side of the motorway between the Ballymount and N4 junctions will have three main lanes and a fourth auxiliary lane between major junctions,” Mr Coffey said.
“The interchanges will be upgraded to freeflow or near freeflow, eliminating or minimising the need for traffic lights.”
The entire upgrading of the M50 will be completed by 2010, at a cost of €1bn
The Indo love to give the human angle it makes people feel part of a group.
The major revalation in that article is actually the last line which lists the cost as €1bn this has risen 25% since early 2006 and is at odds with Cullens promises that contracts are now on time and on budget. 18 months ago we were promised fixed price contracts:
http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0926/infrastructure.html
Roads – fixed price contracts to be introduced
Monday, 26 September 2005
Transport Minister Martin Cullen is to introduce ‘Fixed Price Contracts’ for all future transport infrastructure projects, in a bid to protect the taxpayer from cost over-runs. The Minister made the announcement at the opening of the Dundalk bypass, which was completed ahead of schedule and below its budget.Months ahead of schedule and millions under budget, the 14 kilometre Dundalk by-pass was opened today. The by-pass is the first public private partnership in which more €100m was part raised by the toll bridge at Drogheda. Roads have been associated in the past by massive over-spends but improved contracts have recently provided greater financial certainty.
Today, the Transport Minister announced all future transport projects – €10 billion euro of planned activity – will be based on new ‘Fixed Price Contracts’. The aim is to ensure the contractor rather than taxpayer has to deal with the financial consequences of any delays, such as the discovery of archaeology.
AdvertisementJust last week, the Construction Industry Federation claimed the new contracts were legally untested and would, in all probability, end up the courts – costing not saving money. However, Minister Martin Cullen today rejected this.
Work is currently underway on a dual-carriage linking the end of the Dundalk bypass with the border. This is due to completed in 18 months time.
It is actually reasonably on time … slippage of about a month from what i can see. The extent of the works has increased several times, the original half assed configuration proposed for the red cow has been changing by the month. The current & final proposal released yesterday represents a much more complex job to provide a full free flow junction & segregated space for luas.
From a situation where the spend on the M50 was to cost €600m in 2004 announcements topping €1.6bn having been announced in the last 3 months and it is only a matter of time before the road gridlocks again.
Would these funds have been released if the overall cost of two years national public transport budget had been known?
No interconnector during the life on Transport 21, metro gone quiet
This is a disgrace
There is something new in the latest plan for the red cow but I cant quite put my finger on it;)
Ah I see now – Monastary road junction.
This is probrably a good pat of the reason the cost is increasing. Bits and pieces seem to be constantly being added.
This element has been known since 2005 when Roughan O’Donovan designed a much more elaborate structure which has now been scaled back
https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=4577&highlight=monastery+road
I wonder how much that has shaved from the cost?
@PVC King wrote:
This element has been known since 2005 when Roughan O’Donovan designed a much more elaborate structure which has now been scaled back
https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=4577&highlight=monastery+road
I wonder how much that has shaved from the cost?
No its not that im taking about. Its the freeflow slips in the Northwest corner I mean for that little road. That was origionally meant to be a T junction believe it or not. As far as im aware the over-bridge for the real mosastery road job is still the same as the new design unveiled last year. The photomonatges for the red cow have always showed the simpler deisgn.
The flyover coming from the Ibis / Mount Talbot is a new adition, with some further changes to the alignment of the outbound lanes. I notice the intersection with turnpike is not visible on that render, interesting to see if they are still proposing that it should meet the n7 at grade.
The Roughan O’Donovan ‘gateway’ is to be constructed as planned, don’t particularly like it.
PVC 1bn seems reasonable given the extent & scope of the works … I’d much sooner an increased spend for a full free flow red cow instead of a half baked job that will have to be re-visited in a couple of years. The current proposal is a million miles from that originally proposed last summer which envisged luas still passing through at grade & the retention of some traffic signals, particularly for south bound m50 traffic heading to the city.
True that any additional road capacity is generally filled, but the upgrade is necessary & reconfigured junctions & merges will be sufficient imo to resolve the rush hour congestion.
Obviously, i’m 100% behind the interconnector & agree it should at least get equal priority … it is however within transport 21 ? … with further recent statements to ‘accelerate construction’ i.e. attempt to bring it in on time.
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