No barrier-free tolling until 2010

Public Accounts Committee: Motorists using the M50 motorway in Dublin may have to wait until 2010 for the introduction of electronic barrier-free tolling to alleviate congestion at the West Link Bridge, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.

Details of the timescale envisaged for the project were produced dramatically by the Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte at the end of a three-hour hearing of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on the issue of the toll bridge with senior officials of the Department of Transport.

He said that over the course of the hearing the committee had understood that the introduction of barrier-free tolling was awaiting the conclusion of negotiations between the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the company which operates the bridge, National Toll Roads. (NTR)

However, at the end of the hearing Mr Rabbitte said he had just been handed a note which said the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, had revealed earlier this year that barrier free-tolling would not be introduced until the conclusion of the planned upgrade of the M50. This is not due to be completed until 2010.

Asked about the Minister's comments, the secretary general of the Department of Transport Julie O'Neill said there may have been some confusion between the introduction of barrier-free tolling and open-road tolling on the M50.

She said there were technical issues to be identified in relation to electronic barrier-free tolling and public procurement policies to be followed.

She said the system could not be implemented overnight. However, she said that the department believed that project would be introduced in conjunction with the upgrade of the M50.

However, Mr Rabbitte then read Mr Cullen's parliamentary answer into the record. This stated that it was planned to remove cashier/coin basket lanes at the West Link on a phased basis, "with the objective that the free-flow arrangements will be in place to coincide with the completion of the M50 upgrade works".

Ms O'Neill said this had been the position conveyed to the department by the NRA earlier in the year, but that discussions were under way to see if this date could be advanced.

Ms O'Neill had earlier told the committee that there were a number of issues involved in the negotiations between the NRA and NTR on the introduction of barrier-free tolling. These included how the switch-over to the new system would be implemented, the effects on NTR's existing employment arrangements, as well as concerns over "revenue leakage" for the firm.

Ms O'Neill also said said that even if the barriers at the West Link were lifted, "it would be a mistake to think that all the problems would go away".

She said that even when the bridge reverts back to the State in 2020, the tolls may not end.