Road traffic shortfall may lead to more tolls

THE NATIONAL Roads Authority is seeking advice on how to raise additional revenue from new tolls on existing roads, following cuts to its budget.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has said new tolls to fund road projects or public transport cannot be ruled out.

The authority is paying almost €500,000 a month to the private operators of the M3 motorway and the N18 Limerick Tunnel because traffic has fallen short of anticipated levels.

The authority, which placed a request for consultancy advice on the Government’s e-tenders website yesterday, is seeking advice on how to generate new revenue from its existing roads, and maximise its income from three directly controlled toll operations.

It has already produced a study which recommended extending tolls on Dublin’s M50 and placing a second toll on the M9/N25 Dublin to Waterford route.

Directly controlled operations include the M50, Dublin Port Tunnel and the authority’s “central clearing house” which provides for interoperability of toll tags among toll operators. The clearing house handled €90 million in transactions last year, the tender documentation notes.

While traffic volumes on the M50 are rising significantly, the authority is using this revenue to pay off €600 million to the West-Link bridge’s former owners, National Toll Roads, and for the costs of the M50 widening scheme. Just two of the authority’s toll partnerships with the private sector are returning an income. These are the N4 and the N1. However, the combined revenue here was just €1.47 million in 2010, significantly less than the annualised support paid to the operators of the Limerick Tunnel and the M3 which is almost €6 million a year.

The authority is understood to be ambitious to broaden the scope of the M50 tolling scheme from a single point, near the West-Link bridges, to a pay-as-you-go system which would bring in many motorists who use parts of the M50 without crossing the Liffey.

There is no toll on the M9 between Dublin and Waterford but there is a toll on the Suir Bridge which connects the southern end of the M9 to Waterford city. The authority believes a toll on the northern section of the route would bring the motorway into line with other inter-urban motorways.

Other roads which have been previously mentioned as having the potential for tolls include the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork and a range of bypasses such as Youghal and Ballincollig in Co Cork, parts of the N52 around Tullamore, Co Offaly, and the Limerick to Tuam section of the Atlantic corridor.

The M17/18 Gort to Tuam scheme is one of three future public-private partnerships at development stage, but which are not envisaged as toll schemes. The other two are the N11 Arklow to Rathnew and N7 Newlands Cross combined scheme; and the M11/N25 Enniscorthy and New Ross bypasses.

An authority spokesman said the issue was a matter for Mr Varadkar. Mr Varadkar said that while no decisions had been made, given the financial situation and the restrictions on funding in the years ahead, further tolls could not be ruled out. Such a move was likely to be years away, however.