State set to get €20m as West Link toll rises

Charges on the West-Link toll bridge on the M50 are to rise from €1.50 to €1.80 from January 1st, it has been confirmed. The State is due to net up to €20 million from the 20 per cent price hike in what is the second increase in successive years.

National Toll Roads (NTR), which manages the facility, said the State would take 21 cent of the extra 30 cent through VAT and other payments under a pricing agreement with the National Roads Authority (NRA).

Under the deal, the State gets an increasing share of toll revenues as traffic volumes on the M50 increase. If daily volumes hit 88,000 this year, the State's take rises to 80 per cent. Mr Tony McClafferty, managing director of NTR's road division, said an average of 86,000-87,000 cars a day passed over the West-Link bridge at present, adding the 80 per cent provision was unlikely to kick in for "another couple of years".

Despite this, he said, the State would get €16 million from West-Link tolls this year, rising to €19 million next year.

The NRA similarly estimates that the State's take for 2005 will be €18-€19 million thanks to the price rise and increased traffic volumes.

The price rise is expected to lead to fresh calls for the State to purchase the West-Link, and remove the tolling plaza, which is widely blamed for causing traffic gridlock on the M50.

In its pre-Budget submission, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the plaza was not only causing huge annoyance to motorists but damaging national competitiveness. However Mr McClafferty said if NTR sold West-Link "you would lose a valuable revenue stream for the State".

He said the narrowness of the M50, along with congestion at junctions, was the primary cause of delays on the ring road. "By lifting the barriers at West-Link you would not put an extra vehicle through the M50," he claimed.

The price hike comes ahead of a planned €810 million upgrading of the M50, which includes the conversion of 24 kilometres of two-lane carriageway to three lanes. The NRA improvement scheme is to go before a public hearing of An Bord Pleanála next Tuesday.

Asked whether it was fair to implement a price rise when motorists were facing further disruption on the M50, Mr McClafferty replied: "The price rise is part of a clear contract arrangement with the State. We are pleased that the upgrade of the M50 is happening. It has to happen sooner rather than later."

Pointing out that the State would get €1 of each €1.80 car toll next year, he added: "Our partners have a very good deal in relation to West-Link and we work very closely with them."