Madam, - In a matter of weeks now, the M50 will be opened up to join the N11 at Shankill and traffic will be able to travel freely between places as far apart as Rathnew and Dundalk.
The only obstruction on this 150-kilometre stretch of motorway/dual carriageway will then be at the Westlink toll-bridge, where vehicles must wait in lengthy queues to pay for the privilege of using this under-funded Liffey crossing.
Meanwhile, the Government is about to award a series of contracts to widen and improve the M50, at an eventual cost of €800 million, but not one euro has yet been earmarked to upgrade tolling capacity at the bridge, despite the huge profits being made there. No matter how wide the M50 is, traffic will not flow any more easily until all vehicles can get through the tolls quickly.
The Minister for Transport says he wants barrier-free tolling at the Westlink, but the toll company says it needs to have 80 per cent of vehicles using its Eazypass pre-payment system and also awaits a new law to prosecute toll-dodgers, so it expects it will take at least five years to replace the stop-and-pay system.
The enormous sums to be spent on the M50 will be wasted and futile unless the toll company provides barrier-free tolling at Westlink. The City of London managed to put in a much larger but simpler system in just a few months. Why should it take so long here?
A prudent government would not award any construction contract in such circumstances, at least until it was sure that spending taxpayers' money on such a grand scale would produce the desired result.- Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL BOYLE, Butterfield Drive, Dublin 14.