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Limerick Tunnel Toll Barrier this morning...

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    #32
    Kess73
    Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    Beer Baron wrote: »
    I guess its an odd decision to make but its the regulator who approves these increases. It is fair to say though that the Tunnel is much busier now than it has ever been, by my personal experience anyway, so this will only serve to put people off.

    I could understand it if their costs have risen but I doubt they have, at least not by that margin.


    I see it as being similar to the Topaz service station beside the Regional hospital. Month after month they are way ahead of the other city servioce stations in terms of price for Unleaded and Diesel, yet they always have plenty of people filling their cars at the pumps. If people are too stupid to purchase the exact same product for 4c a litre cheaper just a few hundred yards up the road or for up to 9c a litre cheaper at other city stations, then the station will just keep the prices high as idiots keep buying at the higher price.

    As for the tunnel being busier than it was, you are right there, but it is still thousands and thousands of vehicles a week off the projected figures, and has flopped badly in terms of the HGV trade. But unlike most businesses they have the safety blanket of the taxpayer stumping up the difference if they don't hit the projected figures.

    Interstingly enough there has been a survey done over the past 11 months using a number of different retailers that would have been on the traffic routes used before the tunnel was opened, and also using a number of city centre retailers.

    Basically they are taking the sales figures for the 18 months before the tunnel opened and the sales figures for the 18 months following it and seeing how the figures match up month on month.


    To date the stores in the survey on the old routes have had dramatic drops in sales now that a chunk has been taken from the passing trade. There are a number of variables etc factored in as well, but from what I has seen so far, it would appear that quite a bit of money has stopped coming into the city since the tunnel was built as a bypass. From what I gather the report is going to be presented to the city council next summer, as it ends in Febuary, and some time will be needed to crunch all the figures and get everything documented and verified.

    The talk from the City council might be that shopping centres do the damage, but a bypass that makes it easier to avoid the city centre and get to those shopping centres and to other towns seems to be casually ignored.

    Not that anything can be done about the tunnel, but it is in itself an unmentioned obstacle in many ways to regrowth in the the city centre. Probably a chat for a different thread at a later date, but I thought what I read was interesting.


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    #33
    Cookiemunster
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,813 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    According to the Leader the increase is only for trucks.

    From January, two and three-axle vehicles will have to pay €4.60 to use the tunnel and and heavy trucks will have to pay €5.80 per trip.
    There will be no increase for other classes of vehicles.


    Full story http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business/cost_of_using_limerick_tunnel_set_to_rise_by_10_cent_1_3223445


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    #34
    Kess73
    Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    Cookiemunster wrote: »
    According to the Leader the increase is only for trucks.

    From January, two and three-axle vehicles will have to pay €4.60 to use the tunnel and and heavy trucks will have to pay €5.80 per trip.
    There will be no increase for other classes of vehicles.


    Full story http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business/cost_of_using_limerick_tunnel_set_to_rise_by_10_cent_1_3223445


    Guess we will have to wait until January to see what the truth is.

    The National Roads Authority are the quoted source of information which the Irish Independent, Irish Times etc are using, and they are claiming that there will be a 10c increase on all using vehicles.

    Someone has made a cock -up though, and either the NRA gave the wrong info to the national press about what increases were happening where, or the Leader is wrong and come January people in cars at the toll booths will find the price has actually gone up for them.:)

    Pushing up the truck price is stupid though, especially when the president of the Irish Road Haulage Association is quoted as saying that most of the trucks belonging to their members that come through Limerick are already avoiding the tunnel, so any increase will only get the trucks that do use it starting to avoid it.


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    #35
    thesimpsons
    Registered Users Posts: 1,694 ✭✭✭thesimpsons


    Kess73 wrote: »

    Pushing up the truck price is stupid though.

    ah but stupid and logic are opposite ends of the spectrum in this case. It gives trucks even more reason not to use the tunnel now. don't you just love the irish logic though - trucks aren't using it cos its too dear, what will we do, ah ya, push up the price :D


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    #36
    Mc Love
    Registered Users Posts: 14,015 ✭✭✭✭Mc Love


    Did anyone see that bit in the Leader where they do the voxpop and get people on the streets views? I dont think its expensive and would rather use than go through the amount of traffic lights etc to get to the northside from southside.


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    #37
    Delphi91
    Registered Users Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭Delphi91


    Kess73 wrote: »
    Guess we will have to wait until January to see what the truth is.

    The National Roads Authority are the quoted source of information which the Irish Independent, Irish Times etc are using, and they are claiming that there will be a 10c increase on all using vehicles.

    Someone has made a cock -up though, and either the NRA gave the wrong info to the national press about what increases were happening where, or the Leader is wrong and come January people in cars at the toll booths will find the price has actually gone up for them.:)

    Pushing up the truck price is stupid though, especially when the president of the Irish Road Haulage Association is quoted as saying that most of the trucks belonging to their members that come through Limerick are already avoiding the tunnel, so any increase will only get the trucks that do use it starting to avoid it.

    The day that this was first suggested, I was listening to the radio and whatever station it was (a national one) contacted the companies running the tolls for a comment. Nobody was available for comment except the company running the Limerick toll. The spokesman was interviewed live and I distinctly remember him stating that the increase would NOT apply to cars.


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    #38
    Cookiemunster
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,813 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Mc Love wrote: »
    I dont think its expensive and would rather use than go through the amount of traffic lights etc to get to the northside from southside.

    Do you use it every day though? I go through it in the mornings to save time going to work, but I come home through town. €1.80 a day adds up over the course of a year.


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    #39
    Delphi91
    Registered Users Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭Delphi91


    Just curious, does anyone who uses the toll tags on the Shannon Tunnel find that there is an appreciable time lag between when your tag is read and the green light activates to lift the barrier??

    I find it frustrating, I've slowed to down to the requested 50kph to allow the tag to be read and invariably end up slowing down further as I reach the barrier as it hasn't lifted. The one at the Portlaoise toll is much faster and you can begin to accelerate almost immediately after the tag "beeps" as the barrier has started to raise.


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    #40
    Twin-go
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭Twin-go


    Delphi91 wrote: »
    Just curious, does anyone who uses the toll tags on the Shannon Tunnel find that there is an appreciable time lag between when your tag is read and the green light activates to lift the barrier??

    I find it frustrating, I've slowed to down to the requested 50kph to allow the tag to be read and invariably end up slowing down further as I reach the barrier as it hasn't lifted. The one at the Portlaoise toll is much faster and you can begin to accelerate almost immediately after the tag "beeps" as the barrier has started to raise.

    Yes the express lane on the Limerick Tunnel is crap. Go too fast it doesn't work, go too slow it doesn't work, be too close to the car in front it doesn't work, have a car to close behind you it doesn't work. There are people stopping at the entrance waiting for the car in front to go through. this kind of defeits the pourpose of an express lane.


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    #41
    Cookiemunster
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,813 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Delphi91 wrote: »
    Just curious, does anyone who uses the toll tags on the Shannon Tunnel find that there is an appreciable time lag between when your tag is read and the green light activates to lift the barrier??

    I find it frustrating, I've slowed to down to the requested 50kph to allow the tag to be read and invariably end up slowing down further as I reach the barrier as it hasn't lifted. The one at the Portlaoise toll is much faster and you can begin to accelerate almost immediately after the tag "beeps" as the barrier has started to raise.

    I noticed the exact same thing driving to Dublin last week. I was slowing down as you have to do with the tunnel and was amazed to see the barrier rising as soon as my tag beeped. At the tunnel I'm usually at the indicator sign before it changes from red to green. And don't get me started about how rarely the barrier raises for me at the normal booth when I do get dirverted.


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    #42
    Berty
    Registered Users Posts: 26,149 ✭✭✭✭Berty


    Delphi91 wrote: »
    Just curious, does anyone who uses the toll tags on the Shannon Tunnel find that there is an appreciable time lag between when your tag is read and the green light activates to lift the barrier??
    Twin-go wrote: »
    Yes the express lane on the Limerick Tunnel is crap. Go too fast it doesn't work, go too slow it doesn't work, be too close to the car in front it doesn't work, have a car to close behind you it doesn't work. There are people stopping at the entrance waiting for the car in front to go through. this kind of defeits the pourpose of an express lane.

    +1 on Twin-go

    My Limerick Tunnel rule is if there are 2 cars in the express lane then use a normal lane and invariably you get through before the 2nd car does. See my post previously about the two muppets stopping having a chat in the express lane because it didn't open. It's best to avoid morons and use the normal lanes. It will add at most 10 seconds to your life.


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