Another example of Rip Off Ireland- toll free m50

mcwhirter

Rip Off Ireland
At the moment I pay 4 euros a day for the m50 toll or 72 euros a month or 864 euros a year.
With this new system I will be paying on top of that, a charge to either purchase or lease a tag and the hassle of topping up an account for the tag providers. I am also paying 590 euros road tax a year and approxiamately for travelling to work and back 8 euros a day for diesel( 60 miles a day)

Total for year is 1728 fuel + 864 toll + 590 road tax = 3182 euros!!!

And that is for 1 car, my familyrequire 2 for where I live as there is hardly any public transport.

Could the government at least give me an incentive to use the toll free m50. For instance, making the tags free or decreasing cost of toll. I am going to be worse off with the new system.
I can imagine there will still be traffic jams the more the years pass, especially at the m1 junction.
I have another route to work which takes about 15 minutes longer than the m50(on a good day). This would save me though at least the 864 euros toll/year.
I am planning on doing that, now what can I buy for 864 euros?
A nice new lcd tv or 2 flights to the states or pay off some of my mortgage.
If there are people out there who think like me then the congestion in dublin will increase, increasing pollution, just like the days before the m50.

This government, what ARE they doing, this country is turning sour!!
They are going to make it worse.

kluivert

I can understand this because my other half she pays 864 a year as well for using the M1 toll.

Its a joke that in this country you have to pay a fortune to get to work.

Thats on top of pay fuel and tax.

On average I would say that she spends around 5k a year, thats fuel car tax insurance and toll. She does around 25k miles + a year.

She travels 100 miles a day return.

But there is a problem with the toll free barriers, the cameras cant read dirty plates so how do they get around this. If it was me I would have as much mud and muck on my plates going through the toll, and wash it off when I get to work etc.

I have no problem with paying tolls, but once the road is paid for and a profit made for the company then the toll should be removed.

skyhighflyer

mcwhirter wrote: »

Rip Off Ireland
At the moment I pay 4 euros a day for the m50 toll or 72 euros a month or 864 euros a year.
With this new system I will be paying on top of that, a charge to either purchase or lease a tag and the hassle of topping up an account for the tag providers. I am also paying 590 euros road tax a year and approxiamately for travelling to work and back 8 euros a day for diesel( 60 miles a day)

Total for year is 1728 fuel + 864 toll + 590 road tax = 3182 euros!!!

And that is for 1 car, my familyrequire 2 for where I live as there is hardly any public transport.

Could the government at least give me an incentive to use the toll free m50. For instance, making the tags free or decreasing cost of toll. I am going to be worse off with the new system.
I can imagine there will still be traffic jams the more the years pass, especially at the m1 junction.
I have another route to work which takes about 15 minutes longer than the m50(on a good day). This would save me though at least the 864 euros toll/year.
I am planning on doing that, now what can I buy for 864 euros?
A nice new lcd tv or 2 flights to the states or pay off some of my mortgage.
If there are people out there who think like me then the congestion in dublin will increase, increasing pollution, just like the days before the m50.

This government, what ARE they doing, this country is turning sour!!
They are going to make it worse.

I heard on the radio that if you apply now your tag is free? Could be wrong though...

Honey-ec

That's only while stocks last, and it's literally only the physical tag that's free - you'll still have to pay the yearly admin fee and monthly top ups.

And just being a pedant, but the new M50 won't be "toll free", it'll be barrier-free tolling!

Esel

OP, try reading your post using the Cloud skin. Nearly impossible, isn't it?

ismynametoolong

Why are they doing it !! Because they can we are all insular individuals in our cars and as much as we mutter and grumble nothing will change unless we unite in protest. Its a little like Tesco taking the p**s on the Irish and Uk prices why do they do it because they can as as long as Paddy continues to dip into his pocket it will continue.

chris85

Any wordd of a protest happening on this. I would be very much in favour of one and would attend.

they are being very sneaky in that they made everyone believe this would be great for traffic which it should do but forgot to mention the costs till later. Why should we be paying more to use it when the goverment now own it and we pay our road tax every year. I understand the toll is used for certain roads no problem but a sneaky increase I was not expecting but maybe I am just nieve.

Balfa

I just want to offer a contrasting view. The local toll-road maintainer here is the North Texas Tollway Authority. You can get a "tolltag", at most supermarkets, that you stick to the inside-top of your windscreen. When you first get it, you top it up (I think you must use credit card) with $40, then any time it drops below $10 through use, it automatically charges another $40 to your credit card to top itself up.

Each time you pass a toll booth, it costs about 25-30% less than paying with cash. Here's a toll plaza I pass frequently on Bush Turnpike:

The left three lanes with the massive "T" above them are for tolltag users only. There are no booths, no cashiers and no barriers. You just zip through at 70 (I mean, 60 ) mph. You can also use a tolltag on any manned (or automated) lane, but you have to stop and wait for the barrier to lift, just like Eazy Pass works.

Some newer tolled entrances/exits are completely unmanned/unbarriered. If you have a tolltag, they scan it and charge your tolltag account. If you they can't scan a tolltag, they'll photograph your licence plate, then send you a monthly bill for your usage.

It's a pretty nice system, and it's been in place for almost two decades now.

mcwhirter

I am would be willing to protest on this matter too.
Any other takers?

Patch123

I'm totally for this. If Irish people generally don't complain because they are too passive, a protest that harnesses this passivity just might work:

So don't buy a tag, and don't pay the toll

If everyone refused to pay the system would collapse pretty quick and we'd still be able to use the bridge as the physical barriers are gone, right?

Again, it's not like we'd actually have to do anything to make this protest happen - so 'vive le revolution' or something.

Let's stick it to them for their years of corruption and mismanagement!! I mean it's not like we haven't paid for the bridge 1000 times over already....

Too much to hope for?

mcwhirter

mcwhirter wrote: »

Rip Off Ireland
At the moment I pay 4 euros a day for the m50 toll or 72 euros a month or 864 euros a year.
With this new system I will be paying on top of that, a charge to either purchase or lease a tag and the hassle of topping up an account for the tag providers. I am also paying 590 euros road tax a year and approxiamately for travelling to work and back 8 euros a day for diesel( 60 miles a day)

Total for year is 1728 fuel + 864 toll + 590 road tax = 3182 euros!!!

And that is for 1 car, my familyrequire 2 for where I live as there is hardly any public transport.

Could the government at least give me an incentive to use the toll free m50. For instance, making the tags free or decreasing cost of toll. I am going to be worse off with the new system.
I can imagine there will still be traffic jams the more the years pass, especially at the m1 junction.
I have another route to work which takes about 15 minutes longer than the m50(on a good day). This would save me though at least the 864 euros toll/year.
I am planning on doing that, now what can I buy for 864 euros?
A nice new lcd tv or 2 flights to the states or pay off some of my mortgage.
If there are people out there who think like me then the congestion in dublin will increase, increasing pollution, just like the days before the m50.

This government, what ARE they doing, this country is turning sour!!
They are going to make it worse.

Well, I carried out my alternetive route today bypassing the m50 and the distance was 1 mile longer, time about 15 minutes longer( normal m50 journey takes at best 35 minutes). Traffic wasn't very busy as I work offpeak hours and it will save me almost 900 euros/year.

robbie99

Well you've already decided that it's worthwhile paying the €4 a day toll otherwise you wouldn't be using it.

If you're using the M50 that frequently then you should use a tag. The €1 a month admin charge you'll recover from the Diesel you save by not having to stop and accelerate again 36 times a month at the existing barriers.

Wertz

Balfa wrote: »

It's a pretty nice system, and it's been in place for almost two decades now.

Yes but just look at how good the road system is across the whole State; Texas is famous for it's roads...the only places I ever saw the type of traffic congestion we see for most of the working day on the M50, was in Houston, Dallas and to a lesser extent San An at rush hours and the 5-6 lanes were well able to cope.
Add to that that Texans pay substantially less for fuel than we do and that the cost of a vehicle is significantly less and you wonder where it is all this money is going.

Listening to some guy from NRA defending all this daylight robbery on Liveline just now...it was like listening to the e-flow ad without the Queen track...I love how this company and NTR and the rest are making it so easy for motorists to hand over their hard earned...jesus yoiu'd swear they were doing us a trun.
IMO mass non-compliance on tags is the only way Dublin's (and the country's) motorists will make their voices heard on this issue...I love how the €3 non tagged charge increases to 40 and then 100 and something after a week and a month respectively and how they then pass on your details to some debt collection agency....feasibly someone could end up with a seized and possibly crushed car for using a feckin' road that the tax takes on their vehilce cost, fuel tax and motor tax, alongside partial EU grants have gone to pay for...
Of course everyone will just buy the tag, top it up, drive on, just like good little worker ants...nothing will ever change.

mcwhirter

robbie99 wrote: »

Well you've already decided that it's worthwhile paying the €4 a day toll otherwise you wouldn't be using it.

If you're using the M50 that frequently then you should use a tag. The €1 a month admin charge you'll recover from the Diesel you save by not having to stop and accelerate again 36 times a month at the existing barriers.

Yes, but if the m50 is blocked up, and often it is not just the barrier which causes this, sometimes it is dead horses, buses on fire, crashes, rubber neckers etc which can cause me to stop and start 36 times a day nevermind a month then the saving may not happen.
Can you not understand what I have said and others, it is that why do we have to pay more for the barrier free toll than before.
Yes it maybe it has same 2 euros charge (only if you sign up) but we also have to pay for tag , admin charges and leaving account in credit.
And who can stop the tag companies from increasing their charges in the future beyond inflation as has happened for the toll.
There is no incentive to use it.

mikemac

Taking an opposite view here folks but hear me out.

They government spent €600 million or so to buy this last year, right?
And now they want to get this money back by continuing to charge motorists, right?

Yes, I realize the bridge has been paid for many times over and yes I know you pay tax, excise duty, etc/………… but who would you prefer to pay this €600 million? The motorists who use it or instead cut it out of another department like health?

r3nu4l

Meh, I used to commute to London by train and it cost me over £3,600 for the year to do so...before I even had to think about paying for a car and fuel. I had to put up with shoddy service, not getting a seat, unexplained delays, multiple suicides by train at Christmas time not to mention the time the commute took out of my life.

My solution? I got a job in Cambridge...I'm sure a lot of M50 users could easily get jobs on their own side of the city if they looked hard enough. It won't be possible for everyone but for some it will be. Also, I'm working from home today...the more people that get to work at home (again not everyone can do this) the better and the more you'll save.

So solutions include:

1)Find an alternative route
2)Work from home
3)Find a job that doesn't require extortionate toll fares
4)Don't pay, risk a fine etc...
5)Mass protests

There's always choices, some are smarter than others.

robbie99

mcwhirter wrote: »

Yes, but if the m50 is blocked up, and often it is not just the barrier which causes this, sometimes it is dead horses, buses on fire, crashes, rubber neckers etc which can cause me to stop and start 36 times a day nevermind a month then the saving may not happen.
Can you not understand what I have said and others, it is that why do we have to pay more for the barrier free toll than before.
Yes it maybe it has same 2 euros charge (only if you sign up) but we also have to pay for tag , admin charges and leaving account in credit.
And who can stop the tag companies from increasing their charges in the future beyond inflation as has happened for the toll.
There is no incentive to use it.

Forgive me if I don't appreciate the frustration of having to pay to use a road that's at standstill more often than not. I admit I never use the M50 - whenever I need to get to Blanchardstown or Cabra from Clondalkin I'd either take the backroads through Lucan or go via Islandbridge. Fair play to you for trying out an alternative route and finding it worthwhile.

But AFAIK you do not have to pay for a tag. They are free. Only extra charge would be the €1 a month admin fee. My point really is that I think if you're already paying €70 plus a month in tolls then the €1 increase is negligible if it means not having to stop and fumble around for change at the barriers. Also, this €1 a month increase is nothing compared to the annual increase we've had in the past. I'd be more concerned about those having to pay the €2.50 or €3 charge regularly.

But I also wonder how soon will government increase those existing charges?

ismynametoolong

€ 1 a month admin fee is a little rich me thinks !

Because we wont protest the chances are they will sell quite a number of these passes and for every 100,000 they sell they will rake 1.2 mil in revenue a year. With a million plus people in Dublin I would imagine 20 % of the pop eventually having one is not unrealistic and you could run some admin office with 2.4 Million a year .

G-Money

I read somewhere that part of the reason the toll was put there to begin with was to put people off using the motorway. I don't know if that's true or not, I always assumed it was to pay back the cost of building the bridge etc.

Although it sounds Irish enough anyway if it is true. Build a motorway to ease the traffic then charge people money to put them off using it.

ART6

I'm chancing my arm a bit here since I got warned off this subject by a mod. However, I understand that the bridge cost €38 millions to build. The company then received 17 years of tolls until the government bought them out using our money for €600 millions. I make no comment on that, and I don't use the bridge in any case, but if there's a protest going, count me in:mad:

Quatre Mains

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/1212/breaking40.htm

I'm not an M50 user myself but I reckon if you guys are serious you should contact Varadkar, he likes to be on tv and he has 11 weeks off Dail duty. Joe Higgins (I guess) might also be interested.

I know that r3nu4l's comments about getting another job might seem a bit throwaway, but if you equate it to €900 a year in tolls, thats €1500 (if you're on 41% tax) more you need to earn on your gross to balance it against a "non-M50" job!

Ronanom

So who's up for a protest then? Maaybe a go-slow (although the m50 is already one!)

Terrlock

I'm up for one, Its ridicolous putting in all these toll charges.

And the rate at which they go up is crazy.

I heard its costing a fortune too implement this new tolling system. They won't even be making much of a profit on it.

There is no decent transport system in Dublin, The buses are useless. They all go towards the city centre instead of where people need them too go.

They government need a good kick up the arse and things need too change.

If we just allow all this I bet the toll charges will be gone up too 3 euro next year.

I think its high time we mounted a big protest. I'm all in for it.
We are far too accepting and passive in this country....

They're better ways to do things. And I also think the government need to answer for why they had to pay 600million too buyout the toll operators.

Who ever made that deal in the first place should be locked up.

LostinBlanch

One thing to think about is that the NRA will have a private debt collecting company chasing the tolls, and non payment will affect people's credit records.

Slightly off topic I know, but what happens if someone who doesn't use the M50 regularly gets bills because someone else is using false plates?

peasant

Please continue this discussion in the dedicated M50 toll thread that is stickied to the top of the page, so that we have it all in one thread, thank you.

I can't merge the two threads as the posts would crisscoss each other.