M4 toll road

Climate Expert

Does anybody here use this regularly?
How much time do you find you save over going to old road. I've always found the old road to be empty and only really save 5-10 mins max on the motorway.

The toll is being increased to €2.90 and now I might need to use this road daily for my commute. Is the time saved really worth the €29 a week? Is there any way of offsetting this cost through tax relief?

veryangryman

I use the old one quite a bit too...

I guess it depends if your in a hurry. I dont ever put the car above 90-100Kph (is economical for fuel) so I dont see the need to use the tolled section.

Kinnegad is already bypassed as is Enfield anyway. The Enfield one is a bit pants so i just go through the town which is empty traffic-wise now that the tolled Motorway is there

I guess that if you wanted to drive the bit faster, you kinda run the risk of getting a speeding fine, so maybe the toll road is best. But at 2.90 a go, plus the extra fuel your wasting by pushing your car to the max, plus the fact that you have to stop at the toll booths anyway, slowing you down...I do tend to avoid the toll road

But as someone who enjoys having the R148 (old N4) to myself, I would encourage everyone else to use the M4

L1011

Stop? I've not stopped at the M4 toll for ages

(it has an express lane)

I find it saves a few minutes, but I do most of my driving at night and I find it safer than the old road in that environment.

orbital83

Climate Expert wrote: »

How much time do you find you save over going to old road.

10-12 minutes.
The main issue is the frustration of driving at 80km/h on a road which was clearly designed for higher speeds. 100km/h was permitted up until the M4 opened and the govt decided they would like more people to use the toll.

Is there any way of offsetting this cost through tax relief?

Nope. There used to be a discount card where you could buy trips in bulk and save 10%. Not sure if it's still available. You have to buy the card and top it up at the Eurolink office at the toll bridge in Enfield. AFAIR this office is open between 9am and 5pm. Wonderful. They won't post the card out to you except by registered post which negates the saving.

Kinnegad is already bypassed as is Enfield anyway. The Enfield one is a bit pants so i just go through the town which is empty traffic-wise now that the tolled Motorway is there

Enfield can be quite busy at peak times (6-7pm). It can take ten minutes to get through the town. Those traffic lights are quite punishing.

holton

Does anybody know why this toll is a good bit more expensive than any other toll road in the country (other than the M50). It's an absolute rip-off.

T Corolla

The old road is a little slower that the new road. If you are an early rise six am the old road is quiet and you can do the speed limit without any cars to slow you down. I myself do use the new road as it is a waste of money.

T Corolla

T Corolla wrote: »

I myself do use the new road as it is a waste of money.

I always use the M4 as it can make a significant difference in travel times, particularly during the busy times.

You just need to look at the streams of traffic joining/leaving at Kilcock, also it's a lot less stressful as you don't have to be looking out for traffic at all the minor road junctions etc

corktina

you cant have it both ways.....the old road is there for you free if you want it...if you want to save a bit of time etc (which is important to me on a tedious long distance journey) then you pay for the priviledge. You wouldnt want to use a Ryanair Plane for free would you or a Stena Line ferry, so why do people have such a hang up about toll roads?

Climate Expert

corktina wrote: »

you cant have it both ways.....the old road is there for you free if you want it...if you want to save a bit of time etc (which is important to me on a tedious long distance journey) then you pay for the priviledge. You wouldnt want to use a Ryanair Plane for free would you or a Stena Line ferry, so why do people have such a hang up about toll roads?

Because we paid for them many times over with road tax. We paid for the purchase of land for a company to charge for a few miles of road.

T Corolla

Because we paid for them many times over with road tax. We paid for the purchase of land for a company to charge for a few miles of road.

Exactly we have paid road tax for years one the highest in europe for substandard roads.It cost six hundred million of tax payers money to build the motorway from kilcock to kilbeggan total length twenty five miles. If one fifth of this had been put into rail infrastructure and by opening more stations along the sligo line and reopening the mullingar to athlone rail line.
The man with the cheque book must have been blind that six hundred million was a good price for a road and yet we are still paying for it and what make it better they are paying people to colect when they could of had barrier free tolling on it from the start. I am sure that was no alien to them. If you were to use the road five days a week at the current price it would be something in the region of twenty seven a week for fifty weeks a year is one thousand three hundred and fifty euro's plus the running of a car would surley bring it over two thusand euro and not to mention the car tax which i assume does not go towards the maintenance of the M4 would get you a yearly train ticket from Mullingar to Connolly and you would be entitled to a chunk of this outlay in a tax refund.

orbital83

corktina wrote: »

you cant have it both ways.....the old road is there for you free if you want it...if you want to save a bit of time etc (which is important to me on a tedious long distance journey) then you pay for the priviledge. You wouldnt want to use a Ryanair Plane for free would you or a Stena Line ferry, so why do people have such a hang up about toll roads?

This argument infuriates me. I'm pretty sure we have the highest motor related taxation in Europe. Motor tax, VRT, more than 70 cent on a litre of fuel. Try working out your own figure.

What is there to show for it?
Extortionate parking charges, crap roads, traffic chaos and any of the decent roads are tolled.

Yes, I have a hang up about toll roads. I'm perfectly entitled to it.

corktina

OK then..lets buy out the PPP's like we did with the M50 toll and not have any more PPP's...we'll pay for them ourselves out of our taxes will we? oh wait a minute...we havent got any moiney have we....

NedNew

Hmmm, it is is a bit pricey though - €2.90 for 40 kilometres of motorway. Still, the important thing is that the choice is there for everyone.

Amtmann

I have never driven the M4. But the toll is very high, and I've never heard the reason.

I would use the motorway for safety reasons. If I was a regular commuter, I'd find someone else to carpool with, and split the costs.

thebman

Never understood why someone would pay the toll.

I am very p*ssed off that the speed limit on the old road was reduced but then very few obey it anyway. If anything its more dangerous as most people are still doing 100 since that was the limit and then they come over a crest of a hill and there is someone doing 80 in front of them and they have to slow down.

Imagine the reason for the toll cost is because of the Motorway (the bit that used to be duel carriageway) after the toll too.

AlekSmart

I`m not certain Corktina that most posters are opposed to toll roads per se,
I`m reasonably certain,however, that most posters are thoroughly opposed to the notion of the Toll Road IRISH style.

Like much of what passes for National and Local Administration in this Republic,the entire issue of Road Tolling was brought in by the back door and even then the lacklustre apologies for Politicians made a hames of it.

I believe it was the realization that central adminisration did not actually have the legal powers required at the time that spurred Sylvester Barret or Jimmy Tully to set about inventing the National Roads Authority as a dei facto Toll Collection service for Central Funds.

This rather neatly circumvented the little impediment at the time which was that Tolling was a function proper to the LOCAL authorities.

Of course the initial East Link/West Link "Arrangement" was rather splendidly drafted in a manner which although funding the construction of two bridges,gifted the provider National Toll Roads with an unlimited licence to print money for a minimum of 3 decades.

The cast list of the Political and Administrative heavyweights deeply involved in the planning and implimentation of this Tolling revolution reads similar to an Irish style Mafia reunion....:)

Absolutely NOTHING about the process of devising and introducing Road Tolling to Ireland was up front,fair or equitable to its citizens.
It was little more that Political manipulation on a massive scale and continues to this day with the sleazy little "Son-Of-WestLink" deal which continues to leach money from ordinary punters on a massive scale...

Well Corktina...You wanted a hang-up....? I hope the foregoing is a taste of what you fancy ?? :eek: :eek: :eek:

L1011

brim4brim wrote: »

Imagine the reason for the toll cost is because of the Motorway (the bit that used to be duel carriageway) after the toll too.

No DC was converted to motorway during this build. The scheme tied in with the start of the (abysmal quality) N4 Downs DC, at a point where it was formerly single carriageway.

dubhthach

NedNew wrote: »

Hmmm, it is is a bit pricey though - €2.90 for 40 kilometres of motorway.

Well if you are a commuter perhaps. If you are going to Galway it's 2.90 for over 100 km's of dual-carriageway/motorway (lets say Islandbridge to Roscommon side of Athlone). In which case it's well worth it.

After all the M4/M6 are built as interurban routes.

veryangryman

dubhthach wrote: »

Well if you are a commuter perhaps. If you are going to Galway it's 2.90 for over 100 km's of dual-carriageway/motorway (lets say Islandbridge to Roscommon side of Athlone). In which case it's well worth it.

After all the M4/M6 are built as interurban routes.

Hmmm... Thats the most extreme example of false economy ive ever seen :rolleyes:

Your paying €2.90 for 40KM of motorway that does not bypass any significant bottleneck (in the case of Kinnegad and Enfield, they got free bypasses already). The rest, you can drive on M6 and parts of M4 for free

Anyone who thinks otherwise is a slave to the system. But again, i welcome you leaving me with a nice quiet R148 road to zoom along for free :cool:

L1011

Kinnegad is not bypassed on the ex-N4 (R148), only the ex-N6.

veryangryman

MYOB wrote: »

Kinnegad is not bypassed on the ex-N4 (R148), only the ex-N6.

Sigh.... only one way i can dignify the significance of that post

MYOB, i mock your values system. You also appear foolish in the eyes of others. Past instances in which i professed to liking you...were fraudulent!

L1011

veryangryman wrote: »

Sigh.... only one way i can dignify the significance of that post

MYOB, i mock your values system. You also appear foolish in the eyes of others. Past instances in which i professed to liking you...were fraudulent!

You stated Kinnegad was bypassed, I (correctly) stated that it wasn't bypassed on one of the two regional (former national) routes that the toll motorway bypasses.

veryangryman

MYOB wrote: »

You stated Kinnegad was bypassed, I (correctly) stated that it wasn't bypassed on one of the two regional (former national) routes that the toll motorway bypasses.

I was pointing out the irrelevancy of that post given the current debate over whether or not to use the toll road. Obviously your still going to want to bypass the town as a practical-thinking person. Also the R161 is now the road that goes through it (if the eastbound signposts are to be believed).

But i really dont want to go there. If I'm wrong then well done. I still mock your values system though :P

thardy

HI very interested in your debate for a college project i am doing at the moment.

Does anybody know how many cars use the toll each day ?

I don't know, but I do know that when it first opened many just continued using the old road.

Recently I've noticed that traffic has increased quite significantly, have more decided the saving in time is worth the cost or has the old road been "restricted"?

You could ask http://www.eirtag.ie/ they operate the toll booths on this road.

childoforpheus

This should be helpful:
http://www.nra.ie/NetworkManagement/TrafficCounts/TrafficCounterData/html/M04-32.htm

DonJose

I used the M4 tonight and noticed a sign saying the M4 toll will increase tomorrow Dec 1st from €2.70 to €2.80 "Due to VAT increase". So VAT will add on 1.35 cent and they think its acceptable to increase it by 10 cent. I understand the toll machines take minimum 10 cents coins but at least absorb the 1.35 cent into the toll of €2.70. :mad:

BluntGuy

DonJose wrote: »

I used the M4 tonight and noticed a sign saying the M4 toll will increase tomorrow Dec 1st from €2.70 to €2.80 "Due to VAT increase". So VAT will add on 1.35 cent and they think it's acceptable to increase it by 10 cent. :mad:

Yep.

And if there was a subsequent VAT increase of 2 cent, they'd bump up the price by another 10 cent, even though the cost of the increase in VAT was already covered by the original hike.

Scoundrels...

thardy

Thanks child.

BluntGuy

thardy wrote: »

Thanks child.

Huh?

That post seems kinda out-of-place...