Road Toll Increases 2013

vickers209

Just noticed that a number of toll bridges increased there fares.
Including the m50 has gone up 10 cent.

Was just wondering who agrees to put these prices up and for what reason.

think it was last year they were brought to court to bring the fare down on the m1 and m4 and now its gone back up again.

http://www.nra.ie/RepositoryforPublicationsInfo/file,18402,en.pdf

AlekSmart

vickers209 wrote: »

Just noticed that a number of toll bridges increased there fares.
Including the m50 has gone up 10 cent.

Was just wondering who agrees to put these prices up and for what reason.

think it was last year they were brought to court to bring the fare down on the m1 and m4 and now its gone back up again.

http://www.nra.ie/RepositoryforPublicationsInfo/file,18402,en.pdf

A quite straightforward question,one would think ?

However the Minister responsible for the drawing up of the Contracts surrounding the Operation of Toll "Facilities",Mr Dempsey,was particularly insistent that the details of the contracts be kept secret,for reasons of "Commercial Confidentiality".

So Vickers209,I'm sure you understand that whilst the usual suspects...oops sorry,my bad....the relevant authorities....would really Love to place the information before you,they just CAN'T right now.......sorry....:o

etchyed

AlekSmart wrote: »

A quite straightforward question,one would think ?

However the Minister responsible for the drawing up of the Contracts surrounding the Operation of Toll "Facilities",Mr Dempsey,was particularly insistent that the details of the contracts be kept secret,for reasons of "Commercial Confidentiality".

So Vickers209,I'm sure you understand that whilst the usual suspects...oops sorry,my bad....the relevant authorities....would really Love to place the information before you,they just CAN'T right now.......sorry....:o

Bollocks.

The only things kept secret are the revenue thresholds below which the government will compensate toll road operators for any shortfall. If I remember correctly such arrangements exist only on the M3 and N7 Limerick Tunnel schemes. Although I agree that this information should be publicly available (and furthermore, that the roads should never have been built, given the private sector's aversion to them) this has nothing to do with the OP's question.

vickers209 wrote: »

Was just wondering who agrees to put these prices up and for what reason.

The conditions under which road operators can increase tolls are publicly available and are based on the Consumer Price Index.

vickers209 wrote: »

think it was last year they were brought to court to bring the fare down on the m1 and m4 and now its gone back up again.

The court case last year was because, according to these conditions, the operators should have reduced their tolls, which they hadn't done. Evidently (and I haven't bothered to do the calculations) they are now entitled to increase the tolls again because of inflation.

AlekSmart

etchyed wrote: »

Bollocks....etc .

The only things kept secret are the revenue thresholds below which the government will compensate toll road operators for any shortfall. If I remember correctly such arrangements exist only on the M3 and N7 Limerick Tunnel schemes. Although I agree that this information should be publicly available (and furthermore, that the roads should never have been built, given the private sector's aversion to them) this has nothing to do with the OP's question.....

Thank you etchyed,for your elequent clarification of the situation......;)

However,that being said,I remain most suspicious of the secrecy (to use your own term) surrounding the Toll Facility arrangements as a whole.

Factoring out every other such "arrangement" in the State,if we take the West Link/M50 on it's own we are left with an almost perfect example of all that was/is wrong in Irish Public Adminstration.

My own belief is that as these 3 decade long contracts proceed and the loose-end funding arrangements begin to dip ever further into our pockets,the amount of "bollocks" will start to pile up until it can no longer be contained behind the "Commercially Sensitive" wall.

KevR

So we could be looking at €3 next year for the M4. It's getting rather steep...