AA spokesman warns of chaos at roundabouts and predicts motorists will congest residential areas
Fiona Gartland
A plan to introduce a barrier-free tolling system on the M50, announced last week by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, has been described as "a monumentally bad idea".
Mr Cullen announced that the controversial West Link toll barrier on the M50 motorway would be removed within the next three years and would be replaced with a new barrier-free electronic tolling system along the whole road, with charges based on the amount of the route used.
Under the plans, the State will buy out the right of National Toll Roads (NTR) to operate a toll plaza on the road, in a compensation package that will be worth about €500 million to the company between 2008 and 2020.
Conor Faughnan, of AA Roadwatch, said he was shocked by the plan.
"The notion that they are doing any favours by removing the West Link toll barrier and introducing tolls all over the M50 is absurd," he said. "It shows alarmingly little understanding of traffic management. It is a monumentally bad idea."
He said that the replacement of a physical barrier with an electronic system would help efficiency a bit but the Government was wrong to think that this was the only problem.
"If this is allowed to go ahead, the traffic nightmare at areas like the Red Cow roundabout will be multiplied. Cars will pour into residential areas and there will be widespread traffic chaos. If you search the whole world you won't find a city that charges a toll for its bypass," he added.
Fine Gael spokeswoman on transport Olivia Mitchell said the new toll arrangement was illogical and poorly thought out.
"On the one hand the port tunnel is free in order to encourage trucks on to the M50. But once there, they are to be charged in order to encourage them not to use it," she said.
Róisín Shortall, Labour's spokeswoman on transport, said the decision to replace barriers with electronic tolling at the West Link bridge was welcome but was being used as a cover to introduce new tolls on other parts of the motorway.
On Friday night, Mr Cullen welcomed barrier-free tolling as a very positive outcome for users of the M50.
The National Roads Authority said the money from the new tolls would be used towards the upgrade of the M50 and the payment of compensation to NTR.