TaraWatch

Taxpayer will have to foot bill for M3 toll shortfall

Irish Indpendent- Monday August 10 2009

By Michael Brennan Political Correspondent

TAXPAYERS will have to compensate the operators of the controversial M3 motorway if the number of vehicles using it falls below target. It is understood this is the first time such a guaranteed minimum toll income has been agreed.

There will be downward pressure on the numbers using the M3, which opens early next year, because drivers could face €11.20-a- day in tolls and there will also be a new rail service to Navan. The Dunboyne to Clonsilla leg of the rail link to Dublin opens next year, with the full line coming on stream in 2015. The ‘minimum traffic level’ clause for the M3 was included in the contract for the €650m motorway through Co Meath. It means the State will have to pay the toll operators, Eurolink, compensation if traffic flows (predicted at up to 60,000 drivers per day) fail to meet the agreed minimum target. But the National Roads Authority (NRA) has not revealed what this target is.

Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan warned the State might have to compensate Eurolink if the planned rail service persuaded drivers to abandon their cars. “It seems to be running counter to what would be generally accepted public transport policy. From every point of view, it seems mad,” he said. There is no such ‘minimum traffic’ agreement for another toll road operated by the same company — the Kinnegad-Kilcock section of the Dublin-Galway route.  The National Roads Authority said the minimum traffic target was “competitive” and was based on annual rather than weekly or monthly traffic levels. But it said it was unable to reveal it because the expert in that field was on holidays. The re-opening of the Navan rail line is due to take place in two phases. The first is the 7.5km line from the planned M3 Interchange at Pace through to Clonsilla station, which is due to open next year.

Defended

It will include three new stations — Hansfield, Dunboyne and Pace. There will be 15-minute peak hour frequency commuter services into Docklands Station in Dublin city centre. Phase two of the project will extend the rail line to Navan. It is due to be completed by 2015.
The NRA defended its decision to include a minimum traffic guarantee. A spokesman said they needed to attract as many bidders as possible to the project. A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Noel Dempsey played down the risk of the State having to pay the toll operators compensation.  “The NRA is confident that, based on traffic volumes, the minimum traffic level will be realised,” she said.

Return trip from Kells to Dublin will cost €11.20

Irish Independent – Monday August 10 2009

The M3 motorway project has been one of the most controversial in the history of the State due to its route through the historic Tara/Skryne valley. It has been delayed by legal challenges and the discovery of archaeological finds on the route. In the meantime, work has begun on extending the rail line from Dublin to Dunboyne and there are plans to extend it to Navan.  The M3 motorway will have two toll plazas charging €2.80 each, forcing anyone living north of Kells to pay €11.20 daily for a return journey to work in Dublin — or an annual total of over €2,600. It has been estimated the operators will earn €580m in toll revenue over the 30-year contract, with the road reverting to state ownership after that. There have been warnings that some drivers may use the old N3 route to avoid tolls, which would hit traffic levels.

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Furure over motorway ‘tolls bailout’ for Eurolink

Meath Chronicle – 12 August 2009

A full-scale row has blown up over plans to make taxpayers compensate the operators of the M3 motorway if the number of vehicles using it falls below target.  Meath independent councillor Brian Fitzgerald said that the issue was “a resigning matter for the Minister for Transport and the Government” and Meath East Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee condemned the proposed tolling scheme on the M3 as “unfair and unprecedented”.  The motorway will have two toll plazas charging fess of €2.80 each, forcing anyone living north of Kells and using the motorway to get to Dublin to pay €11.20 daily for a return journey to work in the city, an annual total of over €2,600, it has been claimed. It has also been claimed that the M3′s operators, Eurolink, would earn €580 million in toll revenue over the 30-year contract, with the road reverting to State ownership after that.

Deputy McEntee said that the people of Kells, particularly commuters, had been waiting 10 years for the M3 to be delivered. “Now they find that they will have to pay two tolls on each journey to Dublin if they wish to avail of the new service. For workers who need to cross the M50, that adds up to a charge of €11.20 per day – over €2,500 per year,” he said. He added that it was no consolation to drivers who had sat in traffic tailbacks in Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells for the last 10 years to be told that they can still drive on the existing N3 for free.  “I also find the ‘minimum traffic clause’ built into the PPP contract with Eurolink another cause for concern. In 2007 the NRA stated ‘that the Authority considers the PPP approach will help deliver better value for money through cost effective transfer of risk to the private sector’. In my opinion, if the taxpayer is set to bail out the State to pay the toll operator, this is essentially a no-risk venture for Eurolink,” the FG TD added. He suggested that a one-toll system be put in place for those travelling the full length of the M3 and that the price of this be fixed for a minimum of five years.

Cllr Fitzgerald said that he had raised the issue of tolls as an election issue seven years ago. “I couldn’t get anybody to give me support, either from Government or Opposition. I find it unbelieve able that if the revenue from tolls does not reach a certain level, the taxpayer will be dragged in to prop up poor old Eurolink. So anyone travelling from north of Kells will pay a double toll – one for travelling to and from Dublin and another in the Eurolink prop. “Surely the people of Meath can now see for themselves that what I have been saying for years is now coming to reality. The National Roads Authority (NRA) hasn’t denied any of this so it must be true,” he said. He said that the issue had now become a resigning issue for the Government and for the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey. “They should be falling on their swords for doing such a deal purportedly on behalf of the people of Ireland,” added Cllr Fitzgerald. “I also warned people that the NRA would be an unaccountable body and so it has come to pass. Nobody can question them. They seem to be able to do what they like – where’s the democracy in that?” he asked.

Ireland East MEP Nessa Childers has also waded into the row saying the agreement by the Government to compensate the M3 toll operator if traffic does not meet expectations is further evidence of the particular Fianna Fail approach to some large businesses. If the business does well, it makes large profits; if it fails, then the taxpayer foots the bill, she claimed. “The M3 deal is alarmingly similar to the Government approach to developers. When these thrive, they take the profits. When they fail, a generation of taxpayers picks up the tab. It is in the very nature of enterprise that there be risk. Under the Fianna Fail approach, there is no risk to their sort of entrepreneur, who cannot lose; only a burden on the taxpayer, who cannot win.” She said the public had a right to be fully informed of how many such pacts have been signed in their name. “The M3 deal is all the more bizarre as the State is rightly encouraging traffic off the roads through the reopening of the Navan rail line,” she said.

Meanwhile, Meath East Thomas Byrne T.D. has challenged the view that Meath drivers could face up to €11.20 a day in charges on the new M3 motorway.  “There will be two toll plazas on the M3 when completed. One south of Kells and another north of Dunboyne. Each will charge approximately €1.40. This cost is significantly below the average EU toll charge for similar projects,” he said. The Meath East TD also slammed local rumours circulating and which he claims are untrue, “such as that one must pay a toll on the N52 bypass of Kells or that you must pay two tolls if coming from the Ratoath/Fairyhouse area”.  Deputy Byrne went on: “Upon completion, the M3 motorway will be one of the largest sections of roadway ever built in the country with over 100km of new roads, nearly half of which are not part of the actual M3 but rather connections and offshoots, such as the N52 bypass of Kells and the new N51 link road from Navan towards Athboy. The public private partnership model enables delivery of these projects in a tax efficient manner,” he said. “Nobody wants tolls but the fact is that putting tolls in place allows the construction to take place of the M3 and the very important associated roads. The M3 is scheduled to be finished next year. It will take thousands of cars off the N3 every day, shorten journeys and improve the quality of life for thousands of residents in the county,” he concluded, saying that the N3 will still be open for those who do not wish to pay a toll.

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Taxpayer will foot bill if M3 toll profit falls short of target

DEAL: Contract is ‘mad’, warns TD

By Andrew Phelan

Evening Herald – Monday August 10 2009

THE public will have to pay the shortfall if traffic on the new M3 motorway fails to reach agreed targets.  The operators will be compensated by the taxpayer if income levels from tolls do not meet expectations. This is under a contract in which the National Roads Authority guaranteed a minimum income level to the company, Eurolink.  The deal was struck despite the development of a new rail service to Navan, which will take motorists off the road.  It is the latest controversy to hit the road, one of the most contentious transport projects in the history of the State.

Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan TD has described the situation as “mad”. Drivers could face tolls of up to €11.20 per day to use the motorway, which will open in early 2010.  Next year will also see the opening of the Dunboyne to Clonsilla stretch of the new railway, with the full line operational by 2015. It is understood that the guaranteed toll agreement with Eurolink is the first of its kind.

Counter

Traffic flows on the road are expected to reach 60,000 vehicles per day, but the NRA has not stated what the minimum target is.
Deputy Broughan said “It seems to be running counter to what would be generally accepted public transport policy. From every point of view it seems mad.”  The same company was not given any minimum traffic guarantee for a section of the Dublin to Galway route it operates. The NRA defended its arrangement with Eurolink, saying it needed to attract as many bidders as possible. According to the authority, the minimum traffic deal is based on annual rather than weekly or monthly levels and is “competitive”.

The M3 project has been mired in controversy because of its route through a valley close to the historic hill of Tara. It will have two toll plazas charging €2.80 each, resulting in an €11.20 daily fee for anyone commuting from north of Kells into Dublin.  The operators will make an estimated €580m over the 30-year contract. The first phase of the Navan rail line will open next year — a 7.5km stretch from the M3 interchange at Pace through to Clonsilla Station.

- Andrew Phelan

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