TOLL CHARGES in the Dublin Port Tunnel can not be lowered as part of the emergency measures to assist displaced northern line rail commuters because it is against public policy to encourage car commuters to use the Port Tunnel, it has emerged.
Some 20,000 commuter journeys per day, divided evenly in terms of journeys into and out of the city centre, are being replaced on an emergency basis by road-based public transport, following the collapse of the Broadmeadow railway viaduct at the end of last month.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) said that it had suspended its timetable for works on the airport M1/M50 junction to facilitate the road transport effort to get commuters in and out of the city centre from the northern suburbs.
But a new traffic committee involving representatives from An Garda Síochána, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Dublin City and Fingal local authorities, as well as the NRA, has decided that toll charges for private cars – which are as high as €24 per day – must remain in place.
NRA spokesman Sean O’Neill said the traffic committee had overseen the mobilisation of commuters by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and private operators and included a special service between Drogheda station and Dublin city centre which utilised the Dublin Port Tunnel.
Mr O’Neill said the committee believed the mobilisation was going well and it would not be possible to distinguish between genuinely affected commuters and those from the northern suburbs who would “get into bad habits” by bringing their cars into the city centre through the tunnel.
This is despite an assertion from Labour Party Transport Spokesman Tommy Broughan that “a number of Balbriggan-based commuters have informed me that it is extremely difficult to get home to Balbriggan during off-peak times”.
Mr Broughan called on the Department of Transport to sanction an additional route for buses through the Dublin Port Tunnel to help efforts.
The refusal to reduce the toll from the peak charge of €12 per single journey to €3 will disappoint Labour Senator Brendan Ryan, who called for the move, arguing that many rail commuters are using their cars instead of the additional services that have been put in place.
“The €3 charge I am suggesting is not a new charge but is the charge that currently applies at weekends and after 10pm,” said Mr Ryan.
