Purpose Of Alleviating Traffic Congestion Would Be Defeated |
"Effective privatisation of Irish roads” and a “charter for profiteering” |
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News and Star Friday November 16th 2001 By Aileen Mulhall TOLLING roads like the proposed Waterford Bypass has been condemned as the “effective privatisation of Irish roads” and a “charter for profiteering” by a representative of the Campaign for Sensible Transport. John Fitzgerald, Technical Adviser to CaST, has also warned that tolling the Waterford Bypass will have “disastrous consequences” for Waterford City because of the serious traffic congestion that will be caused by vehicles avoiding the toll charge. He argued that introducing a toll would defeat the purpose of the Waterford Bypass. He said the purpose of the N25 bypass was to facilitate the movement of traffic around Waterford in the most efficient manner possible. Imposing a toll on the second river crossing would mean that a city that was choking with traffic would continue to seriously choke with vehicles. He said data showed that traffic over Rice Bridge will grow by more than 50% within 15 years pushing volumes up to approximately 50,000 vehicles per day, compared to 33,500 per day in 2000. He said at the same time, the proposed river crossing would be operating at a fraction of its potential at only 14,000 vehicles in 20005, the year it was projected to open, and about 30,000 vehicles per day in the year 2015. “This, in our view, will have a disastrous consequence for Waterford with reference to shopping, quality of life, health and the ability to go about performing normal functions in the city. “The city is currently experiencing serious congestion. One doesn’t need to be an expert to anticipate how more serious this will become.” Mr. Fitzgerald said a fundamental part of the NRA’s philosophy underpinning tolling was that where a road was tolled that an alternative untolled road existed, albeit with lower levels of service. It was CaST’s contention that, in practical terms, no such alternative in the medium to long term will exist in Waterford because the level of congestion will be such that such a road was not practical. This was the case with the East Link and West Link tolls where, in theory, an alternative road existed but in reality it didn’t, hence 70,000 vehicles per day choked up the approaches to the West Link toll. Mr. Fitzgerald’s criticism extended to the very principle of tolling. He said the perception was there, and CaST shared it, that tolling was part of the privatisation of Ireland’s roads and based on the experience to date it appeared to be a charter for profiteering. Quoting figures published in a national newspaper, he said the value of the investments in the East Link toll bridge, which cost £8m to construct in the early 1980s and West Link toll bridge, which cost £27m, had grown more than a hundred fold over the past five years. Investors had received a massive £37.5m from the toll bridges. In 1999, National Toll Roads made a £11.6m after tax profit and last year the company made a £11.4m after tax profit, while shareholders received a 9.3% dividend last year. Mr. Fitzgerald said the Campaign for Sensible Transport was a national organisation formed in June of this year. It was comprised of representatives of groups that had difficulty with certain aspects of the motorway network that was part of the National Development Plan as well as other motorways and roads that have also recently been mooted. He said CaST had no difficulty with the concepts of road development. While CaST considered the National Roads Development Needs Study to be excessive in a number of specific respects, the organisation did agree with the principles it espoused of the provision of a minimum number of new roads and maximum utilisation being made of existing roads and bypasses of urban areas. “We would also suggest that an orgy of road building is currently taking place, which the country can ill afford and all roads not envisaged in the National Road Needs Study should be suspended forthwith.” He said CaST wanted a sustainable transport programme to be adopted with equal emphasis being placed on public transport. The organisation wanted a National Transport Authority to be set up and wanted the Board of the NRA to be replaced by a Board that was free from potential conflicts from private interests. Copyright © Waterford News and Star |