M6 - Ballinasloe to Galway

ohnoigotsick

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

They envisage that a journey between Galway and the M50 in Dublin will then take less than two hours, with a total toll cost of less than €6.

are they including the M50 Toll on that ???

Almost certainly NOT! Dublin city can be reached without using the M50.

Kevin11

With Ryanair pulling load of flights out of Shannon more and more westies have to go to Dublin to get abroad.
You will be looking at over 16euro in tolls alone. Throw in fuel/parking/munchies for the journey and you have whopper of a bill.
For a person travelling solo Aer arann from Galway has to be an option.

KevR

They must think everyone in Galway is minted with all the expensive tolls they are expecting us to pay.

I think an expensive toll on the M6 will force a lot of people out of their cars and onto GoBus and City Link.

As Kevin11 said, it will be expensive to drive from Galway to Dublin Airport when you take tolls, petrol and parking into consideration. Bus will be a lot cheaper, although it will take longer because it goes to Dublin City before going to the Airport.

kaizersoze

We all know what's going to happen. Most N6 users will be happy that Ballinasloe is by-passed. So.....
Motorists, including truckers, heading east will use the old N6 to Ballinasloe and join the motorway at J15 - Ballinasloe west. Those heading west will get off at J15.

Nath

Its good to see they are putting in an express lane at the Cappataggle toll booth for cars with ETC tags, which will be interoperable with other tolls nationwide.

Kevin11

As someone who drives Galway/Bsloe every day to work I am undecided if I will use the road or not. It should save me 20mins each way. If it doesn't I will be on the old road as the 1200euro (minimum) per year toll is gonna be painful.

serfboard

I agree with all the other users that the tolls seem very expensive. However, this is road-pricing the PPP way. You want to use the good roads? You have to pay for them.

What I can't understand is the pricing strategy of the concession companies. It seems to me that the higher the price the more you will "drive" people off using the new roads. This seems to go against everything you would expect a business to do. The UK M6 toll is a very good comparison. I passed over it recently and there you have a brand-new D3M and hardly anyone on it.

Alternatively, you can toll-dodge. For the government, this will result in higher maintenance costs on the downgraded R-roads - money which they were presumably hoping to save with the motorways.

Unfortunately, I can see the government introducing road-pricing on other roads. Don't be surprised to see toll booths (or the M50 type tolling) popping up on the M9, the M11, the M18, and the Nenagh-Limerick section of the M7.

That, coupled with a carbon tax, and increasing oil prices as the rest of the world exits recession and increases their demand, will make driving very expensive and push more people onto public transport (not a bad thing necessarily - so long as the services are there). It will also push up transport costs for the economy as a whole, which will feed into our goods and services.

Chris_533976

The €6 could well include the M6, M4 and Westlink tolls. It looks more shocking for a newspaper article, I wouldnt be surprised if they massaged the figures like this.

KevR

Chris_533976 wrote: »

The €6 could well include the M6, M4 and Westlink tolls. It looks more shocking for a newspaper article, I wouldnt be surprised if they massaged the figures like this.

It's hard to know. It's a pity the article isn't more clear.

If they're counting the M50 toll as €2 (that's presuming everyone has a tag) then the M6 toll could be €2.10 (+ M4 @ €2.90 + M50 @ €2 = €6) which would be reasonable enough.

If it's €6 for just the M6 and M4 then that is too expensive and people won't pay it.

L1011

Nath wrote: »

Its good to see they are putting in an express lane at the Cappataggle toll booth for cars with ETC tags, which will be interoperable with other tolls nationwide.

I believe this is a contractual requirement rather than some niceity on the concessionaires part!

L1011

KevR wrote: »

It's hard to know. It's a pity the article isn't more clear.

If they're counting the M50 toll as €2 (that's presuming everyone has a tag) then the M6 toll could be €2.10 (+ M4 @ €2.90 + M50 @ €2 = €6) which would be reasonable enough.

If it's €6 for just the M6 and M4 then that is too expensive and people won't pay it.

Key, 2.10 + 2.90 + 2 = 7 not 6!

westtip

Kevin11 wrote: »

As someone who drives Galway/Bsloe every day to work I am undecided if I will use the road or not. It should save me 20mins each way. If it doesn't I will be on the old road as the 1200euro (minimum) per year toll is gonna be painful.

kevin this is exactly how many dublin bound commuters from westmeath already behave; I was coming west on the old N4 a few weeks back (I fancied a breakfast so decided to divert off to Mother Hubbards - saved the toll and got a breakfast for 5.99 inc an Indo, which was useful for lighting the fire later than night), but the volume of traffic at about 7.30 heading east on the old N4 astounded me - clearly commuters toll dodging - it was a Tuesday so not weekend returners. What you suggest will happen...

KevR

MYOB wrote: »

Key, 2.10 + 2.90 + 2 = 7 not 6!

:eek: I'm worse at maths than I thought!

csd

Rather than speculate, let's look at the Toll Scheme published in 2005 (viewable here). It states the toll for a car is €1.60 inc VAT in 2005 prices. These are index linked, so will have risen a bit in the intervening years.

The explanatory note states:

For information, these charges are exactly the same as those adopted by the Authority for the N8 Fermoy, N25 Waterford and M1 Drogheda Toll Schemes.

A quick look at the current tolls for the M1 Drogheda tells us that the current VAT-inclusive toll is €1.90. Furthermore, since CPI is now negative, this toll (and all the others) won't be increasing in January of this year.

Therefore the toll on the M6 should be €1.90 when it finally opens.

Hope that clears it up!

/csd

Carawaystick

'td be lower if it didn't open til Jan though....
god bless deflation
21Dec is the date in the Galway advertiser. I presume the spanish lads realised Christmas mostly in December in Ireland rather than Jan in Spain.

cjpm

csd wrote: »

Rather than speculate, let's look at the Toll Scheme published in 2005 (viewable here). It states the toll for a car is €1.60 inc VAT in 2005 prices. These are index linked, so will have risen a bit in the intervening years.

The explanatory note states:



A quick look at the current tolls for the M1 Drogheda tells us that the current VAT-inclusive toll is €1.90. Furthermore, since CPI is now negative, this toll (and all the others) won't be increasing in January of this year.

Therefore the toll on the M6 should be €1.90 when it finally opens.

Hope that clears it up!

/csd

I've been hearing strong rumours of €2.90 (Don't shoot the messanger and all that.....)


This could be due to the length of the scheme - 56km of Motorway

Compairing it to the other schemes is not realistic i think, they are vastly different projects...
e.g.
Fermoy Bypass is 17.5km
Waterford Bypass is 25km
M1 Drogheda bypass is 11km of new Motorway and 43km of existing upgraded....



From Galway city centre to the start of the next N6 scheme, the new route must be in the region of 10 miles shorter ( I'm guessing here, someone might check google maps), assuming 10c per mile fuel for a typical car that's a saving of €1.00 in fuel alone.
Add in the fact that the fuel used while travelling at a constant 120kph is a lot less than driving the existing N6 at different speeds behind trucks etc and traveling through Ballinsloe and Loughrea. (Someone might hazard a guess at the saving here??)

And add in a time saving too....

p.s. I'm not sure if this is true, but i've heard that Galway to East Ballinsloe is currently the second largest road job in construction at the moment in Europe....

murphaph

Galway-B'sloe is longer but has few significant structures. The M1 and M8 schemes mentioned both have large bridge structures and no doubt add to the overall cost somewhat.

csd

cjpm wrote: »

I've been hearing strong rumours of €2.90 (Don't shoot the messanger and all that.....)

I can't see how they can legally do that without a new Toll Scheme. The €1.90 figure is from the scheme that was officially adopted on 11.04.2006. See here.

What's the source of your rumours? Are they credible? Have they mentioned a new toll scheme? If not, then it sounds like uninformed scaremongering.

/csd

cjpm

murphaph wrote: »

Galway-B'sloe is longer but has few significant structures. The M1 and M8 schemes mentioned both have large bridge structures and no doubt add to the overall cost somewhat.

csd wrote: »

I can't see how they can legally do that without a new Toll Scheme. The €1.90 figure is from the scheme that was officially adopted on 11.04.2006. See here.

What's the source of your rumours? Are they credible? Have they mentioned a new toll scheme? If not, then it sounds like uninformed scaremongering.

/csd

It might not have a massive structure (although the Suck bridge is pretty big), but you forget the fact that when it's a longer scheme it means a lot more 2 span overbridges, underbridges, 3 rail bridges, riverbridges, culverts - the costs add up...
And a link road to Loughrea too...

It wasn't cheap to build and some of the land on the eastern side is pretty tough terrain for roadbuilding, soft ground, not ideal. Plus the costs would have been estimated before the economy went belly up. That's why i believed the €2.90 story when i heard it. Time will tell.

CrowdedHouse

Folks,
Is the link road to Loughrea built and will it be open with the rest ?
(I travel Roscrea to Oranmore regularly,not sure if the M6 will make much odds to me)

csd

Folks,

I emailed the NRA asking what the toll would be. The answer arrived today: €1.90.

/csd

antoobrien

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Folks,
Is the link road to Loughrea built and will it be open with the rest ?
(I travel Roscrea to Oranmore regularly,not sure if the M6 will make much odds to me)

From what I can tell passing the roundabout on the Loughrea bypass where it will end, it looks like this link road is nearly (if not actually) complete and will be opened with the rest of the scheme.

antoobrien

KevR wrote: »

Just a side-note: was out around Briarhill/Ballybrit/Doughiska last night and noticed a few cable traffic counters around the place.

This is part of a weeklong traffic survey run by the city council to they can gather info on traffic movements (see Tuesday's Sentinel). Should help with planning funding etc, however (supposedly) not directly linked to the motorway.

two quotes:
"this is really useful information in terms of taking long term decision in relation to traffic management"

"the establishment of such a base of factual data on traffic would also be very important in terms of the City Council’s application for capital grant aid for future transportation and traffic management project"

ManFromAtlantis

might be just local goss but heard two people tell me it was opening the 8th / or 12th dec ????

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

might be just local goss but heard two people tell me it was opening the 8th / or 12th dec ????

It's opening on Monday, December 21st according to the Galway Independant...

http://www.galwayindependent.com/loc...ng-for-new-m6/

tubos

closing date for applications for toll operators is Monday!

L1011

Joey Joe-Joe Jr wrote: »

It's opening on Monday, December 21st according to the Galway Independant...

http://www.galwayindependent.com/loc...ng-for-new-m6/

That means that my hope that yesterday was my last time on the old road to Athenry is probably very forelorn then

kaizersoze

A bit more road porn for ye.
Apologies for the pi$$ poor quality but you get the idea....:)

Ballynaglogh overbridge looking east.

Ballynaglogh overbridge looking west towards toll plaza. Looks nearly ready for business.


Gortnahoon overbridge looking east at toll plaza.

Gortnahoon overbridge looking west.


Ballymabilla overbridge looking east.

Ballymabilla overbridge looking west.


Treanbaun overbridge looking east. One of the 4 feature bridges.

Treanbaun overbridge looking west.

kaizersoze

Toll plaza.


Treanbaun feature bridge from mainline.

darkman2

kaizersoze wrote: »

They used the wrong shade of yellow for the hard shoulder - but I do like the brightlyness;)