Removing Irish toll barriers will save fuel, reduce travel times, and cut emissions

Forcing traffic to stop at toll booths across Ireland is costing millions in wasted diesel, causing traffic delays and minor accidents, and generating thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions for Ireland annually.

EU Transport Committee MEP, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, has described it as archaic that we continue to force trucks, buses, and cars to stop, queue and pay at our toll booths every single day. The Transport Committee MEP said we are behind our EU counterparts who are moving to free flow toll systems – something we only have on the M50.  She cited the A13–A14 motorway corridor between Paris and Normandy as a recent French example of a primary motorway in France that has completely removed barriers from the motorway – instead opting for tag and remote payment.

Ending toll barriers save fuel, reduce travel times, cut emissions

She described toll booths as outdated concepts that cause traffic delays, minor accidents, millions of euros in wasted diesel and millions of tonnes of carbon emissions because traffic has to queue, stop, start, and idle at our toll booths.

After meeting the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), the MEP said toll booth stops are costing €26 million in wasted diesel each year for HGVs alone. Each HGV stop-start burns up to two litres of fuel—around 5.08kg of CO—and with 24,264 HGVs passing our toll booths daily, this amounts to roughly 45,000 tonnes of emissions annually – from heavy goods vehicles alone!

Ní Mhurchú says she is open to proposing legislation at EU level, in the EU Transport Committee, that would require EU authorities to ensure “free-flow” tolling within a reasonable timeframe.

She described the benefits of free moving traffic as obvious,

“Millions of cars, buses, and HGVs stop at our toll booths every year, causing minor accidents, inconvenience, traffic delays, wasted fuel costs and generating millions in carbon emissions.  We must work with our toll operators to move towards barrier free tolling, as we have on the M50. Traffic should be allowed to move freely through our toll points without stopping – either paying with a tag or through a website”

Ní Mhurchú described toll plazas as a safety hazard as drivers get distracted rummaging for coins or bank cards to tap, seeking receipts for expenses records and changing lanes at the last minute.  She cited the warnings of a coroner in Cork around the dangers that toll plazas pose to motorists following a fatal accident at a Cork toll plaza in 2012.

Ní Mhurchú has written to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) raising the issue of free-flowing toll plazas and said she will work with her colleagues in Brussels to push for EU wide legislation if necessary.

Ní Mhurchú described the measure as ‘low hanging fruit’ that our state agencies could reform as part of a wider effort to reduce the cost base of our transport industry and reduce inefficiencies that are preventing us from reaching our climate targets.

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