Toll income speeds ahead on M50 to €212m in 2024

Gordon Deegan

Toll income on the country’s busiest road, the M50, last year surged by 12 per cent to €212 million on the back of an inflation-linked increase in toll charges and higher traffic volumes.

The 2024 annual report by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) shows that the €212 million in toll income - which includes €12.5 million in penalty income - was €22 million ahead of the M50 toll income of €190 million for 2023.

The 2024 toll increase was the second inflation-linked increase across 2023 and 2024, where in 2024 cars without tags were hit by a 20c increase bringing the charge to €3.70 while cars with video accounts also increased by 20 cent to €3.10. Cars with tags also faced a 20c increase to €2.50.

Across 2023 and 2024, toll income has increased by €39.4 million from the €172.4 million collected in 2022.

The M50 is the most heavily used road in the country with close to 150,000 vehicles travelling several sections on an average day.

The report shows that 1.7bn vehicle km were travelled on the M50 last year which represents a 2pc increase on 2023.

In their joint accompanying statement to the annual report, TII chairman Gareth Llewellyn and ceo, Peter Walsh stated 68.4m tolling transactions across the country on the national road network represented a value to the State of €240m.

They state that over 2m motorists use the M50 and Dublin Tunnel toll roads each year and that last year, traffic volumes across the National Road Network continued to increase, and this growth will continue nationally into 2025.

On the performance of the M50, the report states that the Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) for the toll road was 158,733 trips, an increase of almost two per cent on the 156,028 trips for 2023.

The report states that in total, approximately 58 million passages were recorded on the toll road which is an increase of two per cent from the previous year’s total of 57 million.

On the performance of the Dublin Port Tunnel, the report states that in 2024, the AADT for the Dublin Tunnel was 26,503, reflecting a 0.8 per cent increase from 2023 total of 26,285.

The report states that throughout the year, approximately 9.7 million passages were recorded, with 65 per cent classified as ‘tollable’ traffic and 35 per cent as non-tollable.

Toll income for Dublin Tunnel amounted to approximately €32m, collected from 6.3 million passages and this represents an 18pc increase from €27 million in 2023.

In terms of the costs of operating the M50 eFlow to TII, toll collection costs, bad debt charges and local authority rates for M50 eFlow last year totalled €58 million.

The overall spend by TII last year totalled €1.76 billion that included €1.54 billlion on the road network and €174 million on light rail and metro along with administration costs of €39.8 million.

TII also oversees the operation of LUAS and patronage on Luas red and green lines continued to increase in 2024 to approximately 54million passenger journeys, representing an increase of 12 per cent on 2023.

Numbers earning over €100,000 at TII last year totalled 76. The remuneration package for TII ceo, Peter Walsh last year increased from €215,000 to €225,000. Salary costs at TII last year increased from €24.25 million to €26.15 million.