M50 toll income outpaced pre-pandemic years in 2022, TII say

Toll income on the M50 motorway jumped 23 per cent last year, underlying the recovery in traffic volumes as the pandemic ebbed and the economy reopened.

Income from tolls on the country’s busiest road rose to €172.4 million in 2022 compared to €140 million a year earlier, Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s newly published annual report states. That was higher than the pre-pandemic take of €160 million in 2019.

The report’s annual average daily traffic (AADT) for the M50 eFlow Toll shows 149,010 trips in 2022. While that was up more than a fifth on 2021, it was marginally below 2019 levels before the pandemic led to the effective shutting down of the nation. There were 54 million passages recorded on the toll road, a fifth more than 2021.

Operating the M50 eFlow cost Transport Industry Ireland (TII) about €53 million. Those costs include toll collection costs, bad debt charges and local authority rates.

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In the report TII caution that “the strong rebound in traffic volumes in 2022, and in particular, freight traffic, continues to pose a strategic risk for the M50 corridor as levels of congestion increase with the rebound in traffic volumes”.

The report shows that toll income on the Dublin Tunnel also recovered strongly, increasing by 63 per cent from €13.9 million in 2021 to €22.6 million last year.

TII spent about €1.6 billion overall during the year. That included €1.44 billion spent on the road network and €113.32 million on light rail and metro.

Numbers earning more than €100,000 at TII last year increased from 48 to 61. The remuneration package for chief executive Peter Walsh increased from €190,000 to €202,000. Salary costs at TII last year totalled €22.47 million.