Dublin Port Tunnel makes €5m losses

OPERATORS of Dublin Port Tunnel are making a loss of €5 million a year, despite a 10% rise in traffic.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) said the financial loss does not take into account the estimated “hundreds of millions” earned by diverting heavy goods vehicles off the streets of Dublin and the transport benefits to the export and financial sectors.

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) do not pay tolls.

On the fifth anniversary of the tunnel, the NRA said the annual number of vehicles using it should break the five million mark for the first time this year.

“The operating cost of running the tunnel is €15m and the toll revenue is €10m, so we’re making a loss of €5m,” said NRA spokesman Sean O’Neill.

But he said the “macro benefits” ran to hundreds of millions of euro.

He said traffic numbers were up 10% on last year, the highest to date. He said this was due to more HGVs, thanks to export growth, as well as more cars using the tunnel.

Mr O’Neill said their contract with EGIS Road Tunnel Operation — the Irish arm of a global firm — was up in 2013 and they will maximise the value of the service to the taxpayer in negotiating a new contract.

But he pointed out that there was no link between revenue and safety and that they will “not compromise on safety”.

According to EGIS chief operations officer Alex Young, they have not had a fatality or serious injury in the tunnel in the five years.

Speaking at the NRA Operations Control Centre in Dublin, Mr Young said the tunnel passed the 20-million vehicle mark last April and that traffic numbers should exceed five million this year.

The centre monitors and controls everything at the tunnel, which carries about 15,000 vehicles daily.

It also monitors the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, which is used by 68,000 vehicles, on average, daily.

There is no toll for the Jack Lynch Tunnel and Mr O’Neill said that the Government had recently indicated no tolls were currently planned.

* www.nratraffic.ie