Tribune 23/8/09: Congestion charges on the way

The Irish Property Bubble (2006) The Republic of Property
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Tribune 23/8/09 lead story (not yet online) is that the Commission for Taxation have recommended the abolition of VRT and introduction of congestion charges and/or higher fuel levies in its place.
This will stabilise tax revenues and provide a much needed boost for the motor sector.

The irony of this being announced on the weekend that one of our busiest commuter railways crumbled into the sea at the peak of Friday rush hour is lost on few I suspect. Mass death avoided by a stroke of good luck.

This happening a few days after inspections were supposedly performed. International experts had previously pointed out that the stretch of railway in question was among the riskiest in the country and regular inspections by divers should have been performed.

Last week, during the inspection, they didn’t bother with the divers.
Ah sure it’s fine lads, i’ll call the missus to put the tea on and we’ll knock off early. Joe Scumbag Private Sector Worker is paying our wages after all. He’s far too busy waiting on some cancelled train after being screwed by taxes for working unpaid overtime to worry about what we’re doing.

The bigger picture consists of charges to park at train stations, ever increasing train and bus fares, poor services operated by an inefficient state monopoly and route cancellations.

Will these new measures be accompanied by new park and ride facilities on the edge of the congestion zone?
Will Dublin metro be fast tracked so our capital city’s public transport network doesn’t consist of two rail lines that fall into the sea every so often, two tram lines that don’t meet and a few buses that go on strike whenever the driver’s backs aren’t scratched?
Will we see anything like the infrastructure that London has, that utopia we are seemingly working towards?

Will Fianna Fail make a responsible decision?

Have any other cities with Dublin’s population, “congestion” and most importantly second-world public transport infrastructure, got a congestion charge?

Ah sure it will be grand lads, John Gormley will be along in a minute with a few bikes and sure that’s a grand cycle track he has goin out to his house out in Ringsend.

The appeal of emigration of grows by the day. Either that or sit back on the dole and forget all about taxes, charges, stress, overtime and risking life and sanity on our sh1tty public transport network.

[/rant]

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You forgot to mention a minister who refuses to get involved in improving the CIE services or holding them to account as they have nothing to do with him :angry:

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Ironically congestion is no where to be seen.

It was very notable after Christmas that traffic was down and staying down.

Well the planners/council conitnued with their traffic plan for college green and have actually managed to roll back the wonderful gains around the rest of the city because of te fall off in traffic in general around the peak times. Otherwise traffic is generally fab by its lack of presence on the roads.

All these plans based on bubble projections still being financed and implemented.

The bust will do more to reduce or levels of pollution by an order of magnitude than coudl any green policy hope to achieve.

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The poor private sector worker upon his cross, the bitterness of it, he who has sacrificed so much for Eire, merciful Jesus, pity him, working overtime for nothing (the fool), my poor heart is broken on his behalf, who will speak for him, who will end his awful misery, who will end his terrible exploitation? Wisha, this land is a curse on us! :laughing:

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Ah yes all we need now is the violin!!

Just on the issue of the two Luas lines not meeting…lets not forget why that happened. City Centre businesses kicked up a stink because of potential disruption building a line through the city centre would cause. They couldn’t take some short term pain for long term gain…and now they are continously whinging about it. Mary O Rourke as Minister for Transport didn’t have the bottle to stand up to them, so putting a line through the city centre was shelved.

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It’d be a bit ironic to bring in congestion charging now considering what they’ve done with Stephen’s Green and then College Green.

Congestion charging for streets you can’t actually drive on? :angry:

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They’re bringing in an asset management company for which we will pay asset taxes potentially for 10-20 years (or longer as governments tend to forget to remove taxes that are lucrative) and we have no f***ing assets and you think congestion charging is bad. :unamused:

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Get back on topic.

The topic is “congestion charging”. :unamused:

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As long as you have a government and councils who will not bother to address the problems with a city whose population has grown over the last number of decades even though they apparently commissioned some German company to help redesign the city infrastructure during the lates 60s or early 70s then you’re gonna have charges.
On the one hand charges arent bad if they help make the place better to live in and more pedestrian friendly but on the other our scumbags will use them as a means to fleece those who cant avoid them and the ignorant.
Its free money disguising itself as tax and I would bet it will be abused in this country as is the norm.
Cead mile failte.

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So to conclude, the reason the Luas doesn’t run through the city centre is because the minister for transport decided it shouldn’t.

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Nah, she was Minister for Public Enterprise at the time… We didn’t have a Minister for Transport, how’s that for joined up thinking? :laughing:

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Original article for the record
tribune.ie/news/article/2009 … place-vrt/

Workmates have commented on the number of cars being pulled over on College Green and in particular the number of foreign reg vehicles. Wonder what level of discretion is being used by the Gardai or is this another cash cow?

I wouldn’t mind paying more tax if there was something in return. After 15 years of economic boom you are risking your tyres/suspension just going to the shop. A weekend of rain and suddenly you are dealing with an army assault course.
The UK have good quality roads and no toll charges.
There is something offensive about being screwed by the government when it’s being dressed up as something in the common good - we are not that stupid.

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Evidentley, we are. We keep voting them back in.

Edit: by we I mean the " royal " we.

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Presumably there will be a host of exceptions to the congestion charging, for example:

Bus and train drivers plus related admin staff who will get the same “passes”.
Guards (plus civvy support staff)
Nurses (plus HSE support staff)
Private car driving TD’s
I could go on but cant muster the enthusiasm.

As for the rest of us, let them eat cake! 8-

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+1

The definition of madness in relation to the voting habits of Paddy an Biddy springs to mind with your post.

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Not quite the case.

The main objection is different. Consider this :

Between the St.Stephen’s Green center and the top of O’Connell Street there is currently planned :

LUAS BX to link Red and Green ] - dig up all the streets for 2 years.

Metro North : Dig up all the streets for 3 years.

Interconnector : Dig up all the streets for 3 years.

Also, BX will be largely replicated via Metro North.

Now, if BX goes up College Green, where will all the buses go ?

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Congestion charges when the transport system is broken? How does the guy from Navan get to work? The buses are full to overflowing already.

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sure take the train…Dempsey does
https://www.noeldempsey.ie/templates/noeldempsey/images/head.jpg

or maybe its this shiny new car hes getting out of
https://www.noeldempsey.ie/images/igallery/west_on_tr/large/b00001696KH0.jpg

bottom line - the minsters (including the gp) dont give a good goddam - they HAVE cars and drivers.

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It’s alright. He’s unemployed.