Dodging the motorway toll will save you enough for annual tax and insurance

Motorists travelling between Galway and Ballinasloe are saving almost €1,000 a year by avoiding the toll plaza in Cappataggle – this equates to the cost of their annual motor tax and insurance.

Every day hundreds of motorists are exiting the motorway at Loughrea and avoiding the €1.90 toll because they feel that it is much too expensive.

They then rejoin the motorway in Ballinasloe while using the old N6 in between. It means that the toll plaza is not making money.

It has been revealed that traffic volumes passing through the toll plaza are some 6,000 less per day that was expected by the operators.

N6 Concession, which operates the M6 motorway, wants to toll ramps to capture motorists avoiding the toll at Cappataggle by exiting the motorway near Loughrea.

However, Minister Leo Varadkar has come out against such a proposal and said that there would be no tolls on the roads leading away from the motorway.

The National Roads Authority are also opposed to any extra charges being imposed on motorists.

But it has been learned by The Connacht Tribune that workers living in Oranmore and travelling to Ballinasloe to their jobs are saving €912 every year by avoiding the toll at Cappataggle.

They are leaving the motorway and hitting the Loughrea bypass and then continuing along the old N6 through Aughrim and Kilrickle before rejoining the motorway at Ballinasloe. And the drivers of heavy vehicles are doing the same because it would cost them even more in toll charges.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.