"Dublin Underground"

Yixian

I've been trying to get my head around the seemingly independent plans for Metro North, Metro West and the DART Underground. It's been confirmed now that despite the recession all 3 projects will go ahead, probably on time, and that means they should all be complete by 2015.

As a frequent visitor to Dublin, someone who plans to move there, and someone who has spent a lot (too much) time in London, overall I think this is all a big positive for the city. Metros simply are the best inner city form of transport, although trams are great too, and thankfully both will be interconnected via. DART Underground.

As in many other cities with subways, the "Dublin Underground" seems to be coming together as "common idea" made up of three seperate parts; Metro North, Metro West and the DART Underground aka. the Interconnector.

Here's a map to show you how these three lines will cover the city centre:



It's not quite ideal, in my opinion the DART Underground should have really been the "Circle Line" to the North and West lines, hooking back into Northside with a station in Smithfield to help with the regeneration of that area. Also I cannot understand why there isn't a Temple Bar station, this is quite literally madness, it would be perfect for tourists, ferrying them to and from their hotels in drunken hazes, keeping them off the streets.

Still, it's pretty good, it covers a lot of the main attractions, and it really has to because tourism is going to be more and more important to the city as time goes on.

You've got the O2 concert arena and the Point Village and Spencer Dock city quarters covered via. the Docklands station; St Stephen's Green park and Stephen's Green Shopping Centre via. St Stephen's Green station; Clerys department store, the GPO and the Spire on O'Connell Street via. O'Connell Street station; Dublin Writers Museum and the Garden of Remembrance via. Parnell Square station; Trinity College and College Green via. Pearse Street station; Guinness Storehouse and Pheonix Park via. Heuston Station.

Like I say I wish there had been double the number of DART Underground stations, but I guess this will have to do.

Both metro lines and the DART underground will be covered by the new Oyster/Octopus style smartcard, which will be up and running by the time they all finish.

I am assuming that as with the London Underground and Prague Metro, despite this all consisting of three different projects, to the public it will simply be one big unified "Dublin Metro" with one tube map and one logo.

Anyway hope that helps clear some stuff up for you guys like it did me!

Riskymove

Dublin city centre is not really that big to have many more stops

the Christchurch station (depending on exactly where it is located) would be a stop for temple bar

you are missing the west to south dartline from your diagram

Yixian

Riskymove wrote: »

Dublin city centre is not really that big to have many more stops

the Christchurch station (depending on exactly where it is located) would be a stop for temple bar

you are missing the west to south dartline from your diagram

This is just a map of the Metro lines and the underground portion of the DART.

Dublin city centre might not be huge but I still think the interconnector should loop round at Heuston station and either terminate at Broadstone station or link up with the metro at OCS Bridge station and continue on with a stop at the IFSC and the National College of Ireland on the way to the Docklands station.

Christchurch isn't far but the distance between CC and Temple Bar is greater than the distance between many London tube stations, it's just convenience - but yeah it's not too bad.

sillymoo

Its a pity there is no stop for Beaumont Hospital. Its the second largest hospital in the country and the public transport out there is terrible.

admiralofthefleet

sillymoo wrote: »

Its a pity there is no stop for Beaumont Hospital. Its the second largest hospital in the country and the public transport out there is terrible.

yeah, its hell sometimes trying to get there. the nearest metro stop will be either dcu or griffith ave.

JuliusCaesar

Here's the Dublin Transport Authority map.

Yixian

sillymoo wrote: »

Its a pity there is no stop for Beaumont Hospital. Its the second largest hospital in the country and the public transport out there is terrible.

Yeah I really don't know why the interconnecter doesn't cover more ground tbh..

Dublin is obviously growing in population and size very quickly, if they don't do it now they're only going to have to do it later on, like London.

Show_me_Safety

i don't understand why south central dublin is left pretty much untouched!?

templeogue, knocklyon, rathfarnham, terenure and many others!

Bluetonic

sillymoo wrote: »

Its a pity there is no stop for Beaumont Hospital. Its the second largest hospital in the country and the public transport out there is terrible.

Why would there be a stop when it doesn't go near Beaumont?

Show_me_Safety wrote: »

i don't understand why south central dublin is left pretty much untouched!?

templeogue, knocklyon, rathfarnham, terenure and many others!

LUAS line E will cover some of this area, it all can't be rolled out together.

Some of Dublin South Central is already served by the red line LUAS.

jdivision

Metro west won't happen for decades if at all

Victor

Show_me_Safety wrote: »

i don't understand why south central dublin is left pretty much untouched!?

templeogue, knocklyon, rathfarnham, terenure and many others!

That may is only for TRansport 21, that is up to 2015. Ther eis the possibility of a Tallght-City Centre line.

In the meantime, for modest money, you could put a proper QBC from Christchurch to Terenure for probably €25m.

jdivision wrote: »

Metro west won't happen for decades if at all

They could do it in stages by building the Liffey Bridge first and running a QBC from Tallght to Blanchardstown.

admiralofthefleet

Victor wrote: »

That may is only for TRansport 21, that is up to 2015. Ther eis the possibility of a Tallght-City Centre line.

In the meantime, for modest money, you could put a proper QBC from Christchurch to Terenure for probably €25m.
They could do it in stages by building the Liffey Bridge first and running a QBC from Tallght to Blanchardstown.

could the build a dedicated busway along the side of the M50 that only buses can use?

GerardKeating

Show_me_Safety wrote: »

i don't understand why south central dublin is left pretty much untouched!?

templeogue, knocklyon, rathfarnham, terenure and many others!

"Metro South" was planned to cover that area, but seems to have disappeared from the agenda.

Yixian

jdivision wrote: »

Metro west won't happen for decades if at all

West is way out of town anyway so at least in terms of the city centre that won't have an effect. West will probably not even be underground mostly.

admiralofthefleet

GerardKeating wrote: »

"Metro South" was planned to cover that area, but seems to have disappeared from the agenda.

any links?

Victor

See here: http://www.dto.ie/platform1.pdf

Yixian

I'm trying to figure out whether or not the interconnector, Metro West and North will all come under a single brand as "Dublin Metro" or "Dublin Underground" or whatever.

Otherwise "take the metro to pearse street" becomes "take the interconnector to OCS and from there take metro north to Pearse Street"

Even the Luas could be branded into it. After all M West will look pretty much like a tram..

Then this map, without the green, could be the Dublin "tube map":



Here's a mockup of OCS station:



And SSG terminus:



Still think the interconnector should be a circle line...... the inner city northside is almost completely neglected...

I reckon the DART would get a repaint too, a la Dublin Bus (which was a great job imo).

stop

Interesting that the Large Map neglects most of the Red Line stops.. Not glamorous enough from a marketing perspective perhaps?

Yixian

The final map available in stations is going to have to have absolutely everything on it for sure.

Victor

Yixian wrote: »

Here's a mockup of OCS station:

Thats not the station being built. The proposed station is at O'Connell Bridge.

stop wrote: »

Interesting that the Large Map neglects most of the Red Line stops.. Not glamorous enough from a marketing perspective perhaps?

Nah, its not an Irish rail product so they aren't advertising it / can't be bothered.

Yixian

Found this on the RPA site:

RPA is liaising closely with Iarnród Éireann to ensure an integrated design for the Metro and Interconnector stations.

Marvellous! This is a good sign that the MN and DARTu will be presented to the city as "Dublin Underground/Subway/Metro" whatever. Possibly along with the Luas under Transport for Dublin?: http://www.transportfordublin.ie/

I expect ^that site to become a lot like this one when it all launches.

Not only this but it looks like... um... Metro West is going ahead o_O

http://www.rpa.ie/en/news/Pages/MetroWestDesignUpdateNo2.aspx

^ New update from the 10th of December...

Well I never!

EDIT:

Yet more goodies I haven't seen anyone else post:

Griffith Ave stop design





DCU stop



Obviously the SSG and Parnell Sq and OCS stops are the ones we really want to see, but still, exciting!

Trying to find any design of Interconnector stops, being city centre those will obviously be more exciting.

GerardKeating

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

any links?

Nope, but i just found this graphic on an old PC which shows it... It runs overground from Tallaght to Kimmage and underground to the Stephen's Green.


The file is called "platforcha.jpg" so i assume it same from the DTO Site.

gavinob999

what about underground to templeouge and knocklyon area that connects to the city, bray, blanch, liffey valley etc

Lapin

gavinob999 wrote: »

what about underground to templeouge and knocklyon area that connects to the city, bray, blanch, liffey valley etc

About as much chance as any of the rest of it happening in the next ten years.

Zilch.

Panline

Yixian wrote: »

I've been trying to get my head around the seemingly independent plans for Metro North, Metro West and the DART Underground. It's been confirmed now that despite the recession all 3 projects will go ahead, probably on time, and that means they should all be complete by 2015.

That would have been nice.

fleet_admiral

Show_me_Safety wrote: »

i don't understand why south central dublin is left pretty much untouched!?

templeogue, knocklyon, rathfarnham, terenure and many others!

the serious public transport deficit on the northside needs to be addressed first.

cgcsb

to clarify DART will not adopt metro branding. The DART (including future underground elements) is a heavy rail commuter line which is designed to connect commuter towns to city centre stations, it is/will be similar to French RER or German Schnell Bahnen which operate as separate brands from the metro and untergrund bahn respectively. Dublin's metro will be a light rail system virtually identical to the existing luas system but with complete grade separation.

Metro West is designed to be almost entirely over ground. The government are currently not keen on metro west, it's very low priority for capital investment while DART underground is top dog for investment right now.

Re south central Dublin Luas line E was found to be a non runner the lack of a clear alignment that wouldn't involve sharing road space with cars is a major problem. An extension of metro North to Rathmines, Rathgar Templeogue etc. will probably come up as the most logical option. Indeed the current designs for metro north allow for a southward extension. However that's a long way into the future, DART u and Metro N are unlikely to be completed before 2022, and only then will new lines be considered.

P.S only now realise how old the posts on this thread are.

i dont understand why they dont brand the metro's as 'luas' if there the same thing really is there something im missing there?

seems strange that such a small ciity could potentially have a dart,dart underground,luas,metro not to mention other IR brands.

Hootanany

Should be a Monorail from CC to Airport allow Traffic to move freely.

cgcsb

aaronc182 wrote: »

i dont understand why they dont brand the metro's as 'luas' if there the same thing really is there something im missing there?

seems strange that such a small ciity could potentially have a dart,dart underground,luas,metro not to mention other IR brands.

dart underground will operate as dart. Its not really that many 3 infact

Ben D Bus

aaronc182 wrote: »

i dont understand why they dont brand the metro's as 'luas' if there the same thing really is there something im missing there?

seems strange that such a small ciity could potentially have a dart,dart underground,luas,metro not to mention other IR brands.

Instead of common branding, common numbering could suffice, similar to S-bahn, U-bahn etc.

We could have D1, D2, L1, L2, M1 and so on. So DART, Luas & Metro brands could still continue.