Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

LambshankRedemption

they're not rural train stations.

What rural stations have you been in? Any Ive been in were practically designed against people spending time in.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888777#Comment_121888777

Yes, clearly it's a decent well-serviced area.

I guess I just find people are sometimes wary of going outside the station building - they want to keep an eye on the message boards, hear platform announcements, may not want to cart luggage onto the street etc. It's why train stations (UK/Europe) tend to have multiple eat/drink facilities onsite, despite there also being such places just outside the station building as well.

I take your point about the Metrolink stations not being designed that way - Glasnevin just seems a somewhat logical exception.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888228#Comment_121888228

I'd say that most of them are up on the websites, not just the Metrolinkro site, but the previous ones too, from the consultations.

They're probably just on the RO site though, there's plenty of docs up there with updated visuals, and more keep being added. Just today, they've added a lovely doc looking at the design and architecture of the Mater and SSG stops.

PowerPoint Presentation (metrolink.ie)

JohnnyChimpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888809#Comment_121888809

yeah, fair point...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888825#Comment_121888825

It's just not really what I think of as a Metro station. Obviously there's no real reason it couldn't have incorporated more retail, but the station designs are quite minimal to keep costs and impact down. As someone else said, there'll be some modest pass-through retail in there, so nothing stopping people getting a bad vending-machine coffee and sitting on a hard bench for an hour if they're happier that way!

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888833#Comment_121888833

Theres one been uploaded for Glanevin today as well

https://downloads.metrolink.ie/oh/Oral%20Hearing%20Station%20Architecture%20Glasnevin%20Presentation.pdf

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888825#Comment_121888825

if people are coming from the airport, they should be able to see that there's going to be a long wait for their train and maybe wait around the airport until closer to the time. There'll be a metro every 5 mins at least and it's only 10 mins from there to Glasnevin Cross Guns Brian Boru.

MJohnston

Metrolink will be so frequent that I think the wariness about when the next train will be will just not be there

Consonata

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888748#Comment_121888748

You can be sure The Bernard Shaw will be making a small fortune.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889228#Comment_121889228

True, though I think folks are talking about the opposite direction, waiting for a train.

Having said that, I don't think there will be much of a wait for a DART+ train either. They will be like every 10 minutes. It is only the less frequent trains like the Sligo train that might be an issue. Certainly wouldn't impact most people.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889071#Comment_121889071

True, though if it was a long wait, I'd think I'd rather spend the time in Glasnevin, it is a lovely area and lots of nice food places there. Much nicer then spending your time in any airport or train station IMO. Just keep an eye on the realtime app.

prunudo

I look forward to the day when this thread will be filled with, "how long will i be waiting for my connection at -insert station name- be?"

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888748#Comment_121888748

Why would there be any of those things? The station will only serve train routes with a sub 10 minute frequency and metro trams with a 3 minute frequency and city bus routes with sub 5 minute frequency, perhaps some long distance buses will stop there. The only possible intercity service is Dublin-Sligo every 2 hours and there's presently no plans to stop sligo trains there although it makes sense.

On the topic of long distance buses I think metrolink may well rip the arse out that market considering the amount of intercity bus services that serve Dublin city and Airport. Passengers would be much quicker changing at the airport than any coach service.

Consonata

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889403#Comment_121889403

I'm assuming that they will stop Sligo trains in Glasnevin instead of what's currently done in Drumcondra right? Hopefully not both.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889499#Comment_121889499

We have not even got close to planning for stopping patterns - that won't happen for quite some time.

bk

On the topic of long distance buses I think metrolink may well rip the arse out that market considering the amount of intercity bus services that serve Dublin city and Airport. Passengers would be much quicker changing at the airport than any coach service.

Airports around the world have both coaches, metros, buses and trains.

I've often taken coaches to the Airport in cities that also had Metro's serving the same route. There is just something about being able to stick your bag under the bus, take your seat and have a relaxing ride to the airport versus trying to squeeze onto an overcrowded Metro with your bags.

It will certainly be a challenge for them, but I'd say they will be relatively okay. I'd say it will be a bigger challenge for the 16/A2 and Airlink if it returns.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889635#Comment_121889635

I think they more mean the intercity routes than Aircoachs 700 and Dublin Express. It would probably make more sense for these to just terminate at the Airport and passengers to connect to the Metro as opposed to serving the city centre. Especially if a purpose built coach station is built at the airport.

The 16/A2 would still serve areas unserved by the Metro and possibly could be rerouted to avoid duplicating the Metro route.

VonLuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888748#Comment_121888748

There seems to be a cafe planned at least. The drawings also note a "community area/space" on two levels. It's not clear what that means exactly, but they did say in their presentation that there would be a "Generous south facing public plaza opening onto the Royal Canal Greenway activated with commercial and community amenity opportunity."

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891104#Comment_121891104

I believe that's where they want a kinda museum space, probably where they'd include the signage from Hedigan's, history of the area and railroad, that kind of thing. A smart idea to have included from the start, means that a lot of the foreseeable complaints about this could be headed off.

CatInABox

With the OPW withdrawing from today and being rescheduled to next Tuesday, there's no hearings scheduled for today. Next day is actually next Tuesday, so I guess we'll just have to get into a pedantic argument about some meaningless aspect of Metrolink.

I think that the seats provided in the stations don't met the standard required, and there's been no environmental impact assessment done to include the methane emissions from passengers that ate too much Mexican beans in Eatyard, so the entire project should be cancelled and sent back to the drawing board.

That's a good start.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890736#Comment_121890736

I was talking about both the intercity coach services as well as the basic Dublin City to airport services.

I don’t see Metrolink on its own changing much in terms of IC. You have either the option of getting a coach direct from Cork all the way to the door of Dublin airport versus getting the train towards Hueston, have to drag your bags off the train and onto a potentially crowded dart, then drag them off again and onto a crowded Metrolink. And all for a similar journey time. I’d see many people continuing to choose the coach option as it would be less trouble and probably cheaper.

Now if you mean once they electrify the Cork line and implement 200km/h running, yeah, then with a faster journey time, it would be much more of a challenge.

But when 200km/h running happens, I fully expect Irish Rail to increase their fares greatly! The current attractive web fares will go away and you will be back to paying probably €80+ tickets. The only reason IR have cheap tickets at the moment is because they have to directly compete with the coaches as they have a similar or slower journey time. But if IR have a much faster journey time then they can differentiate based on that and charge higher fares. The coaches would likely to continue and survive as the cheap option.

I agree though that we are likely to see more Eireagle type services, services that skip Dublin City and go direct to the airport. The direct Cork to Dublin Airport service takes just 3 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think it will force changes in services, maybe even consolidation of companies (already happening GoBus/Citylink), but I don’t believe it would wipe them out.

jd

Trinity drop objection

'Trinity College Dublin has dropped its opposition to Metrolink after coming to an agreement on how to mitigate the effects of the line travelling under its campus.

The Business Post previously reported   that Trinity had objected to the proposed route, citing the potential disruption to “sensitive” scientific equipment on its campus, such as MRI machines.

A spokeswoman for the university confirmed that it had decided to drop its opposition to the route.

“Trinity College Dublin supports the Metrolink project. It has reached an agreement with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on the issues raised in its recent submission in respect of the Draft Railway Order Application made by TII." '

https://www.businesspost.ie/news/trinity-college-drops-opposition-to-metrolink-after-agreement-with-transport-infrastructure-irelan/

cgcsb

If Sligo services are stopping at Glasnevin/Boru Station there's going to have to be at least some improved connection to the more major intercity trains, at the very least Cork and Galway intercities should stop at Hazelhatch to allow people get the DART to Glasnevin and change to metro, the alternative being a treck from heuston to heuston west or wedge yourself onto red line luas all the way to OCS/Abbey, treck up to OCS metro and out that way.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890736#Comment_121890736

Aircoach are exiting the Dublin/Galway route.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891320#Comment_121891320

It's amazing how insensitive MRI machines become in the presence of some brown envelopes.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891615#Comment_121891615

Absolutely I'm assuming that the Cork/Galway IC's will stop at one of the DART+ stations before Heuston. It would be a crazy missed opportunity if it doesn't.

But I don't think it would kill IC coaches. Galway Eireagle service, Galway direct to Dublin Airport in 2 hours, versus 2h20 minutes to 2h40 minutes just for the train, then a DART and then a Metrolink. I think the coach services will continue to be fine, it is when 200km/h running + electrification + DU come that there might be real competition.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891320#Comment_121891320

That was the biggest, kinda weird question that came out of Module 1, as there was absolutely no news at all on the day that they were to speak. Presumably they cancelled because they were deep in negotiation on how many brown envelopes what kind of mitigation should be used, but it's great to get proper confirmation that they now support it.

Again, extremely impressive of TII to solve as many issues as possible before/at these hearings. It actually has a bearing on how ABP will view the rest of the submissions too, as TII is clearly open to negotiation and consultation. ABP would take a very dim view of it of TII basically came out and said "this is our plan, and that's it."

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891688#Comment_121891688

I live in Galway but travel to Dublin for work. I nearly always use the bus. Usually the multistop, but the direct is streets ahead of the train. The multistop takes a bit longer but is much more comfortable. And both involve much less walking, nice when bringing bags.

cgcsb

200kmh on the Dublin-Cork route and some Double track on Dublin-Galway would likely clean up a lot of the private coach operators unless they can offer hyper discount tickets like mega bus in the UK, which does £5 intercity trips, would appeal more to students and low income though, most people are happy enough paying 30ish for trains especially if they're very quick.

Dublins bus lanes are congested with coaches in many areas because of the crap long distance rail options, there should be more room on the streets for city buses. Which we continue to depend on for the vast majority of commutes.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889032#Comment_121889032

Never realised mount joy prison takes up so much prime real estate!

Could fit a lot of apartments there.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121892227#Comment_121892227

That is the thing though, once IR get 200km/h going and have a speed advantage you can kiss good bye to the 30ish rail fares. They will return to the days of charging €80 or more for rail tickets. That will leave plenty of space for more affordable coach services.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891859#Comment_121891859

Yes, me too on the Cork to Dublin route. Much prefer the couch, much more relaxing IME.

cgcsb

Fares are set by the NTA, they'd have no reason to increase them especially with greater funding available and increased patronage.