Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

shoegirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121946061#Comment_121946061

He's not the only person peddling the ridiculous, amateurish "Newtown Plan." ACRA and Dublin Chamber push it too. And it is properly insane. The guy's a retired bus driver, that's his level of "expertise." And I'd hazard a guess this "solution" is one designed down the pub with the likes of McCarthy and McDonald on the back of a serviette.

gjim

Reminds me, indirectly, of that daft McGuckian plan for Dublin from a few decades back which similarly attracted the support of the gullible and ignorant (of how public transport is supposed to work), the odd opposition politician and a few NGO type bodies which should have known better.

I don't recall all of the details but McGuckian's "genius" was to ignore conventional radial/orbital thinking about public transport routes - I mean who wants to travel in a boring straight line on their daily commute? Instead, Dublin was to be the proud host of the world's first PT system designed around a figure-of-8 rail loop.

Like our man above, he had no engineering background at all.

Sam Russell

Mod: Can we forget the Newtown attempts at scrapping this plan to replace this project with an ex-bus driver's vision of public transport service.

If you must discuss this nonsense, do it in another thread or, better still, another forum

spacetweek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000278#Comment_122000278

The way the article is written, it might have been Mr. Truscott from John Laing who said "from the city to Malahide". So maybe not the journalist's fault, but it should have been corrected by the journalist anyway.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024130#Comment_122024130

I like the sound of this figure 8 loop idea. Lets resurrect that.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122026996#Comment_122026996

@Citizen Six

Mod: You can resurrect it anywhere you like but not here, and preferably in another forum altogether.

spacetweek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122001506#Comment_122001506

Right at the end of the article:

"it is expected that a decision on planning permission will be granted within the next 6 months."

I'd need a better source than Dublin People, but that's good news nonetheless.

CatInABox

TII are showing off the stations in VR now.

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/metrolink-i-had-a-sneak-peak-at-the-proposed-stations-via-virtual-reality-headset/a1706697829.html

Ronald Binge Redux

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024130#Comment_122024130

Brian Guckian. At least have the decency to get his name right if you are going to insult him.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057515210/brian-guckian-rip

MJohnston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122033126#Comment_122033126

Wish they'd make this open to home viewing!

Qrt

I'm just realised that there is only one planned P+R planned for all of the route, seems like one on the M50 at Northwood or Dardistown is a missed opportunity. I'm sure many from the M2/M3 would use a P+R to get into town, but driving all the way to north of Swords is a long way out.

gjim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122033268#Comment_122033268

I didn't know he had passed away. RIP.

Btw, I said his plan was daft not that he was daft. There's a difference - I don't believe ideas deserve decency - people do.

jumpinsheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122033126#Comment_122033126

Finally a clearer rendering of what can potentially be built in place of College Gate and Ashford house, than the screenshot I took from their video in Vimeo a while ago:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119324035#Comment_119324035

Someone will profit big time with those suggested developments in the rendering, once existing building are CPO'ed; TII should share more details about what the plan is, as they'll most likely profit as well (as I understood that TII will become the owner of the CPO'ed land).

Strange that only one of those two building is high rise, the one of the left looks like 10 storeys and College Gate is 6

spillit67

Any logic to holding that space in anticipation of further Metro lines and / or the DART+ Tunnel?

CatInABox

Yet another letter to the editor about Metrolink, with loads of misconceptions about how rail operates.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/05/07/metrolink-its-time-for-a-rethink/#:~:text=Transport%20officials%20did%20not%20point,%2C%20News%2C%20May%203rd).

Apparently we should cancel Metrolink because it's not interoperable with Luas or Dart… Ironically, that's something that I'd consider a plus point 😂

AlmightyCushion

MetroLink, if built, will be not be part of a network, as it will be completely separate to any other rail-based service

I hate this nonsense. If Metrolink used the same trams as the Luas does but everything else was the same, why would that make it a network? It is such a stupid think to criticise it for.

He says we need to copy Zurich and have more on street trams. I agree we need more Luas and more of everything really but the on street running of the Luas absolutely kills it. It slows it down massively at points. The Metro will be quicker and higher capacity than an on street Luas version of it.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106410#Comment_122106410

It's a "common sense" opinion that shows how zero to a little knowledge can be a disaster. Same with Duncan Stewart, it sounds common sense that the Dart should be able to go to the airport, but that kind of idea requires ignorance of all the restraints and problems that it'd cause and run into.

It's frustrating to hear this kind of stuff over and over, while TII and the NTA sit passively. They really should have a quick FAQ page that deals with all of this in simple, laymans terms: "Yes, we can easily run the dart out to Airport, but due to constraints on the line from HJ to Connolly, we wouldn't be able to run a useful service on it, and in fact it'd make the problem worse for every other service on that line."

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106410#Comment_122106410

Or even a Luas version of Metrolink underground.

This is just plain daft. The Luas is not interoperable with buses, coaches, cars, airplanes, or TVG trains or anything.

Luas is not even interoperable with the other Luas line except for a maintenance link that requires trams to change direction so cannot carry passengers.

What a plonker.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106445#Comment_122106445

To be honest the FAQ would not make a difference. These eejits will still throw out this rubbish. The papers should know what they are doing and not publish absolute nonsense like this. If he was saying we should scrap Metrolink and replace it with a load of magic carpets that will fly us to our destination, they wouldn't publish it.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106410#Comment_122106410

The author of the article conveniently forgot to mention that Zurich has 3 x S-Bahn tunnels running under the city that basically act as a form of Metro in the city center, which is the backbone of the network, which the tram lines then interchange with.

Basically Metrolink will play the same part for us. A core backbone that will basically link all public transport in Dublin, every DART line, Luas line and all the core bus routes.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106504#Comment_122106504

The FAQ wouldn't be to stop people from posting shite opinions, it'd be something for people like us to point them to without having to redo all the research each time.

Agree though, it wouldn't stop people, and even when you point it out to them, some would still continue posting shite.

Zebra3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122107969#Comment_122107969

And would continue writing tosh in their newspaper columns.

CatInABox

I checked the letters page from the Irish Times today, as I knew that someone would write in to complain about that idiotic letter, and I was not disappointed.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/05/08/three-cheers-for-the-metrolink/

The first letter points out that interoperable and interchange are basically the same thing, while the second letter does much the same thing, but is from someone in Tralee. Tralee might be very, very far from Metrolink, but it is indicative of the level of support for this around the country. Despite what you might think from reading the papers, or listening to politicians, the vast majority of people around Ireland are of the "just get on with it FFS" opinion.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121976652#Comment_121976652

Also, the complaints of …

"Only in Ireland, would they open a metro to the airport from a suburb but not the city centre …"

Sierra Oscar

Is there any word on when the public consultation will reopen? It seems to have gone quiet since ABP made its announcement back in March.

Time is ticking on. I was hoping the reopening would be a quick process with a tight turnaround. It won't be this side of the summer now by the looks of it given the lack of additional information.

I fear it will be much later in the year with the decision on the Railway Order being pushed well into 2025 as a result. Will we even have a decision by this time next year?

The longer the time between the closing of the previous consultation and it’s reopening the greater the likelihood that the same arguments will be rehashed over and over, imho. It's a certainty that there will be a General Election in the mix now too.

OisinCooke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106283#Comment_122106283

While I agree that this is a load of rubbish, I do think the point is well made about the Luas network still not being a network - the Green and Red Lines were not ‘linked’ in 2017, they merely cross each other and still involve a large walk to change trains. The bullets should have been bitten to run both lines of the Green Line up O’Connell St (also would have been far better than splitting the lines, even without a cross-platform connection) and have a new interconnecting O’Connell stop (replacing Abbey Street) where the tracks meet at right angles at the junction of O’Connell and Abbey Streets.

And as much as I am for Metrolink and do agree that it just needs to be built and will be transformative for Dublin and even the whole country, I’ve said it before and will say it again that not having the O’Connell stop connect with the Red Line and Green Line at the Abbey/O’Connell/Marlborough stops was a huge mistake and should have been caught and corrected.

Overall though the reasons above and the ones mentioned in that article are not reasons to scrap the project by any means. It will be 100 times faster and more effective than any new Luas line for North Dublin and while a Luas network would be great (and will still happen slowly with projects like Luas Lucan and Luas Knocklyon, a metro line will open up the possibility for a Metro Network which would be faaaar better and more transformative than a Luas network ever could be.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122223392#Comment_122223392

You can't have a stop actually on the junction - it would completely block the other line and the road for far too long. It would make no sense. It is much better set up as is.

MJohnston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122223392#Comment_122223392

I don't really think this is as huge a problem as you make out, honestly the main problem with the current configuration is the same old story — pedestrians aren't given any priority on Dublin streets so it takes twice as long to interchange as it should given the distance.

MJohnston

But that's a different topic, and I've shamed myself by indulging in this digression!

OisinCooke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122223970#Comment_122223970

Sorry yes I should have made that a little clearer, I’ll attach a very crude graph of what I meant.

(it is very crude but it would fit along the junction without blocking the roads on either street)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122224394#Comment_122224394

And yes in fairness @MJohnston you’re right it isn’t a huge issue but it would have been nice if the once-in-a-few-generations transport project that we did linked all of the cities existing transport together but ultimately yes, with better pedestrian priority (I do believe O’Connell Street will eventually need to be pedestrianised) it will not be a huge problem. Still though with a walking distance between the two stops of 450 metres, it would have been nice if the extra effort had been made to link Metrolink and the Red Line. It’s actually quicker (and would feel quicker too) to walk to the Tara stop from Abbey Street stop with this plan