Transport Package

Bill McH

MarkoP11 wrote:

Yes the original plans of the 1970's had Tallaght to Clondalkin to Heuston, nice yes doable yes but not much good unless the interconnector is in place, would require some heavy engineering and alignment works to get grade separation. Of course the RPA are obsessed with not using the only legally approved gauge. However this would move the capacity problem to the northern line where would you put all these extra trains ? The Howth Tallaght idea is something I've looked at it could be done but limited to 6tph it wouldn't be stunning and would be swamped the day it opened as it would beat Luas and bus by a huge margin. Something to do absolutely but it only works if the RPA play ball on the gauge issue

Good to note that a really rapid Tallaght-City connection is still being keenly looked at.

Victor

Grand Canal Dock is only one dock, although it could be split in two.

Bill McH

One of the things which puzzles me about T21 is the LUAS line to Liffey Junction. The old line into Broadstone was going to be used for a metro under the Platform for Change proposal. (I'm not sure if we'll ever get another chance to see those maps, as they've been replaced by the T21 plan on the DTO website)

The plan to use this line for a LUAS reminds me of the old Harcourt Street line, now used for LUAS and which may have difficulty being upgraded to Metro status. Upgrading wouldn't be a problem on the Broadstone line, but it does seem a pity not to build the short tunnel required to bring metro trains between St. Stephen's Green and Liffey Junction. O'Connell Street-Broadstone is easily less than a mile. And hopefully this line could be extended over the years to Finglas, etc, (as originally planned) as cash becomes available, just as we will (I presume) eventually extend the metro south from St. Stephen's Green.

(In other words St. Stephen's Green-Airport and St. Stephen's Green-Liffey Junction sharing tunnel between O'Connell Street and St. Stephen's Green, as originally planned by the DTO).

It seems a pity to waste a perfectly good alignment on low capacity LUAS when it could be used for the metro. Obviously more costly, as we'd have to build a tunnel rather than an on-street LUAS between O'Connell Street and Broadstone.

Assuming that the costs of putting tracks down along the old alignment are pretty much the same whether it be used for metro or LUAS, the net cost of building the metro to Liffey Junction rather than the LUAS becomes the cost of building the O'Connell Street-Broadstone tunnel minus the money saved by not building the on-street LUAS tracks.

With 34 billion to be spent, could this money not be found somewhere?