National Development Plan 2022-2030

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Will there be a breakdown of funding towards specific rail lines on the network or just a €x billion for maintainence and upgrade of the existing network?

The Ballybrophy line for example is long overdue being modernised. Completing the CWR track relay for the entire line and upgrading signaling, automating gates etc

Publishing costs for projects like Metrolink in the NDP would be meaningless anyway. Projects have to pass through the various stages of the Spending Code and it is the costs at those stages that matter. The Preliminary Business Case for Metrolink will be submitted soon but obviously a lot can change between now and RO approval. Same with DART+ where design isn't finalised yet.

The NDP really is just a list of projects which will be funded up until the big decision has to be made, which is award of the construction contract. Only then are actual costs known. Being in the NDP probably doesn't really mean a whole lot (see Ryan's comments on some road projects not happening), but not being in it means the project is dead for at least a decade. Ideally there would be some kind of quarterly or half yearly update on the projects included with cost estimates at the various PSC stages included.

The Irish Government, in partnership with Kinzen reported thousands of posts and tweets to social media companies as “misinformation”. The clear intent of reporting these posts as misinformation is to ask social media companies to suppress them, to reduce their circulation, and to make sure that as few people as possible see them. This is the caliber of the politicians, bureaucrats and civil servants we are somehow expecting to be telling us the truth about building the Metro and DART Underground 'this time'. It is always worth bearing in mind that we are dealing with pathologically lying and devious socially-adept psychopathic scum before you get your hopes up.

You're not ever going to be on a metro to the airport or go under the city centre in a DART ever.

After a few false summits I've now reached peak cynicism.

I sense the political view for our public transport system is to hope WFH papers over the cracks, and this combined with EVs, will somehow address the climate issue. Might help to a small degree but a failure of judgement overall.

They've successfully torpedoed a lot of housing development. It's as if the relationship between land-use and transport doesn't exist. I'd envisage commuter towns to get a lot bigger as the political issue of housing trumps transport and sustainability. We won't get sustainable and compact development patterns without decent public transport.

Monard was supposed to be a new town built outside Cork on the Cork-Dublin mainline. First set out in the Cork Area Strategic Plan in 2001, it was envisaged to have 13,000 residents within a decade. In 2009 the Cork County Development Plan said the plan was to have 7,800 residents and the train station built on the mainline by 2020. Today it remains agri land with not a single sod turned or real plan in place. The train station remains a fantasy which is rolled out every now and again in various masterplans. An epic public policy and implementation failure.

All the talk about public transport and the NTA cant even extend a simple bus route between louth and westmeath

https://www.meathchronicle.ie/2021/10/06/three-years-later-and-still-no-sign-of-a-bus-service/

What do people think about the proposed Limerick suburban rail network? As far as I know it's the first time one has been officially proposed by government. It's quite comprehensive and the vast majority is an existing/disused line which should mitigate some of the cost

Well they wont comit to funding the completion of the final 8.5 miles of CWR track renewal on the Limerick - Nenagh - Ballybrophy line.

The final remaining section of jointed track on the entire rail network will remain a while longer if they dont see to their senses and provide the funding to get it done. Attached is a pic of the section in red.

The line is closed tomorrow to start the next 3.5 miles of upgraded track. These intermittent closures are really having an impact on the line.

The final 8.5 miles need to be completed in a single closure in 2022. Then they can review speed restrictions and improve journey times. Then with an improved timetable and things will start looking up.

Perhaps in time additional services could be introduced to the line.

it's a good and necessary idea but i don't see any of it happening.

i am in no doubt it would be a great success, especially when combined with greater development in the areas along each line.

there would certainly be a couple of issues that would need to be sorted but doable if the will is there which it isn't.

I don't see how you could construct a useful and well-patronised suburban service from the bits and pieces of single track lines around Limerick even with massive capital expenditure to upgrade tracks, adding loops and build stations. Colbert is a walk from the commercial/shopping centre of the city and it's the closest you could get to a city centre station. The other lines pass through low-density mature suburbs or through marsh and flood lands which at best might support some sort of outer-axial half-circle line but running through areas with little scope for development. Much better to provide frequent and prioritized radial bus through-services covering the main spines into the city - with services running along the Dublin Road, Tipperary Road, Ennis Road, O'Connell St and through Corbally, Caherdavin, Raheen, etc.