Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

Sam won't thank me for going ot, but I don't like the idea of constantly extending the current Luas lines. They're too slow for the lenght imo.

Thats why I think the Metro makes so much more sense. Trams are good for short journeys but Metrolink is a far far better pt project.

I’m not entirely in favour of extending the LUAS all the time but I’m firmly of the view that the reason they stopped was because of a (well founded) fear that we were going to do the LUAS everywhere.

It has it’s place though and it was ultimately a mistake to stop.

Going wildly off topic I know but where exactly was the alignment going to be from Brides Glen to Bray. Part of the old alignment with the viaduct I know is still there and you can visualise where it connects with the southern dart line, but most of it seems to have been eaten up by houses gardens.

There's plans online. Maybe Shankill would be easier or new Dart station in Shanganagh.

... safer too. It comes back to the desperate need for a dedicated transport police, a thing that politicians here aren't just discouraging, but seem to be actively fighting against.

on the Dart it's only really the City Centre stations that are monitored. Even the stations that are permanently manned, you can usually get out through an open barrier - e.g. in Bray there's usually a turnstile permanently open on platform 2.

Saw a bloke just walk past the bus driver yesterday making no attempt at any payment. Driver just ignored the situation.

Nearly twenty years ago Finance put a spoke into Metro. They indulged in a bait and switch, suggesting a branch off the DART. Funny enough, that didn't get built either. If some posters wonder why many are cynical about the delivery of the present project, experience teaches us unless it's a road, it will only go ahead after much fluting about.

From:ireland.com

Saturday, 10th January, 2004

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is to bring to cabinet in the next two months his final proposals for a metro link between Dublin city centre and the airport.

He is expected to tell colleagues that the link can be built for less than €2.5 billion, and could be open to its first passengers by the end of 2009.

However the proposals could be seriously hampered by the fact that the project is feasible only as the first stage in a much more ambitious 20-year underground scheme, costing up to €20 billion.

The Department of Finance is still opposed to the project on the basis of a report it commissioned which suggests that a much cheaper alternative exists, the extension of the Dart to the airport, via a new spur line.

The minister has now received indicative costs from the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA) that the Metro link could be built for €2.4 billion, half the figure he was given last year.

This could be done through halving the time for the planning stage of the project from four to two years with new legislation to speed up the planning process.

Legislation to transfer underground property rights to the State is also being prepared.

The route of the proposed line has yet to be finalised however. It will run overground from the Airport, through Ballymun, going underground at Dublin City University in Ballymun.

The final plan is being drafted to include a route passing through Connolly Station, Tara Street and St Stephen's Green at the insistence of the minister.

According to sources in the Department of Transport, Mr Brennan remains confident he can convince colleagues of the merits of the project, and that it remains a realistic proposal.

Last year the plan was put in jeopardy following an initial report from the RPA that the airport link would cost up to €4.8 billion, and take at least seven years to build.

This included four years of planning.

Despite the latest figures, the proposal is still facing considerable opposition from the Department of Finance, which commissioned its own report on a rail link to the airport.

The report has advocated a spur from the Dart line as an alternative.

Mr Brennan is believed to have told Government colleagues on the cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure that the project is a feasible when considered as the first stage of a larger metro scheme. It would greatly increase public transport capacity in the city, while the Dart spur would have a limited impact.

However, according to Government sources there is still a considerable barrier to the project over the overall spending commitment. The feasibility of financing through public-private partnerships is still under consideration.

"It would just be the first of ten planned phases over a 20-year period, so the Government would be committing itself to a much greater spend than €2.4 billion, and a lot of debt, whatever way it's financed,"said the sources.

politician's decided to cancel it... it didnt cancel itself. There were billions of euro available, they borrowed fortunes for things they felt were worth borrowing...

Whatever about cancelling the projects, the biggest mistake was not even keeping a bare minimum/ skeleton staff design team on board. Even they had of been brought under one umbrella group.

DCC have issued a tender for Architect Led Integrated Design Team to relocate and expand the existing facilities at Markievicz Leisure Centre to form a much larger sports and leisure hub within the existing Irishtown Stadium Site;

Another step in the right direction.