Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

Extending the Metro to Donabate would be a good idea I think.

Extending Metrolink to Donabate isn't realistic given the level of development around the station. It would have to be Rush&Lusk, you could have 4 heavy rail platforms there.

No, there would be enormous opposition to that and I'd assume environmental/conservation reasons why it couldn't happen. You'd also have enormous difficulty sitting a Metro station beside Donabate station given the existing buildins and road layouts, you'd be threading the eye of a needle to avoid everything and it likely wouldn't suit alignment limitations.

At R&L you'd have lots of space to have 4 heavy rail platforms (I'd terminate DART services there and have commter services going further north) alongside the Metrolink platforms so very easy to change to another service.

Sorry no, the equivalent of two or more Swords between Swords and R&L station is way OTT. Metrolink plans four stations for Swords along a distance of 3.5km. Estuary station to R&L would be less than 8km. Even at significantly higher density, you'd only get one urban area in between otherwise you end up merging Swords and Lusk into one sprawling mess.

You could develop a new urban area on the R132 between the Tesco distribution centre and Blakes Cross. Develope a town centre in between them and you already have industrial type uses on the outskirts of the new town.

More than enough room for a couple of million more inside the M50. You look at places such as Broadstone and Glasnevin. They are still like villages and both practically city center.

Yes. There is no space between Maynooth and Leixlip anyway.

The bar for justifying for developing green fields is only getting higher, every piece of guidance and legislation from local to EU level is largely against it, certainly on a large scale. And developing new areas requires far more in terms of infrastructure which takes a long time to develop from scratch.

Metrolink to R&L would be extremely busy with people changing from/to the heavy rail line. In addition to commuters, huge numbers would use it to access Dublin airport, including a large portion of the population of NI. I'd say the additional passengers it would add would be significant relative to the cost of the extension.

Exactly this. We are reducing land productivity now by choice for environmental reasons, productivity could unwantedly fall even further due to climate change. And that's before considering a reduction in quantity of productive land from climate change. Farming is adapting and it is a slow process but undoubtedly greater biodiversity will be achieved by retaining agricultural use but with rewilding than concreting over the fields and planting a few trees in man-made parks. Food security is going to be a major issue going forward, those with the best levels of it are likely to be the most successful.

Creating dormitory towns on fields went out 20 years ago. There is no shortage of previously developed but underutilised land available in Dublin. Plans are already in motion for development of vast areas of industrial land around Dublin, that will be developed much faster than building new towns with new infrastructure. At Swords alone, there is 140ha between the M1 and R132, excluding existing residential.

I'm not saying that Ireland's food security would be threatened but there are many factors here. Reduced yields and increased population will obviously result in less food, even if still way more than enough. Apply that on the global scale, plus there'll be other negative effects from climate change, it is a major consideration. In the coming decades, there is likely to be a strong correlation between a country's ability to sustainably/consistently produce a wide variety of foods and the quality of life of its inhabitants, plus its attractiveness for investment. Keeping as big a surplus as possible is a good strategy.

You seem to be focusing on population growth. Population growth isn’t linear and simply cannot be sustained indefinitely. Growth could slow down and level off over the next decade. There are other issues relating to climate change and reduced biodiversity which are already baked in and will be with us for much longer. Then there are advances in technology and AI, proximity to Dublin might be a much smaller concern in the future.

And developing out towns like Drogheda to accommodate additional people largely within their existing footprint makes perfect sense. It is far more sustainable than building tens of thousands of apartments on farmland. There is nothing hypocritical in me stating that, it is entirely in line with what I have been saying.