Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

How?

It’s broadly a similar length of line once our projects are completed. There are obvious differences (less ridership meaning less eyes on the line, more homeless, headline costs) but as I said, even a percentage of that number is enormous.

There’s been an effort here to underplay the issues on the LUAS but they just don’t pass mustard. At the outset we had people saying stuff like “the bus is just as bad”, until the data came in. Then it wasn’t a fair comparison. Although I note that you rather bizarrely brought up Dublin Bikes which itself has built environment security protections.

Moreover, I think it’s odd that we have people praising the cost efficiencies of automated trains but then stating a large scale transport police is the answer. Rather than have a cost benefits discussion, it boils down to talking about Copenhagen.

Does playing videos or music on public transport for everyone to hear count as ASB?

To me, it certainly does, and it must be hard to beat DB passengers on that front.

New public transport infrastructure should not include ticket gates, it's an obsolete concept that only serves to increase commute times. Amsterdam is obsessed with enforcing the tickets and it has resulted in an inefficient system with multi door vehicles only operating a single door and a quarter of a tram carriage being taken up with a mobile staffed ticket office, ridiculous set up and they justify it with pointing to anti social behaviour, it's silly there and it'd be silly here too.

Talking about NYC and LA is a pointless comparison, you're talking about heavily armed population with enforced grinding poverty and basically no access to health or education for a third of the population, its an apple's and oranges comparison to a relatively peaceful country with little violent crime and a police force that doesnt even carry weapons. We live in a relative utopia by comparison.

That’s very useful thank you. Great to visualise what it would look like.

had a discussion at lunch today in work and the amount of negativity and ignorance about this project t is astounding. They need to start a bit of PR on this project t.

one member is a member of a certain political party and was pedalling the whole well the luas to finglas is only a few km away and then they could easily run it to the airport. Jesus wept

It is obsolete, it achieves nothing and impedes passenger movement and therfore capacity

ML really hasn't been chopped and changed, the route has largely been the same for many years, just some adjustments at particular stations.

If the complaint is that it is still over a decade away, talking about extending the Luas from Finglas is nonsense given Luas won't reach Finglas for several years and ML should start construction before it.

True but I didnt mention the Luas extension to Finglas.

I dont think that extension is of much interest to the general public, unless they live in Finglas.

The bottom line is ML is still a decade away at least, so its not really on most peoples radar.

The tricky part of getting people out of cars is very difficult, when they cant see any major PT improvements coming in the next decade, by which time, Dublin will probably be at 1.7 to 1.8 million population.

Yeah but the point being we’ve been talking about this since the 1970s- 50+ years and we haven’t a shovel in the ground yet and won’t for another 5 years in the best case scenario.

By anyone’s standards- that’s piss poor and probably why people aren’t really getting too interested in the whole thing- they’ll believe it when they see it kinda thing.

As pointed out above there have been plans/studies to put underground rail running through the CC since the 70s and we haven’t broke ground on any of them since.

Piss poor.

IF it is built to this schedule (which is unlikley) people will start to notice it.

I just have no faith in it not being further delayed and its still only one aspect of the greater plan.

We need an underground network. Not a single up and down line and if we ever get an underground network, it will be after we are all buried and gone.

We will get an underground network - I guarantee that before ML is opened that TII will be doing initial consultations on a route for the 2nd line.

However the idea that a single line only benefits a few is nonsense. Complete BS. ML route was specifically chosen as it benefits so many. And with a park & ride off the M1 it couldnt be better at catering for the majority of commuters driving down the M1 every morning. It will be transformative as only a single line, a 2nd or 3rd line wont have nearly the same benefit as this 1st planned one will.

I think we’ll have a second line underway construction wise before the first one is finished.

It inevitable because the city is grinding to a halt. People love their cars too much and I think the car manufacturers are going to get there on sustainability. We’re going to be in a constantly battle with car users still.

@bk - I agree that once Metrolink opens, there will be public pressure for more of it. Sadly, precedent is against such optimism: the public was very much in favour of more Luas too, but we're still looking at the same two lines, albeit with significant extensions.

For Metro, I would hope that a second line gets started as soon as possible, rather than any extensions of the first, or conversions of Green line from Luas to Metro (the case for that is still weak - maybe in 20 years it might make sense, but it doesn't today). And while I'm dreaming, it would be nice if politicians stopped thinking of DART, Metro and Luas as competitors for the same job: each mode has its strengths and weaknesses.