Clontarf to City Centre Cycle & Bus Priority Project discussion (renamed)

Well the post 2042 Luas network map published in the last GDA Transport Strategy has a Luas line going from Connolly to Fairview Park, then turning up the Malahide Road to head to Clongriffin, so it isn't that crazy.

It wouldn't take up road space as it would just replace the bus lane. Or rather the bus lane would become a mixed Luas/Bus lane.

We have a pretty excellent track record (LOL) of building out Luas lines. Relatively speaking they are pretty straight forward compared to mega projects like Metrolink and DART+.

The BusConnects Infrastructure project gets you most of the way in terms of a full bus route, it is then largely just upgrading the bus route by laying Luas tracks on the bus route.

BTW I'm not defending stupid comments made by Pat Kenny or anything like that. Just pointing out that there are plans for such a Luas line and I'd argue it does make a lot of sense.

I suspect, that in time all the core bus corridors into the city will be turned into shared bus/Luas lines. We really are approaching the limitations of the capacity of buses and bus corridors and need Luas to keep up, specially with likely ongoing driver shortages.

I always roll my eyes when people say things like it was in planning since the 80’s! Some vague concept existed in the 80’s in strategy plans, but that is meaningless. As late as 1998 the government were planning for the green line to go to the airport with a tunnel under the city!

Real planning on the lines we have today really only started 98/99, with the RPA being formed as an independent body in 2001 and construction begun the same year, with the lines opening in 2003.

It was remarkably fast from real planning to opening.

Once the money and political will is there, TII are remarkably professional at actually building out Luas lines quickly and with little fan fare.

The post 2042 network is quiet doable IMO, they are just busy with Metrolink at the moment.

It always has been and some day someone will get killed crossing that road!

I suppose in terms of the cycle lane, they would argue that under the BusConnects plan for the Malahide road, that cycle path will be removed and instead routed down Brian Road.

Of course in reality 99% of cyclists will ignore it and continue to use it and it doesn’t do anything for pedestrians anyway.

I was thinking about how you would fix it properly and this is what I’d do:

• completely close the Marino crescent entrance and slip there.
• There are two right turning lanes, turn one into a left turning lane
• Then you would have a footpath directly to the bus stops, with no interaction with traffic.