Liffey Cable Cars - Pointless Gimmick or....

[Stiofan de Bhal]

I fully agree with those opposing this scheme, however not through a sort of "Oirish" kneejerk reaction. Those who oppose the scheme can clearly see the complete compromise of some of the city's most historic views with prominent support towers- towers which serve a private individual's business venture as opposed to the public good and facilitate tourists to observe yet simultanously destroy the city's skyline.

The idea of a cable car system over an almost fully flat city in which it will itself become the most prominent feature just doesn't work. However, I agree the poll is clearly biased and should be simply yes or no- for a start since it's a private venture I don't think anyone should be too concerned about the "waste of money".

[Peter Fitz]

so here is the right location: from the new science museum west of heuston, likely to become a major attraction for families, to phoenix park, already a major attraction for families, with a great view down the liffey on the way

thats not a bad idea notjim, some sort of cable car system might be a runner there if the pedestrian / cycle bridge from the royal hospital doesn't go ahead.

but seriously, what a whacko plan for the liffey, haven't replied till now cause i've been doing double takes for 5 days looking at that image

[Dreamboat800]

I think its a great idea. Why is the Dublin crying out for such economic structure. Obviously it will boost the tourism sector and how many people can honestly say they would not once try it out?

[lostexpectation]

apparently the liffey boat isn't doing great business although I put a wager on the cable car being quicker then a bus up the quays during rush hour

[Shane Clarke]

Nonsense - No one can doubt the importance of tourists to cities these days nor the leisure aspect of the city centre for the citizens of that city but this is nonsense. To erect would be to shoot ourselves in the foot - the intrusion of a private Disneyfied carbuncle of zero utilitarian benefit for the city and defacing the reinvigorated Liffey quays / campshire. No problems with sending it out and about in the docks but not in the historic core - indeed might be quite supportive in the docks area if there was some transport benefit. A gimmic!!!!!!!!!! Shane

[Radioactiveman]

This poll is a little misleading considering there is 3 negative options and just one positive one!

[Desmund]

This poll is a little misleading considering there is 3 negative options and just one positive one!

LOL!!! Bang on there Mr Radioactiveman - I think many a politician would be proud of such spin! And the one option in favour of this is in italics!! Comical!!!!

[Paul Clerkin]

The one you have voted for is in italics. Three options against does not negate the fact that only 12 percent voted for the yes option.

[L1]

"Apart from levelling the quays and building them up which is my ultimate preference, any suggestion which changes the boring nature of what we currently have should be welcomed"

Well there's a sustainable proposal if ever there was one....

It is important in this context to point out that in general bad cases do not make good rules. So if there are parts of the quays which are poor, pastiche or 60s calamity, this would not in general be an argument for making the situation worse. Many architects & planners, Frank MacDonald included have campaigned for the reconstruction of the quays in the past decades.

Cute Panda exhibits appalling ignorance on the subject of Dublin, which was conceived & built as the second city of the british empire during the georgian period (pre-1880). It retains a considerable number of setpieces dating prior to the 1880s, Trinity College, Four Courts, Customs House & Bank of Ireland included, not to mention several uniquely large residential squares. Back to school for you I'm afraid. It never ceases to amaze me how confidently some people will talk about things of which they clearly know very little. I've been to Boston which I particularly dislike because of the amount of pastiche it includes, it has a far less continuous structure & was never within reach of the standards reached by Dublin at the time it was principally constructed. I have recently visited Montreal which is a great city & I doubt they would allow such a thing in the Vieux Port.

I oppose this in its current form because of the visual impact of the supports primarily. It also seems wasteful to build a structure rather than using the normal methods of becoming airborne, light aircraft, balloons, jet packs, rockets, whatever ! There's something in the idea, perhaps Docklands/ Dublin Bay ...the millenium wheel II, but not this.

I'll tell you what, lets fill in the liffey with concrete & build a runway...!
Madness.

[SeamusOG]

Does anyone know did anything ever happen to this hare-brained scheme?

[SeamusOG]

I'm just trying to find out what happened to the project, after the initial support expressed by the City Council, the DDDA, and Guinness. Frank McDonald also seemed to approve of the scheme, in the articles earlier on in the thread. Anyone know?

[Sloan]

An Bord Pleanala Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) Cases Week ended: 8th June 2007
Local Authority: Dublin City Council
Case reference: 29NPC0014
Case Type: Private Development S.37B consultations (Pre-App Consultation)
Description: Proposed Suas Cable Car Transport System to run from Heuston Gate area to Dublin Docklands providing a tourist facility along the River Liffey, Dublin City, Co. Dublin.
Category: Strategic Infrastructure Dev
Date lodged: 08-06-2007
Applicant
Type: Prosp. Applicant
Name: The Liffey Cable Car Company Ltd.
EIS required: No
Status: Case is due to be decided by 26-10-2007

[Sloan]

ABP's recent decision of 25 Oct 07

PC0014 Dublin City Council
Proposed Suas Cable Car Transport System to run from Heuston Gate area to Dublin Docklands providing a tourist facility along the River Liffey, Dublin City, Co. Dublin.
Case reference: PL29N.PC0014
Case type: Pre-Application Consultation
Decision: Is not Strat. Infrast. Dev.
Date Signed: 25/10/2007
EIS required: No

Parties
The Liffey Cable Car Company Ltd. (Prosp. Applicant)
Dublin City Council (Local Authority)

History
25/10/2007: Is not Strat. Infrast. Dev.
08/06/2007: Lodged

[CC105]

Hopefully this one is a dead duck, lets get some buildings up before we start building items like this, it reminds me of Alton Towers in England

[hutton]

Hopefully this one is a dead duck, lets get some buildings up before we start building items like this, it reminds me of Alton Towers in England

It hasn't gone away you know...


From yesterday's Irish Times -


Cable car project to seek city council sanction

THE DEVELOPER behind the €90 million "Suas" cable car project for the River Liffey is to seek planning permission from Dublin City Council for the scheme, after failing to secure fast-track planning approval from An Bord Pleanála.

Details of the Suas, which would run from Heuston Station to the docklands and involve the construction of 80m (262ft) towers along its length, were yesterday presented to city councillors ahead of the submission of a planning application.

Developer Barry Boland, formerly a planner with Dublin County Council, last year sought to have the Suas considered under fast-track planning rules which allow strategic infrastructural developments to be determined directly by An Bord Pleanála.

However, the board decided the Suas did not qualify as strategic infrastructure, leaving Mr Boland no option but to apply to the city council.

The Suas would be a tourist attraction rather than a public transport system, Mr Boland said.

"We're trying to create the equivalent of an Eiffel Tower, the London Eye or the Sydney Opera House - the sort of iconic thing that Dublin currently lacks."

Each cable car could carry 30 people and would run every 20 minutes. A round trip would cost €25. Two 80m towers - 20m taller than Liberty Hall - would be built at Marlborough Street and Wood Quay, and 60m towers would be located in the docklands and at Watling Street to support the cable. Mr Boland estimates that one in every eight visitors to Dublin would use the Suas.

Several councillors said they were interested in the project, but stopped short of endorsing it.

"My mind was quite closed to this project, and I would still have a certain scepticism, but my mind is perhaps a little less closed," Labour councillor Emer Costello said.

Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan said it was good to see a project that was "trying to do something with the Liffey".

Mr Boland said it was up to the planners to decide if it detracted from the skyline. He had wanted the cable cars to be in the shape of a pint of Guinness, but this violated advertising codes.

Mr Boland said he would be ready to submit his planning application within weeks. However, because the city council owns some of the land on which the entrance to the Suas and the towers supporting the cable would be built, he needs to be given permission by the city manager to lodge an application.

A Dublin City Council spokeswoman said Mr Boland would need to seek a pre-planning meeting with the council to detail how he intended to deal with certain issues including access.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority said it supported the project in principle, pending a decision from the council.

The Irish Times

[hutton]

Mr Boland... had wanted the cable cars to be in the shape of a pint of Guinness, but this violated advertising codes.

OMG

I am just after noticing this now. Who said that this was a pointless gimmick...

[GrahamH]

This cannot possibly go ahead. It will impinge on views of The Clarence.

[hutton]

this Cannot Possibly Go Ahead. It Will Impinge On Views Of The Clarence.

Lmao

[hutton]

Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan said it was good to see a project that was "trying to do something with the Liffey".

I've a suggestion for Doolin; why doesn't he organise the World's 1st Liffey Swim With Concrete Flippers - he can be first in...

[shweeney]

25 lids a trip - guess it won't be an attractive alternative to the Luas then.

shame they've abandoned the pints of guinness idea though, that would've ruled!

[Peter Fitz]

sombody make this go away ...
please !!!

[Morlan]

This and Gormley's Pissing Man. How naff.

[ctesiphon]

Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan said it was good to see a project that was "trying to do something with the Liffey".

Presumably he meant 'to the Liffey' rather than 'with the Liffey'?


I'd like to see something done with the Liffey- how about a good clean, a tidal barrier and a management plan to ensure bullshit concepts like this don't make it out of the heads of maniacs?

Nature abhors a vacuum- but why must it be left to the lunatic fringe to fill that void?

[notjim]

"the sort of iconic thing that Dublin lacks"

oh this terrible desire for "a sort of iconic thing"; a new expression of a time-old insecurity.

Isn't it always the case that a good city, one with life and quality writ both large and small, finds itself assosiated with a "sort of iconic thing" as a sort of shorthand for what people love, the greatness comes first, not the icon. People love London for its great architectural set-pieces, its treasures, its playfulness and quirky off-beat fashion and its multi-layered, multi-historied, multi-cultural liveliness. Big Ben, the Eye and the funny red buses are a shorthand for that, a synecdoche; they are not the thing itself. Putting a giant ferris wheel, a big clock and funny buses in Milton Keynes wouldn't make people love Milton Keynes instead.

Lets make Dublin a great city and we'll find the spire and the hapenny bridge and the current liffey will make fine a fine "sort of iconic thing" and, yes, perhaps others will come along, commisioning high quality public art, for its own sake is useful here, but lets not make icons our primary concern.

[missarchi]

The Suas would be a tourist attraction rather than a public transport system, Mr Boland said.

"We're trying to create the equivalent of an Eiffel Tower, the London Eye or the Sydney Opera House - the sort of iconic thing that Dublin currently lacks."[/I]

you can have both in one but not with a suas...
the equivalent is the spire nuff said...

I'm abit miffed about how he needs DCC City Manag permission because some of the site is on DCC land...
Is this hinting to the fact if something is on public land you can apply for permission without DCC consent???