Re: Re: luas central corridor

The reality for Santry is that if the RPA supply a North side transport corridor it will not go through Santry, it will be a fully segregated light rail line that will go through Ballymun and enter the Dublin Airport complex just east of the M50/Ballymun junction and use the land within Dublin Airport. The facts on the ground are that the Old Airport Road North of Santry is basically a giant logistics park/ surface carpark there is little employemnt and literally no residential population. A Luas to Ballymun could in contrast be extended on street to Dublin Airport in tandem with a heavy rail spur to Swords, I would hate to see the journey times between Swords and the City Centre if the route were partially on street and diverted via Ballymun.

It has been confirmed that Trinity have received no approaches on routing Luas through the College and indeed no approach since 2002 when there were discussions on a metro routing from Stephens Green to the Airport via Tara St, TCD are apparently entirely opposed.

I like the idea of the termination via Matt Talbot Bridge I think that areas around Townsend St and Moss St could really benefit from that, there are two concerns that I have with the earlier part of the route. The first would be the section between the Shelbourne and the Start of Merrion Row as this area is already crowded and secondly the turning circle at Merrion Row. I think that a routing turning right at the end of Dawson St and onto Nassau St and Lincoln Place would acheive almost as much and critically would take full benefit of the positives in the later stages of the route such as integration with DART at both Pearse and Connolly, would bring Pearse St back off life support and would give the visual of trams running beside the front elevation of the Custom House.