Re: Re: transport21

A Dart Spur is a good idea, it has been touted many times, but in important centralised area’s other than the Interconnector it won’t go under ground.

With A Howth spur to the airport it would be going over land and in the middle of nowhere.

The Metro West Alignment however is a good idea, but that was for a light rail plan.

Is there the space or the want for an elevated and grade seperated heavy rail line that both goes north to the airport in western suburbs and connects with the main line’s and interconnector?

IF a Loop was built using the now questionably scraped Metro West then it would be a large loop that leave’s out the City centre itself, especially the Northside.

The Northside may not be dense in some areas, but it lacks rail and the Luas D1 line connected to the dream like BX is probably not going to surface because of the traffic delays, not cost.

People have been expecting the metro for years. It is in planning. It will most likely go ahead in it’s tiny capacity seperated form. And it will suffer if the metro west is never built.

It’s route, although lower capacity is a direct City Centre to Airport route connecting A train station, historical streets, A college and a large density population area near the airport. It will then AFTER the airport go on to the Swords which is constantly expanding and has NO none road based transport, and further to green field sites with an Ignored possibilty of Connecting with Donabate.

Considering the extreem cost of tunneling under Dublin and it’s lower density the Metro Can’t be heavy rail or like any other subway or metro in any other City. But it is a good route, and i direct one that could promote development.

The airport is what the press always think about when they hear “Metro”. But in truth it’s meant for Swords and the green field site’s beyond.

The Airport isn’t used durign rush hours, it’s used all day long!

Swords and surrounding towns need a corridor into town that doesn’t rely on the bus network and car’s.

Similarly a connection to site’s in town and other part’s of the transport network are needed.

The current plans were good enough during the boom years, they hoped to build more on top of these systems. But now it needs to be fully researched and possibly scraped or re-drawn.

The same arguement against the Metro North destroy’s the idea of Heavy Rail going to the airport and the west and connecting with the interconnector.

Although in line with what other cities do, it isn’t as justified with how little there is that far out in Dublin. It is basicaly a rail line following the Line of the M50 but NOT going the whole way.

There are several idea’s that could be touted about but nothing will change what was planned. For now these are the basic ideas for the way forward and we can’t do much about changing them.

The Dream:

A Heavy Rail Loop:

Spur from northern line to airport.

Connecting with Terminal and Metro North.

Rail then heads west connecting with Luas lines to suburban towns.

It follows Western route and spur’s back into Mainline from West.

On a seperate allignment it connects with the interconnecter which can head both north and south when heading west, creating a Airport based loop.

Heading further south along the west the Heavy rail connects in Tallaght, possibly with a submerged stretch in central area’s that connects to the Red Line/Square/Hospital.

From there is the option to skirt across the southside.

Using the M50 as a base, espeically it’s large cutting’s compared to other parts it will link up with the Southern extensions of the Green Line.

It will then Tunnel Through Shankhill where the old Harcourt line’s alignment was butchered and built over, and link in Triangle both north and south with the Dark Line.

This create’s a larger Loop around the city.

However Connecting with the interconnector here is more difficult, but Grand Canal Dock and Landsdown road are minor possibilties.

The METRO:
The “Metro” should be an Express light-rail that connects the transport hubs running from North to South.

It will bypass the Dart Lines, Heavy Intercity Rail, Commuter lines, and “loop” lines.

It will serve as a central corridor that links the Luas lines and Heavy Rail lines.

LUAS:

Green Line, Current plus southern extentions as far as Bray.

Red Line + Docklands.

Line F: Lucan Luas To College Green.

Theoretical Rathfarnham-Christchurch Luas Connecting with Lucan “line F”

BX Line Connecting Red-Green-Lucan-Rathfarnham Lines.

(Risk of turning into our origional network with “The Pillar” Centric allignment. College Green being a better central point, especial if Metro North’s OCS Bridge exit was closer with an underground concourse)

Line D1 OCS to Grangegorman/Broadstone station.

Finglas Luas connecting with D1 into town etc.

Amiens Street Luas- Sutton etc (One used to exist and the road is large enough) Connect to south side with BX Loop or other crossing.

All other Luas possibilities welcome as a Tram network is far better than relying on Cars and Buses.:rolleyes:

The Reality:

Luas Extensions.

Piss poor useless Metro.

Delayed over expensive Interconnector with 2 Dart line’s being delayed and poorly funded or FAR later than planned.

No further Luas routes due to complaints and poor planing.:mad: