Metro…….. if only….
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Found this excellent page on the new Copenhagen metro, being built by our friends Ansaldo of Luas fame.. Why oh why can’t we make a go of it too?
Also, how come Lisbon and Athens both cities a lot poorer than Dublin have metros too?
Answers on a postcard..
Here is the official link for the new Copenhagen metro (in English) It opens Saturday week (lucky them)
http://www.orestadsselskabet.dk/public/ntruntimemodule.asp?Publisher=2&Language=en_US&PageID=118
I just compared the Copenhagen metro train with the Luas tram.
From what I can see a Copenhagen train set (consisting of 3 cars) can carry 300 people and a Luas tram (one car) can carry 235 people????????Maybe you’re just counting seats on the Copenhagen one. The Luas capacity involves an awful lot of standing room and only about 100 seats or maybe less. Are you sure the capacity for the Luas is just one car? Other then that I can’t think of an explanation.
Just checked, here’s what they say>>>
Copenhagen Metro
‘The Metro consists of three cars with wide passages. The train is designed for many short trips. There are six wide doors on each side of the train and there are seats for about 100 of the total capacity of 300 passengers, with the rest standing’
Luas
‘The basic 30 metre tram can carry up to approximately 235 persons – 60 of whom will be seated’I hope they open the exit doors on the Luas when it stops unlike the middle exit doors on Dublin buses. Why is it that our buses are the only buses in the known world that as deliberate policy fail to open the exit doors at bus stops and all have to enter and exit adjacent to the bus driver ??? Is it the undisciplined nature of Dublin bus’s passengers with more bunking on then fare paying passengers alighting ??
Papworth if you look, it is now only the older buses with middle doors. The new buses all have wider front doors and kneeling facilities as well as a wider gangway. Allows for more standing as well as wheelchairs and prams.
It is a disgrace that Dublin ( the capital of the 3rd richest country in the world ) has no decent transport options.
I’ve recently been to Singapore. Their MRT is exceptional. It runs underground inner city and surfaces further out. There are only 4 main lines, but they run exactly on time. We should strive to get something of this calibre in Dublin.
As for Dublin Bus…Booooo!!!! Terrible vehicles and staff. The bus service in Fiji ( a third world nation with a reputation for bad time keeping) would knock spots off Dublin Bus’ time keeping and staff.
‘3rd richest country in the world’…where are you getting that from John!? Dublin isnt THAT badly served by transport although there is a long way to go to create the infrastructure that befits a true 21st century city.
I agree with Singapore….its is beacon in terms of transport provision.
I think the interchanges on the lines (City Hall etc) in particular can teach us a lot about efficiency and good design… Tara/ Conolly Stations take note.
I dont fully agree with your Dublin Bus comments. I think the fleet is excellent, its just not managed very well. Terrible staff? When have you ever met a nice bus driver on any busy network? time keeping is the big issue but its complex and involves the creation of a lots more QBC – but then thats a huge bone of contention for the drive-loving public.3rd highest gdp per capita, which is different from richest, lots of coutries with lower incomes have had high incomes for much longer. anyone who thinks that dublin transport in exceptional either way should live somewhere else for a while, there are worse, there are better.
I think peope who visit this board and in fact the whole of Irish commuting society, particularly the bureaucrats in the civil service should take themselves off to Helsinki or Copenhagen for a weekend and see how it should be done……………………………
Metroplanet website is a very good eye-opener in how things ought to be done.. Luas is basically a band-aid to dress the Dublin traffic/transport fiasco. Trams are a stop-gap solution, they won’t make a damn bit of difference except clog up the streets.
God help us people can’t even navigate roundabouts here let alone tram lanes
Just in case anyone is wondering. I have vistied both Helsinki and Copenhagen. Not to mention Prague, Bilbao and Athens. Either on work or pleasure….
My heart is in Dublin, but it’s very broken. Can’t get across the city!!!!!
I see the Copenhagen trains are 40m long. The luas on the tallaght to abbey street line will hold 235 passengers and is 30m long. It is to my knowledge that the trams on the sandyford line will be 40m long, as it runs on the old railway alignment, so I presume they will hold a similar amount to the copenhagen metros.
From the website the Copenhagen Metro trains look very similar to the Docklands light rail trains in London and they are driverless too! (Am I trying to convince myself that the Luas might amount to something.) I think the really big problem with the LUAS now is that we have lost the vital link between the North and South of the city. I remember in the original montages we could see a LUAS making its way around College Green. With hindsight it might have been as well to build this section and then the Metro afterwards. In the long term a tram and Metro would complement each other. (Especially with the good work the City Council have done to reduce traffic levels in the City Centre.)
FYI fact fans – appearently the reason that they did away with the centre door of the buses was due to union grumblings about one driver having to deal with two doors, so a compromise was reached in terms of having one less door for the poor dears to deal with.
This really is a joke of a country isn’t it – just came back from Croatia where the solitary driver has three doors to deal with – and they have no problems with that – why are we so different over here?
Interesting, although I don’t recall them opening the centre doors even when conductors were still around. Surely with a conducter and a driver this wouldn’t be that hard to manage….
And all the busses were full this morning (becasuse it rained). Full busses are certainly the best advert for driving into work.
fjp
Try full trains – they recently introduced less seating in the new carriages on the Drogheda/Dundalk line – so you now end up standing for over an hour on they way to work – puts you in a fantastic mood!
has there been any further movement or news on the metro system being proposed for dublin.the line from broadstone to the airport is going to be built on a right of way from the old line but how far out does this line go. it would be great to have an underground system in the city. the copenhagen tunnels look amazing and dublin is in dire need of a metro. but i guess we will just have to wait to wait and see what the govt approves in terms of the lines and if it will be done at all
Here again our woefully incompetent transport dept. have announced another delay in construction of the Luas.
On a related matter, what are the stops/shelters going to look like? Was in Strasbourg recently and was very impressed with the design of their terminals/tram stops.
Richard Rogers likes to relate a conversation he had not so long ago with the man in charge of the Madrid underground. Rogers is building the city’s new airport and the two men had met to discuss the extension of the subway system to serve the airport. “The meeting,” he says, “went something like this:
‘We need to link the airport to the tube.’
‘How many kilometres?’
‘Ten kilometres.’
‘Ten kilometres? We guarantee one kilometre per month – 10 months.’
‘We need two new stations.’
‘One month each – 12 months. If you want to be kind, give me 14 months.’ “
Rogers talks a lot about Spain these days. It’s Europe’s architectural hothouse, he says, what France was in the 80s. . . Just take his airport in Madrid: “It is the biggest infrastructure project in Europe. It’s three times the size of [Heathrow’s] Terminal Five which is our biggest airport in Britain. We won T5 as a competition 14 years ago and work hasn’t started yet; we won Madrid four years ago and it’s halfway up.”
It is hard not to find the comparisons a little depressing.
Full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4534221,00.html
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