Ramp at Connolly

Originally posted by StephenC
First, who did the RPA (a semi-state, memeber of CIE group) ‘acquire’ the Ramp from at a cost of £30m? Iarnrod Eireann? CIE Holdings?

I think the land is actually owned by the Port & Docks Board. But then, Leopardstown Racecourse is owned by the Horseracing authority (i.e., the State) and they needed a payout to allow the M50 go ahead.

Secondly, what kind of simpletons are running this project where they can be so shortsighted as to initially propose a line from O’Connell Street to Connolly only (which most people could walk faster than the Luas!), and then half way through the project propose an extension to the Point which is in itself shortsighted as the line should cross the Liffey to connect the southside docks.

Thirdly, what kind of integrated public transport allows a company to spend a significant sum ‘redesigning’ a major train station (Connolly) that will in effect be used as an interlink for four modes of transport (DART, Mainline, LUAS and Bus) but in such a way that it is almost impossible to conveniently make your way through the building.

Welcome to understanding CIE. I’ve been trying for 13 years and I’m still not there (rather like Irish Rail not being there yet but getting there!)

With the advent of LUAS and the development of the docklands, Connolly should have benefitted from a massive redevelopment to truly make it a functional and effective transport hub. Unfortunately, CIE seem to have neither the imagination or the business sense to see this.

Hear hear.

New Luas link to the Point could cost an extra €50m

THE Luas light railway may be extended 1.6km from Dublin’s Connolly Station to the Point Theatre – at a cost of €50m . . . or €31,250 per metre.

It would end the long slog on foot for music fans from the city centre to the Point and improve public transport for 30,000 people due to live and work in the north docks area.

If the line is approved by Transport Minister Seamus Brennan, the cost will be shared by Dublin City Council, the capital’s Docklands Development Authority, private docklands developers and the State’s Railway Procurement Agency, which unveiled the new line yesterday.

Developers building high-rise apartments and office blocks in the rapidly-growing north docklands – between the IFSC and the Point – have been hit with a levy to pay for more than half the cost.

The Railway Procurement Agency said it will make a compelling business case to the minister for the line, following a period of public consultation. It could be completed by 2006.

However, possibly extending Luas to the Point raised serious questions yesterday about the decision three years ago to remove the approach ramp to Connolly Station at a cost of €30m to allow Luas enter the station at ground level.

Had the ramp been left in place there could have been a stop at Harbourmaster Place, at the rear of the station. This would have allowed passengers journey from Connolly to the Point without first having to enter the station and be ‘reversed out,’ as would now happen. Work on removing the ramp is continuing this week.

RPA chief executive Frank Allen said the ramp was being taken away on foot of a rail order, following a public inquiry relating to extension of the Tallaght-Middle Abbey Street line to Connolly Station.

Any question of keeping it was now “academic” and “would not make any sense at this stage”.

The agency would prepare a business case for extending the line, including how to fund it.

DDDA chief executive Peter Coyne said 20,000 people would work in the area by 2006 and a further 10,000 would live there.

Three possible routes for the line, called C1, have selected, with a final choice to be made within the next three months.

Route options are:

* Double track, extending from the Luas terminal stop at Connolly Station across the junction of Harbourmaster Place and Mayor Street along this street, across a bridge over the Royal Canal and continuing towards a Point Depot terminus.

* A second option is double track from Busarus, turning north along Harbourmaster Place and east of Connolly towards the IFSC entrance. A single track would continue through the laneway beside Connolly Station into Sheriff Street and continue eastwards before turning south to run along Commons Street, east along Mayor Street, crossing the Royal Canal and on to the Point.

* Third option is a single-line loop along Harbourmaster Place down the laneway east of Connolly, onto Sheriff Street, Commons Street and Mayor Street, with links between Busarus and Connolly Luas stops.

Treacy Hogan
Environment Correspondent

Yeah! Cross-subsidies – hey it’s all free money anyway (the taxpayer – who’s that???).

This smells of the Infrastructural planning comptetence we’ve all come to know and love in our dear nation. There’s no money now for a traffic bridge near Red Cow so Luas is going to have to battle it out against traffic on the raod at a major junction – and Luas is supposed to allieviate the current traffic problems we have???

Yes – very big – uPVC windows (oh sorry wrong thread!)

I remember in the original DDDA plan for IFSC there was to be a giant fountain here!!!!
Maybe its to compensate for the loss of this to the city??

Sorry, but ramps are notoriously expensive. A ramp cost €500Bn to remove from the front of the Gare du Nord in Paris. A ramp was removed for an estimated €7,000Bn from the front of a house in Ballybrack in 1987….

Not quite. I am mesmerised as to how people make these estimates… Rip off Ireland continues…..

Think of the possibilities that €30m could do for the DDDA – all those extra O’Briens Sandwich outlets (should pay for a for a few franchises) and maybe (shock!) another bar in the area – bringing the grand total to three!
Think of the full colour brochures full of glossy pictures of imaginary bridges crossing the liffey – and buildings not actually designed by STW – and people … after six o’clock!

Originally posted by StephenC
Nore fun, frollicks and fracas at CIE over the Ramp. I honestly wonder how these companies get through the day to day stuff never mind the long term strategic view if they can’t even talk to each other!

Simple really, They’re given a budget each year and have to spend it all before the end of the year or they lose it and possibly part of next years allocation also. Therefore they just do whatever they did last year and maybe a bit more. No strategy other than to spend their budget and ensure that so-n-so doesn’t find out what they are doing until they have done it.

I have come to the conclusion no one knows what the hell they are up to in government – especially when one state body is taking legal action against another.

Yes Ireland has gone mental.

Hi all,

I’ve been seriously overloaded at work (I’m on call 24×7 as well as putting in a full working day) and I’ve seriously neglected my website duties of late!

However, a couple of LUAS Updates are in the works.

On Sat 12th April I walked the line between Hueston and Connolly and took about 100 photos documenting the construction along there – the best of which will go up as Update Number 5 maybe this weekend.

It’s by far the most interesting of all the stretches of LUAS line, going as it does through some really varied inner-urban backstreets – particularly like the section by the old match factory, and passing the fruit and veg market (what a building!).

Very shortly after that I intend to have No6, which will catch up on progress on the remainder of Line A, and also Line B.

Btw, the bridge at Ranelagh was put in place over the last weekend, and there has been substantial progress on track construction in as far as Milltown Viaduct (with the odd gap).

I’ll try really hard this weekend to get some stuff up, and report back here on Monday.

Gabriel

Yes too many bodies responsible for transport/planning etc.. what do they all do? Just talk a lot and fight with each other.

Btw, Gabriel’s website is Excellent!!!!!!!!!