Trouble in Dublin?…….”No”

I have to agree with you, they may take time but at least we get there in the end.

………However the processes of planning approval and actually carrying out work are just too bloody slow!

lets just hope that economy holds out, fianna fail get out of government, that we aren’t wading through piles of rubbish (well more than we are now!) and the world hasn’t gone into another disaster by the time the metro plan are finished. 15 years is a very ling time, can we make it!

aaaargh!

sorry.

Frank will still have the slight matter of our huge rubbish supply to talk about.

Rubbish problems aside, its all looking hopeful. Almost forgot! Urban sprawl! Ah well, can’t have everything.

Does anyone else here think that the proposed metro is another white elephant? Why can’t the politicians stop bitching over what door Liam Lawlor walked through at Dublin airport and do something about the crap public transport that exists today? If we had an effecient bus service, which wouldn’t be too hard to achieve, there would be no need for this metro. Let me use Barcelona’s public transport service as an example as it’s the one I am most familiar with outside of Dublin.

They have a simple ticketing system, 10 journeys on any mode of transport for 5.60 euro. Once the ticket is validated, you can travel for 1hr 15mins. These tickets can be bought anywhere, there’s no need for some stupid ID and the ticket can be shared. Furthermore, all bus stops have city maps with the bus route you’re on clealy marked out so that the in-frequent traveller knows straight away where the on-coming bus will be going. Finally, could we please get rid of all double-decker buses? They have zero space downstairs and because you can’t see if there is space upstairs, the areas next to the doors are the first to become over-crowded. Just because they use them in Britain do we have to also or are they used somewhere else that I’m unaware of?
I could go on but I’d better get back to work. Here is a link to TMB, Barcelona’s public transport system which you may find interesting. http://www.tmb.net/eng/home.htm

Whoa, I’d better go get some fresh air and calm down a bit! Anyway, just wanted to say that – can’t wait to meet some politicians canvassing over the next few months.

I think that the Metro is a necessary addition to the city’s transport infrastructure HOWEVER I also thuink that it woild be better complete the exisiting projects such as ALL Luas lines and ALL the QBC and then see how necessary it is and how it would compliment the exisiting set up. To be honest I forsee the DART factor rearing it ugly head – 1986 a much promised and heralded system that would run from Malahide to Greystones with a spur to the Airport – 2000 only then are the Malahide and Greystones sections completed and the airport run is quietly shelved. Also we can hardly say the quality of that system is good. New rolling stock yes but the stations in general are abysmal – most importantly the 3 city centre stations.
Personally I think we could do a lot better with exisiting resources and a fully built LUAS. Less concentration on the the city centre so that other areas outside get a chance to develop and grow. More cross city routes (removing buses parked in our streets), a LUAS spur to the Airport to replace the 7-8 different services operating there, better road construction so that we can have more QBC without the need to deprive everyone else of road usage, an integrated sytem with one authority responsible for all the public transport in the city thereby able to plan more effectively and efficiently.
As usual all will be different in 2-3 years as we are so fond of hearing. I wont hold my breath…. (God arent I cynical)

Not sure I´m in agreement with all of Joey´s comments… granted the Barca bus system is good… however Barca also has an extensive Metro system, along with an urban rail system (which has a link to the airport)… and the centre of the city is still clogged with traffic !! Therefore if u were to cut the Metro and urban rail systems I honestly wonder how well a bus system ALONE can begin to solve a city´s traffic problems…

I think Dublin badly needs this Metro… granted getting the QBCs working should be kept a priority but QBCs will always be limited in Dublin as they can´t go very far in most areas without having to rejoin the normal traffic flow… a LUAS system will also have to deal with on-street traffic as well as Dublins very well disciplined pedistrians !! That said the sight of an oncoming train should be reason enough to get the f#ck off the road !!

A metro is one of the few/only (??) means of transporting significant numbers of people quickly and freely… and completely independent of above ground happenings… ok it will cost but what Metro system has ever been cheap ?!? But what city regret the investment ?!?

Stockholm is another case where one has a fantastic metro system… an urban rail system and pretty good bus service all combined to provide a damn good public transport network… the road network is pretty good too… but are there still holdups and traffic jams ??? OF COURSE THERE ARE… it is close to imposible to remove traffic jams from any urban area as people will always be tempted to use their car…

Thing is in Dublin one usually little alternative… and considering the urban sprawl that is Dublin, cars will always be necessary…. hopefully LUAS, QBCs, DART, ARROW AND METRO can combine to ease the situation and give people a valid alternative…

Anyway in Barca for the week so don´t want to waste too much time in an internet cafe… that said €1.20 for 1 hour of damn fast interet connection is not bad… computers even have those cool flat screens, webcam and phone…

Fair points although greater Barcelona has a population about 4 times the size of Dublin.
Also, heard Frank M on the radio over the weekend say that the government commissioned independent consultants to produce an evaluation report on the viability of a metro for Dubln which they did and concluded that it wasn’t but the government rejected their findings anyway.
Ah well, as it’s election year, we can expect to be promised the sun moon and stars from anyone looking for a vote.

Ah yes comittees.

Delaying tactics more like

I remember going to the concluding report of the Dublin Transportation Initiative in Trinity College in 1991 (I think – could have been even earlier) and it ahd all the strategies layed out – port tunnel, Luas, QBC, reopening of old rail lines (Navan, Harcourt street etc spurs to Tallaght off the Kildare line, Blanchardstown off the Sligo line, the Kildare line to go under the Phoenix park and terminate in Connolly). Absolutely everything.

How much of this has happened – half arsed conversion of the Kildare line, painfully slow progress on both the Luas and the Port Tunnel, and a few QBCs. Twelve years or so later. I know Rome wasn’t built in a day but how did we get to the situation that we are in?

Simple answer – procrastination on the part of the Politicians – if the will was there to do it, then it would have been done years ago. A lá emergency legislation for Larry Goodman etc done in a matter of hours. I see Minister O’Rourke wants the Navan (Broadstone) line reopened – this was suggested in the comprehensive survey by the DTI. Yet the insists we need another committee to decide on this – then probably a public inquiry. Why not JUST DO IT? This will hold things up for at least 3 years. By Which time we will be heading towards another election.

The only solution is to create an infrastructure agency that is independent from the corrupt/inept world of Irish politics.

RORY W. I COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!!!!!!!!

IT HAS BEEN ABOUT TEN YEARS AND WILL BE ANOTHER 10 YEARS AT LEAST BEFORE THE POWERS TO BE DO ANYTHING. WELL SAID!