DTO to prepare Transport Strategy to 2030

The Dublin Transportation Office is to develop a new Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), which will set out the infrastructure and other requirements for the region for the period 2010-2030.

The new Strategy will be published in two years' time and will be the successor to the DTO's previous strategy proposal - A Platform for Change: Strategy 2000-2016 - published in 2000, which was the first plan to propose Luas, Metro and a Quality Bus Network for the GDA (Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow).

The DTO Strategy Team's plans include major consultation - to involve all companies, agencies and representative groups involved in providing and using transportation in the region - as well as an inclusive public consultation programme, which will invite views, suggestions and feedback from everyone in Ireland.

Extensive use of the DTO's state-of-the-art Transportation Modelling software will be used to determine the ideal transport network, modes, capacities and frequencies to cater for the levels of demand forecast for the region in 20 years' time.

To prepare the Strategy, the DTO has issued a comprehensive Tender Notice, which includes -

* Transport and land use planning advice (transport infrastructure and services, demand-side measures)
* transport/land use studies;
* data collection (transport, land use and environmental);
* data analysis;
* transport and land use modelling work (including enhancement of DTO model and model calibration);
* data analysis;
* Strategic Environmental Assessment - and
* related technical and administrative advice.

Announcing the move, DTO Director/CEO John Henry said - "Transport impacts on everyone and has a direct impact on people's quality of life. It is timely that we are now starting to visualise the type of City and Region we want for the year 2030 and putting the plans in place that will meet those objectives and take us there.

"We will be involving all the agencies involved in providing transport in the GDA and we will be seeking the involvement of people living and working in the region - as well as people living throughout the rest of Ireland, who visit their Capital region for leisure or other reasons."

Mr Henry added - "We will also be involving policy-makers from other relevant sectors - including Environment, Land Use, Health, Education and Energy - in our planning. Real improvements in quality of life for all Dubliners will come from coordinating all our long-term planning in this way."