'Over budget, over time, over and over again' - the curse of thinking too big

Last Thursday saw the release by the National Transport Authority (NTA) of the preferred routing for the next addition to the Dublin tram system, formerly called Metro North and re-christened MetroLink. This will be an expansion of capacity on the existing Green line from Sandyford in the south of the city and a new line, much of it underground, through the city centre and on northwards to the airport and Swords. The trams will be bigger than those originally ordered for the Red and Green lines but will operate on the same gauge of track, narrower than mainline or suburban rail. They will squeeze in 500 passengers, mainly standing, when fully loaded, versus around 300 for the shorter first-generation Luas trams. Suburban trains are bigger and can take 1,000 passengers or even more. Total cost for MetroLink is estimated at €3,000m, which would make it easily the most expensive single project ever undertaken in Ireland.

Read the full article @ Irish Independent

DART airport plan on track as Metro North hits the buffers

THE high-profile €2.5bn Metro North project is set to be shelved in favour of a 20-year-old plan to build an extension of the DART line to Dublin Airport, the Irish Independent has learned.

The Government has ordered Iarnrod Eireann to update the 1991 plan to build a 6.5km spur just after Clongriffin DART Station to the airport.

It is estimated the overground rail project would cost just €300m and provide a high-speed link-up to the city centre at a fraction of the cost of the underground Metro plan.

The move comes amid major concerns about funding the €2.5bn Metro North light-rail system, which was due to run from St Stephen's Green to Swords via the airport.

The DART extension was first mooted in 1991 by Iarnrod Eireann and Aer Rianta.

It was later suggested in 2005 as part of the Government's ambitious Transport 21 programme, but rejected at the time in favour of Metro North.

However, the Government has now ordered the rail company to revisit the plan because it is an affordable solution to providing Dublin Airport with a rail link to the city centre.

Under the revised plan, DART trains would run from Dublin Airport every 15 minutes from 5am to 1am, reaching Pearse or Connolly stations in just over 20 minutes.

The airport DART station would be built next to the airport terminals and would enable travellers from as far away as Greystones, Co Wicklow, to travel direct to the airport on trains.

Land costs would be minimal, as much of the land needed is agricultural and undeveloped, and there would be no need to buy extra trains.

Passengers numbers are expected at 10,000 a day and a park-and-ride site could be built nearby, probably close to the M1 motorway, to allow commuters from Swords to use the service to and from the city.

This and the airport terminus would be the only new stations on the line.

Total construction costs are estimated at €300m, including the cost of purchasing land, and the project could be completed in just three years. Up to 3,000 jobs would be created.

Design

"There's a lot of detailed design and a planning application needed," an Iarnrod Eireann spokesman said.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar last week said just one of three major capital investment projects would go ahead from DART Underground (€2bn), Metro North (€2.5bn) or the link-up of the two Luas lines, called BXD.

But he also added a fourth project into the decision process -- the DART airport link.

"It is not a new proposal and has been raised before. . . However, if we cannot proceed with Metro North on the basis of cost, it may be a viable alternative," Mr Varadkar told the Irish Independent last night.

"Cost will be a very important consideration when deciding on future investments. We must ensure that any new project is affordable."

Both DART Underground and Metro North are due to be financed under Public Private Partnerships (PPP), where the private sector builds the lines and the State repays the cost over time. But sourcing funding is difficult because of the economic situation.

Mr Varadkar added: "In the absence of available PPPs, upcoming projects will have to be on a smaller scale, with costs running to hundreds of millions of euros rather than billions."

The Government has ordered a review of the capital spending programme which will be completed in the autumn, but it is understood a decision on the airport link could be made before the summer.

Paul Melia
Irish Independent

www.buckplanning.ie

Meeting of residents and council recorded

EXCHANGES BETWEEN residents of Blackrock, Co Dublin, and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager Owen Keegan became heated yesterday, when the residents discovered they were being photographed and their meeting was being recorded.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, which acknowledged a member of its staff took photographs, later said the action had been inappropriate and the images would be deleted.

Residents from the Brookfield Park and Rowanbyrn estates have been halting construction on a local road on an intermittent basis over recent days in a bid to have two bus lanes dropped from the scheme.

The locals claimed the bus lanes were not on any bus route and would result in a four-lane “highway” outside their homes.

As they made their points to Mr Keegan at an on-site meeting yesterday morning, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett asked a man standing behind and to one side of Mr Keegan: “Do you mind me asking why you are filming? ”

The man, wearing a yellow jacket and hard hat, said he was simply “taking photos”.

A number of residents pointed out that other men in yellow jackets and hard hats were holding mobile phones with the lenses pointing towards protesters. At this point Mr Keegan asked the man with the camera what he was doing and was told: “I am photographing the site”.

However, some residents said the incident was designed to intimidate them and they claimed to have been warned by staff of construction company Siac that they would face a court injunction and possible jail if they did not give up their protest. There was heckling of Mr Keegan.

In his discussion with the residents, Mr Keegan said he was prepared to discuss a number of design issues including the completion or extension of garden walls, treatment of hedges and paths as well as planting and other measures, but he said he was powerless to do anything about the bus lanes, which had been a condition of the Bord Pleanála planning decision.

Following the board’s decision, he had taken the project to the elected councillors asking them to vote on it and they had approved the project. “That’s democracy,” he said.

Mr Keegan also said he believed putting in bus lanes where possible was good planning for the future. He noted comments from residents that there were just 200 metres of bus lanes before the roadway narrowed to about seven metres wide and the bus lanes were dropped. He rejected their assertions that buses would “never” use the lanes because Dublin Bus did not run buses on the road and would never do so. “We don’t know that,” he said.

In a statement later, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown said it was “common practice” to photograph development of a construction project. “However, the council accepts that in this particular instance, it was not appropriate,” the statement continued.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Blackrock locals risk jail in bus lane protest

RESIDENTS OF Blackrock, Co Dublin, said they will risk jail this morning in a bid to highlight their protest against the development of two bus lanes in their area.

The residents, many of whom campaigned unsuccessfully against the proposed Monkstown Ring Road, say they are protesting against plans for bus lanes on a 200m stretch of the route close to Brookfield Park and Rowanbyrn housing estates.

Graham Byrne, who took part in a protest at the site yesterday, said locals had previously sat in the buckets of digging machines.

They did so in a successful attempt to prevent work going ahead when vehicular access to their homes was threatened in recent weeks.

Mr Byrne said 12 locals had blocked the path of construction vehicles yesterday and would do so again today.

Mr Byrne said gardaí had warned protesters that if construction company Siac secured a court injunction against them, they could face jail.

However, Mr Byrne was adamant that locals “have not got a fair hearing” for their opposition to the development of the bus lanes.

He told The Irish Times that the proposed bus lanes would turn the relief road into “a four-lane highway” for 200m of the route at the point where it intersects with the access road to the Rowanbyrn and Brookfield estates.

He said the road reservation was not long enough for bus lanes along its entire length, which, in any event, he said, would interfere with the 46 route.

A spokesman from the council’s transport department confirmed that a protest had taken place in the morning.

However, he said the bus lanes along Rowanbyrn and Brookville Park were included in the original scheme, as approved by An Bord Pleanála.

The spokesman added: “Senior officers of the council met residents on a number of occasions in an effort to discuss their concerns. Notwithstanding these discussions, the site has been occupied by a number of people and the council now has genuine concerns about progressing the contract.”

The Monkstown Ring Road is designed to carry traffic from the Stillorgan Park area, across Newtownpark Avenue and across Deansgrange Road to Monkstown.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Metro, Dart key to councils' Dublin plan

DUBLIN’S LOCAL authorities are to campaign for the completion of Metro North and Dart underground as part of an economic development action plan aimed at developing the capital as an internationally competitive region.

The objective is to “position the Dublin city region, the engine of Ireland’s economy, as a significant hub in the European knowledge economy through a network of thriving sectoral and spatial clusters providing a magnet for creative talent and investment”.

This ties in with the Government’s new Smart Economy policy, which focuses on translating innovation into valuable processes, products and services.

The plan, launched yesterday, recognises that city regions are important drivers of national economies and that Dublin constitutes “the only international city region in Ireland” with a population significantly in excess of one million.

Lord Mayor Emer Costello said: “Businesses primarily locate in cities and their competitiveness is determined by the performance of the city, by the quality of its infrastructure, its development capacity and the mix of skilled and talented people.”

Noting the involvement of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin county councils, she said the plan was the first of its kind in the region. “We need a visionary leadership to deliver Dublin’s agenda,” she added. “The significance of having a single political voice has proven a successful concept in other city regions.”

Among the initiatives proposed are plans to “generate a brand” for the Dublin city region and to develop the Creative Dublin Alliance, a collaboration between local government, business and third-level institutions.

The action plan also proposes to develop “key economic corridors” to the south, north and west of the city, including the Metro North corridor, the Naas Road corridor and a southern corridor including Sandyford and Cherrywood. It also pledges to “embed economic criteria in the planning process”.

They are also to lobby for major infrastructural projects that are seen to be “critical to the economic success of the city”, including Metro North, Dart underground, broadband roll-out, waste and water management and a “definitive decision” on future of Dublin Port.

“Intellectual enterprise zones” are to target newly unemployed people who have the potential to become entrepreneurs. Support for the delivery of local cultural strategies and Dublin’s creative industries is seen as “essential”.

Cllr Mary Freehill, who chairs the Dublin Regional Authority, said publication of the action plan was “timely, not just because of the very serious climate . . . but also because we are at the draft stages of development plans in the four authorities”.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

College Green car ban to start within weeks

A hugely controversial car ban for Dublin City's College Green will be introduced within four weeks.

The city council's Transport 21 office has confirmed the peak-time prohibition will be brought in on July 27 - the last Monday of the month.

The council is planning a publicity campaign ahead of the start date, including a media briefing at the Bank of Ireland in College Green on July 20, when representatives from Dublin Bus and the council are expected to make presentations.

When the so-called 'bus gate' comes into effect, only buses and taxis will be allowed pass through the College Green area from 7am to 10am and from 4pm to 7pm - Monday to Friday. The drivers of private cars will have to find alternative routes through the city.

Dublin city councillors voted 15 to 12 in favour of the plans at May's meeting of the chamber.

"We're still in the process of finalising the whole media campaign" - Avo deBarra of the council's Transport 21 office told the Herald. "We've engaged the services of a PR company who are getting back to us with prices (for ads). Both print and the electronic media will be utilised" - Mr deBarra added. "In parallel with that, we'll be distributing information leaflets to the 24 public car parks in the city area" - he said.

While the full content has not been finalised, the leaflets will contain a map of the city centre, including the bus gate zone. It will also contain maps showing alternative routes motorists can take to cross the city.

Traffic signals - known as VMS signs - will be placed along the routes approaching College Green to direct motorists. The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has already warned the ban must not be allowed deter shoppers from travelling to Dublin city centre. One estimate puts job losses at 2,500 and lost revenue at €200m as a result of the restriction.

Chief executive of the Chamber, Gina Quinn, said her group's main concern is that the initiative "was due to happen as part of an overall plan for the build out of Metro North and the joining of the two Luas lines in the city centre".

She added - "The Samuel Beckett Bridge was supposed to be in place before College Green was closed to peak-time traffic. We were also supposed to have a public transport bridge across the river - as at Marlborough Street - and a real-time information system at all bus stops and by text for all users of Dublin Bus.

"What the chamber would have liked to have seen was that those measures would have been in place. Clearly, Dublin City Council has made the decision to bring the peak time ban for cars - Monday to Friday only - in advance of those measures."

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Civil service parking ban in city urged

SOME 60 per cent of cars parked in Dublin city centre’s shopping districts belong to civil servants, according to a study carried out by the Dublin City Business Association (DCBA).

The association has called for the scrapping of proposals for a city congestion charge and says civil servants should use public transport instead.

Tom Coffey, CEO of DCBA says traffic problems in the city centre would be solved if civil servants left their cars behind.

“If civil servants would use public transport instead of telling everyone else to use it we would see a drop in traffic congestion,” he said.

John Henry, chairman of the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) recently said a congestion charge could be considered as part of a new transport strategy for Dublin.

He also said traffic restrictions would be required prior to the construction of the Metro North line.

The DCBA study found that of the almost 22,000 parking spaces in the city, about 13,000 are used by civil servants, most of whom have free parking.

The figures show that 83,813 shoppers travel by car to the city centre, generally outside rush hour, every day and spend three times as much as those who use public transport.

Government income from city centre employment and business comes to €1.03 billion.

Mr Coffey said all parking for civil servants in Dublin 1 and Dublin 2 should be shut down and more QBCs and Luas lines be provided for commuters.

The city he said needs park and ride facilities at railway stations and QBC perimeters so that people commuting to work can leave their cars behind.

He said there were 22 car parks in the city centre frequented by driving shoppers who, according to DCBA research, travelled between 10am and 3.30pm and so did not add to congestion. He called for a move away from “persistent negative messages from the State sector” about avoiding the city centre. “Shoppers parking in the city centre paid €11 million a year in Vat on parking to the exchequer and the 4,000 rate-paying businesses contributed €1 billion.”

He said 80 per cent of shoppers who drive are women and they spend three times as much as those who visit the city on public transport.

“Public servants can’t distinguish between shoppers and commuters, it amounts to a public servant proposing that a woman should come shopping on a bicycle.” He called for a “rational debate” on the issue.

The DCBA has also called for parts of the Metro North plan to be reconsidered. Metro North will connect Swords to Dublin city centre via Dublin airport.

The 17km-long route will have underground stops at St Stephen’s Green, O’Connell Bridge, Parnell Square, the Mater hospital, Drumcondra, Griffith Avenue, Dublin City University, Ballymun and Dublin airport. Mr Coffey said plans to use a “cut and cover” process to mine in O’Connell Street, D’Olier Street and Westmoreland Street would have a detrimental effect on city centre businesses. If every business in the area lost one employee, 4,000 would lose their jobs, he said.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

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."

Major traffic changes to make M50 even worse

TRAFFIC on the M50 motorway is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, the National Roads Authority (NRA) admitted yesterday.

Sweeping new traffic arrangements being put in place from tomorrow are likely to lead to further congestion on the northbound lanes of the motorway, and it will be at least November before things improve.

Outlining the major diversions yesterday, a spokesman for the contractors SIAC Ferrovial said that traffic impact was "unavoidable" and diversions being put in place would take a "significant" period of time to "settle down".

But there was some good news. The N4 interchange is likely to be finished ahead of time, meaning commuters travelling into the city centre from Lucan should see improvements early in the new year.

The major changes affect the N4 (Lucan), N7 (Red Cow) and Ballymount interchanges. Traffic diversions will be put in place from tomorrow so that major works can be completed and the €1bn upgrade finished by its 2010 deadline.

Between now and Christmas there will also be some night-time work on the M50 as sign gantries must be erected, and it is hoped to have sections of the completed motorway opened to traffic in its final layout early next year.

Until then, two lanes of traffic will be open in each direction between 6am and 10pm, but lane reductions may come into effect at night-time. Also from next month, a recovery service will be put in place for the duration of the works in the event of accidents or cars breaking down.

The main changes affect the interchanges as they are transformed into freeflow spaghetti junctions, which will allow motorists to enter and exit the M50 without having to stop at traffic lights. The diversions should be complete by the end of November.

From tomorrow, the main changes to the N7 / Red Cow are:

l The off-ramp from the M50 southbound to N7 outbound (to Naas) will be closed. Traffic will continue to the Ballymount interchange where it can u-turn back to the N7 using a dedicated freeflow lane. This will be in place for up to four weeks. In early November, the new link from the M50 southbound to N7 outbound will be substantially completed and opened and the u-turn at Ballymount will cease.

l In mid-October, a new freeflow loop road allowing traffic coming from Naas on the N7 to enter the M50 southbound will be opened.

The main changes to the N4 (Lucan) interchange are:

l Traffic from the city centre going onto the M50 northbound will no longer be diverted via the Liffey Valley junction as a new freeflow loop roads will be opened.

l Vehicles coming from the city centre, and entering the M50 southbound lane, will be diverted via the Liffey Valley junction before making a u-turn and heading back towards the city centre where they can use a slip road to gain access to the southbound M50.

Irish Independent

New Luas line set for launch

A BRAND new Luas line from Lucan to Dublin city centre, capable of carrying 20 million passengers annually, will be unveiled today.

The F line is expected to be finished in 2013 and will serve Ballyfermot, Liffey Valley and Lucan.

It will open up a new tram corridor on the south inner city for areas that now have poor rail access.

The line will also connect to the existing Tallaght and Sandyford Luas lines, Irish rail commuter services and the proposed Metro North.

Irish Examiner

Car users challenged to take One Small Step

Car users in Dublin and surrounding counties have been challenged not to use their cars for at least some journeys every week - including local trips, school runs, convenience shopping and driving to work.

Congestion will continue to increase unless Dubliners start using public transport and walking or cycling more, according to the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO).

The DTO has launched the One Small Step initiative, which asks everyone to consider walking, cycling or using public transport where possible, for at least some trips each week.

New DTO research in Dublin and the Leinster counties shows -

* 52% of people said the car was their most often used way of getting around.
* 26% - or 1 in-4-people - think only of their car for all trips.
* 40% of car owners don't consider any travel options other than the car.
* 27% of all respondents said the car is preferable for short journeys of a mile or less.
* Half of all car owners (47%) take their car on these short journeys.
* 55% of short journey car-users said they were unlikely to consider walking instead.
* Only 3% of these short journey car-users said they were very likely to consider walking for short journeys of a mile or less, instead of using the car.

One Small Step
One Small Step is a significant public information campaign. It asks car drivers in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) the question - 'Did you need your car today?' - to encourage them to examine their car usage patterns and think about using other ways of getting around - such as walking, cycling or public transport - whenever they can. The campaign targets car drivers specifically through radio, billboard and bus advertising, media relations, an information website (www.onesmallstep.ie) and a schools programme.

A number of large public and private sector organisations are supporting the aims of this initiative. They include -

* Irish Life & Permanent plc
* AIB
* Vodafone
* the Dublin Airport Authority
* UCD
* RTE
* Department of Transport and Maritime Affairs
* Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government - and
* Department of Health and Children.

These organisations are introducing workplace travel planning as part of their ongoing corporate sustainability initiatives. Several of these will also pilot a specially developed online lift sharing system with the DTO.

DTO Director/Chief Executive, John Henry commented - "We're asking drivers to reduce car usage where and whenever possible and to use alternative transport, as appropriate. Where there are alternatives available - whether that's public transport or taking a fifteen or twenty-minute walk or cycle - then people should consider these options for at least some trips every week.

"As well as the health benefits - and the reduction in their carbon footprint - car users who make this small change, will, ultimately, make a big difference.

"If everyone left their car behind for just one trip each week, there would be 200,000 fewer car trips every day in the Greater Dublin Area - less traffic and less pollution. We are urging all car users to give this their serious consideration, in their own and everyone else's interests.

"People should reconsider their car usage in terms of their personal health, environmental sustainability, tackling traffic congestion and enhancing the overall quality of life that they expect to have in the future. This is not just about commuting, it applies to every aspect of car usage, including local trips.

"Nobody is telling motorists to stop using their cars altogether - but, what we have to realise is that it is not sustainable for us, as individuals, to continually increase car usage year after year. Changing driving habits can be hard - but, ultimately, people and the region will suffer unless we start to incorporate walking, cycling and public transport into at least some of our trips.

"The Government's Transport 21 investment plan delivers much-needed infrastructure to the Greater Dublin Area, but no amount of new roads or infrastructure is going to cope with that increasing travel demand, unless we see some change in travel habits.

"While car habits are notoriously difficult to change, the DTO's survey showed some room for optimism. Forty per cent of people stated that there is some opportunity for them to reduce car usage in the future and we now want that converted into action" - Mr. Henry concluded.

The Dublin Transportation Office was established in 1995 to co-ordinate the implementation by the relevant agencies of an agreed integrated transport strategy for the Greater Dublin Area, namely - The Dublin Transportation Initiative - which was adopted as Government policy in 1994.

Millward Brown IMS carried out a quantitative survey for the DTO on its end-May/early-June Omnibus Survey. The achieved sample size was 542 adults aged 15+ and was representative of the Dublin and rest of Leinster population.

Agencies rubbish reported €5bn cost of Metro

THE Department of Transport and the Railway Procurement Agency have rubbished claims that Dublin's Metro North rail system will cost over €5bn.

However, neither agency would say how much the project was likely to cost, citing "commercial sensitivity" and saying it would give companies an unfair advantage when bidding to build the 17km light-rail line.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to a newspaper suggest that officials put the cost of completing the line from the city centre to Lissenhall at over €4.5bn at 2004 prices.

Although all figures in the documents were blanked out, the Irish Times said it could "discern" that the projected cost was €4.58bn - which would probably rise to over €5bn.

But the Department of Transport refused to comment on the claims, saying that not until a bidder was chosen to build the line would the price be revealed.

The project would be built under a public private partnership (PPP), where the private sector would meet some of the cost and the State the rest of it.

"The Department of Transport has noted media speculation today on the potential cost of the Dublin North metro," a statement said. "In line with international best practice in the area of PPP projects, no estimates on the potential cost of this project have been made available by the department pending completion of the procurement process in the interests of extracting the best deal possible for the exchequer."

The RPA, which is tasked with delivering Metro North, said the figures were not in line with its cost projections. Metro North is designed to carry 34 million passengers a year.

"Way back in time, when we submitted the outline business case for cabinet approval, we didn't release the figures on the basis of cabinet confidentiality," a spokesman said. "The number I've seen (in the newspaper) doesn't ring any bells. The figure will not be released to avoid giving bidders a clear indication of what's expected."

If correct, the €5bn price tag will make Metro North - due for completion in 2013 - the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the State.

Paul Melia
Irish Independent

30kmh limit to protect cyclists and pedestrians - Council plan to reduce motoring fatalities in city

MOTORISTS are set to face a radical new 30kmh (18.6mph) speed limit throughout Dublin city centre and along the quays.
The new limit is 20kmh less than the current city-wide limit of 50kmh (31mph).
The far slower speed limit is being introduced to help prevent the deaths of cyclists and pedestrians, the Irish Independent has learned.
Key arteries including O'Connell Street, Dame Street, D'Olier Street, Westmoreland Street, and the north and southside quays all currently have a speed limit of 50kmh since the changeover to metric values.
Under the new Dublin City Council management initiative these will all be slashed to 30kmh along with every other street and road in the city centre core.
A small number of streets, including part of Talbot Street and Temple Bar, already have a 30kmh limit but the vast majority are set at 50kmh, including the high traffic volume routes. In order to effect the changes, the council has held top-level discussions with the National Roads Authority. Because streets such as O'Connell St and Westmoreland St are designated as national primary roads, they will have to be delisted so that the new limit can be introduced.
The NRA has agreed to delist all of the roads inside the M50 as national primary routes to facilitate the new limit, it was also learned. It is expected that other councils in cities such as Cork, Galway and Limerick may follow the lead set by Dublin in bringing in a radically lower city centre speed limit.
Tim O'Sullivan, senior Dublin City Council traffic executive, said yesterday: "We are going to introduce a new lower speed limit of 30kmh in the very core of the city centre. It is a safety issue and is a no-brainer.
"The change is imminent. All of the studies show that when you have a speed limit of 20mph in the old values, then safety for cyclists and pedestrians is radically improved." Success
The new limit will be backed with upgrading of the traffic light system and a new raft of speed limit signs. The 30kmh limit will be presented to a special traffic committee of the council before going out to public consultation.
After that, a new bylaw will be introduced setting the new legal limit for motorists.
Mr O'Sullivan said they were now in a position to make the change following on from the success of the Dublin Port Tunnel in removing thousands of trucks from the quays and the city centre and the introduction of new quality bus corridors.
"This is about promoting the safety of cyclists and pedestrians," said the city council traffic chief.

Treacy Hogan
© Irish Independent

We're going underground

A NEW €1.3bn tunnel vision for Dublin being unveiled today might raise more than a few sceptical eyebrows and even hearty laughs from stressed-out commuters.

It involves an underground DART running 5.3km in a giant tunnel under the River Liffey between Heuston Station and the Docklands, with stops along the way.

Commuters would be able to take the DART underground through the heart of Dublin city to Christchurch Cathedral.

Throw in DART extensions to Maynooth and Dunboyne and, hey presto, 100 million commuter journeys will have been made by trains instead of cars.

But will it be that simple?

The track record for major infrastructure projects here has not been good. We have two Luas lines that don't meet and massive cost over-runs and delays that clobbered the Luas and Port Tunnel projects, while chronic overcrowding on trains drives commuters round the twist at peak times.

An official project being unveiled today by Iarnrod Eireann and due to go before Bord Pleanala for approval may appear to many to be yet another pipedream.

Like the buses and trains, we wait ages for one, and then along come two or three. We have a raft of plans for Metros and new Luas lines - and now an underground DART through the heart of the city centre under the River Liffey.

Commuters will be waiting anxiously to see if there is light at the end of the tunnel vision for 2015.

However, rail bosses are adamant that the biggest infrastructural project since the Port Tunnel will actually happen, possibly even sooner than the target completion date of 2015.

And the track record of Iarnrod Eireann in delivering new infrastructure and expanding rail services has been very good of late.

The money is there and the underground DART tunnel under the Liffey between Heuston and the Docklands goes out to public consultation today.

Iarnrod Eireann will lodge a formal planning application with Bord Pleanala and start building it in 2010 after the usual Irish-style planning wrangles and compensation claims are sorted.

Linking

The underground DART will run from Heuston Station to Christchurch, on to St Stephen's Green, through Pearse Station, under the Liffey before linking up with the new Docklands station beside Connolly.

The line involves:

* Northern line DART services from Balbriggan and Howth, which will branch off the existing line after Clontarf Road.

* It goes underground at Docklands Station where it connects with the Luas line from Tallaght.

* It continues to Pearse, connecting with what will be the Maynooth to Bray DART line.

* It moves on to St Stephen's Green where it connects with the Luas line from Sandyford and the Metro to the airport.

* The line continues underground to Christchurch and Heuston, linking again with the Tallaght Luas, and intercity and commuter rail services before moving above ground to Hazelhatch in Kildare.

The line will quadruple city rail capacity from the present 25 million passenger journeys annually to over 100 million.

Funding for the ambitious project has been committed by the Government in the Transport 21 programme.

The new line will dramatically increase frequency and capacity for commuters on DART Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines.

The plan includes the extension of the DART to Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Dunboyne.

Rail chiefs are gambling that it will be the single most important piece of infrastructure to convince people to move from their cars to public transport.

Crucially, the new city centre DART underground will link DART, commuter rail, Intercity, Luas and Metro to form an integrated network.

Iarnrod Eireann have yet to decide whether to locate the station directly beneath the River Liffey at the Docklands, with station entrances from both the north and south quays.

Plans for the DART Underground - to be called Dublin's Interconnector - are going on display to allow the public to view station options and routes.

Open days are being held at Dublin City Council's civic offices at Wood Quay on July 3 and 4.

Barry Kenny, Iarnrod Eireann spokesman, said yesterday that the tunnel from Docklands to Heuston Station would complete the transformation of the Greater Dublin area's rail-service capacity.

The Dart station for Christchurch will be located on the High Street area, with three alternative sites on view for the public.

Treacy Hogan
Irish Independent

Motorists fume stuck beside empty unused bus corridors

SO MANY bus corridors, so few buses.

Over a dozen bus lanes and quality bus corridors in Dublin are finished and ready for use - but there are no buses to serve them.

Yesterday, it emerged that 13 bus lanes had been completed, but that a shortage of buses means they are not being used and motorists are being forced to sit in long tailbacks each day in single-lane traffic.

They include a two-kilometre 24-hour lane on one of the most heavily-congested roads in the capital - the N32 from the M50 junction to the Malahide Road - which has not been commissioned despite being finished two years ago.

Another QBC on the Rock Road linking the city centre to Blackrock is unused, and is not set to open until mid-summer.

The dedicated bus lanes which are finished, but not yet open for business, include the Pennyhill to Ballyowen Road in Clondalkin; Belgard Road; Leopardstown Road to Sandyford; Kingswood north to Ballyowen; Hole in the Wall to the north fringe, Clongriffin; Ongar Road, Dublin 15; Cherrywood Road; Enniskerry to Dundrum; Exit of Sandyford Industrial Estate to the Sandyford Road; Blackthorn Drive to Sandyford and another at Wyckham Way.

They are not being used because of the shortage of buses available to Dublin Bus and because of a spat between the Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrats government over opening new routes to private operators. Local authorities also required developers to install bus lanes when they received planning permission to build new homes, but many of these are unused.

Services

Dublin Bus said it expects to have more services operating later in the summer when 100 new buses go into service.

"We have half the 100 buses in place and by the end of the summer we should have them all in place," a spokesman said. "There would be a relatively limited number of sections unused."

The Dublin Transportation Office said that most bus lanes did not take away road space available to private motorists, and that there was an "overall plan" to roll-out more dedicated bus lanes.

"The Leopardstown Road to Sandyford lane is in place but not yet fully utilised. The QBC has been there for some time but is waiting for bus routes. A decision was taken not to wait until the physical buses were in place.

"There is an overall plan, but there will be some gaps in the service until buses come on stream."

But south Dublin residents could find themselves with a headache when the Rock Road QBC opens later this summer because one lane previously available to cars will be gone.

"The Rock Road QBC is a contentious scheme because there's less road space," a spokesman for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county council said.

"That will be open after the Leaving Cert but it's been in a state of readiness for the last two or three months. Dublin Bus has said it will reorganise its number four route which will justify opening it, but it's likely to be quite difficult for people when the full force of traffic returns in September."

Paul Melia
Irish Independent

Dublin Chamber - 5-point plan to tackle traffic gridlock

A 5-point plan to tackle traffic gridlock in Dublin has been announced by Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Dublin Chamber state that, in the absence of an adequate public transport system, many employees are forced to commute the equivalent of a day and half of working time each week - nearly 10 hours. The Chamber believes that action must be taken immediately to address this issue and have produced an emergency plan to sort out Dublin's traffic gridlock.

In the plan, Dublin Chamber urges that the following emergency actions be taken immediately -

1. Increase the bus fleet currently serving the Dublin Region by 200 within a year. Private operators should be given unfettered access to the city with immediate effect - in particular in relation to the development of new routes not covered by Dublin Bus.
2. Work on the M50 extension should be conducted 24 hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week in order to ensure that this project of national strategic importance is completed ahead of schedule.
3. Accelerate progress on all projects listed in T21 to the stage that they are ready for procurement by the end of 2008, if resources permit.
This will require that the NRA, RPA and CIE are adequately resourced - perhaps by the deployment of public servants from other State Agencies and bodies, such as local authorities.
4. Build 3,000 Park and Ride spaces for DART and bus users on land in public ownership.
5. Require, from September next, all secondary schools to provide a bus service for their pupils. This service should be tendered.

As a Public Service Obligation may arise, some routes should be subsidised where this need is clearly demonstrated.

Dublin Chamber - 5-point plan to tackle traffic gridlock

A 5-point plan to tackle traffic gridlock in Dublin has been announced by Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Dublin Chamber state that, in the absence of an adequate public transport system, many employees are forced to commute the equivalent of a day and half of working time each week - nearly 10 hours. The Chamber believes that action must be taken immediately to address this issue and have produced an emergency plan to sort out Dublin's traffic gridlock.

In the plan, Dublin Chamber urges that the following emergency actions be taken immediately -

1. Increase the bus fleet currently serving the Dublin Region by 200 within a year. Private operators should be given unfettered access to the city with immediate effect - in particular in relation to the development of new routes not covered by Dublin Bus.
2. Work on the M50 extension should be conducted 24 hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week in order to ensure that this project of national strategic importance is completed ahead of schedule.
3. Accelerate progress on all projects listed in T21 to the stage that they are ready for procurement by the end of 2008, if resources permit.
This will require that the NRA, RPA and CIE are adequately resourced - perhaps by the deployment of public servants from other State Agencies and bodies, such as local authorities.
4. Build 3,000 Park and Ride spaces for DART and bus users on land in public ownership.
5. Require, from September next, all secondary schools to provide a bus service for their pupils. This service should be tendered.

As a Public Service Obligation may arise, some routes should be subsidised where this need is clearly demonstrated.