Wither Mountjoy Metro Station

Victor · 28-07-2006 1:09am #1

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/8544548?view=Eircomnet

McDowell reveals plans for jail redevelopment
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 27th July, 2006

Housing for several thousand people on a site worth €200 million is envisaged for the current location of Mountjoy prison in plans laid out by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell this afternoon.

Mr McDowell introduced his development team for the project this morning at the Department of Justice building.

Shi-Fu Peng, of Heneghan Peng Architects, explained that by 2013 Mountjoy Village would be a "community that can re-engage with the character of the villages around it".

The optimism inside the press conference was in contrast to sentiments outside, however, where residents from the Rolestown and St Margaret's Action Group had gathered to voice their anger at the lack of consultation over the new prison site at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin.

Formerly a farm, Thornton Hall is a 150-acre site and represented the cheapest option for the Government at €200,000 per acre or a total of €29 million. The new prison is scheduled for completion in 2010 and features "very big scope for outdoor recreation", according to Mr McDowell.

In his presentation the Minister outlined the selection procedure that resulted in the choice of Thornton Hall and described it as an "open and transparent process".

However, Teresa McDonnell of Rolestown and St Margaret's Action Group claimed the residents of her area have been completely left out of the process. She described the site as "unsuitable, unsustainable and in the heart of an agricultural area.

"There is no infrastructure and there is still no plan for infrastructure," she said. "In January 2005 we got a letter around our houses saying that people would be meeting within a couple of weeks. We are still waiting for that meeting.

"We had one meeting with the Minister after 15 months in which he said that he will not talk to or meet with anybody who is against this proposed plan. So he is not going to meet with residents of our area."

The Oireachtas will have to approve the plans for the site, which are yet to be drawn up, before April next year.

In a decision that is not up for discussion, according to the Minister, the site will house the new Central Mental Hospital after its relocation from Dundrum. This will leave a site worth approximately €300 million in south Dublin.

He dismissed suggestions that this would be a clumsy "symbolic" gesture and argued that it would all be taken care of in the "design process".

Mr McDowell was also keen to allay fears that the Mountjoy Village development would be exclusive and affordable only for a few.

He said the aim was to "look to a broader concept of urban renewal in order to bring families back to the city centre".

popebenny16 · 28-07-2006 11:39am

It poses a dilemma ok, dosnt it, for the RPA. They will have a stop in the Mater Hospital, there will be a stop in or around the Mobhi Road/Griffith Avenue area. The prefered option at the moment is to have a station either under or beside Drumcondra Railway station where a physical connection can be made to the Midland Line from where we understand the Dunboyne/Navan railway will come.

But this plan above for mountjoy, and probably a similar one for Dalymount Park, coupled with the re-development of the shopping centre, shows how much this part of the city is changing, and will continue to change, over the next ten years or so. There will be time for submissions in relation to the location of the stations. If this village scheme can somehow acccomodate a railway station for the midland line and this inigrates with Metro then the ball is back firmly in IE's court to re-configure Glasneven/Liffey junctions so that Maynooth trains go that way as well.

Winters · 28-07-2006 1:18pm

Simple, reopen Glasnevin Railway Station.

popebenny16 · 28-07-2006 2:56pm

They cant, its on the other line, where the LTC is and acrsoss the Canal and Withworth Road to boot. By opening a station in this village complex its the same thing. There are people who will say that its a bit too complex and complicated to re-jig the junctions. We live in a world where airports can be built on artificial islands made for the project. How can it be to hard to re-change a junction?

Unless you're in IE, and couldnt be bothered to do it of course. I've a 5 year old son whose favourite phrase is "I cant do it" which is understandable, he's five. Theres no such excuse with IE and their apologists saying it. Just do it, ffs. If it means abandoning Drumconrda station or giving it half services so be it, its a simple choice of what station would serve the greater amount of people.

Winters · 28-07-2006 4:40pm

Well seeing as it's more than likely that the metro north line shall be going via Drumcondra rather than 'Botanic' then the reopening of Glasnevin Station on the Sligo line would be more beneficial to the whole Phibsborough and Glasnevin areas that were previously served by the 'Botanic' station. Remember also that the DART shall be routed from Bray to Maynooth and Pace via the Sligo line rather than the Midland line. It's not a case of 'can't', it's a case of how much and who's paying for it.

popebenny16 · 28-07-2006 4:47pm

It's not a case of 'can't', it's a case of how much and who's paying for it.

Yes, that's it. How much does it cost to CPO a tennis club, and probably a pub?

Winters · 28-07-2006 5:04pm

Why do you think that they shall need to be acquired?

dam099 · 28-07-2006 9:06pm

Winters wrote:

Why do you think that they shall need to be acquired?

I don't really know whether they will or not so I'll leave that discussion to others but one thing I have noticed in a few threads on here is that there is much discussion of what can be fit in the existing Iarnrod lands etc. but not as much discussion of CPO's in general. Now obviously CPO's will add to the cost but is it really that much in the overall scheme of things that if a CPO is necessary to do a station right that it should not be at least considered?

Victor · 28-07-2006 11:42pm

If I owned those sites, I'd be tripping over myself to have a DART station and Metro station. A CPO wouldn't be needed. I'd build the stations myself.

Then I'd build my nice big office block on top.

popebenny16 · 29-07-2006 12:44am

The tennis club is where the old Glasnevin Station was, it is right on Cross Gunns Bridge, only logical place for a station on that line given its proximity to Phibsboro and the redevelopment of Mountjoy and the fact that it is far enough away from Drumcondra station which is only just up the road to enable a train to stop accellerate and stop agin and make some time. The pub is right next door, but there may be plenty of space in the Tennis club grounds.

The rest of the line to Drumcondra station is made up of housing, same difference I suppose.

As for building their own station, I think the proof of it will be in the pudding, as it were, if this is a runner at all they'll propose one at least in the Mountjoy submission.

Wither Mountjoy Metro Station

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