Heuston and Luas Co-Dependency

Transport21 Fan

Thinking about this Kildare Route Project further it is going to cause mayhem piling all these people into the Luas when the project is finished. I would be interested in hearing about potential solutions in dealing with this before the Interconnector opens in many, many years from now.

Apart from the obvious dedicaited shuttle buses from Hueston to the main business districts, a Luas shuttle service has to happen. Once they get the 40M trams on the Red Line in service that'll help. But ultimately they are going to need LOADS more trams. I have seen trams in Vienna and Amsterdam literally up each others backsides...the LUAS has to reach these kind of frequencies and the resulting the capacity increase would be enormous. This is one of the main advantage the LUAS has over the DART and always will have...extremely tight headways.

Further down the timeline, if the the Lucan Luas line in T21 was routed via Coyningham Road and if the IE management developed enough vision to operate some of the Kildare services through the Park Tunnel and into Spencer Dock when it opens, then Platform 10 could really come into its own as an Interchange and reliving pressure on the main station at Hueston.

McKee Barracks is about to be redeveloped into one of the largest residential projects in the country and right next door could be the Lucan Luas/Platform 10 interchange.

any other ideas?

Andrew Duffy

Once Spencer Dock station is finished in 2008 (?) it is intended to terminate Kildare line commuter services there. The Interconnector tunnel proposed for 2013 will change this, as those services will go under the South city centre via Stephen's Green, Pearse and Spencer Dock and from there onto the existing Dart line to Balbriggan or beyond.

Zaph0d

How will Kildare services terminate in Spencer Dock before the interconnector is built? by using the Park Tunnel?

Vorsprung

Zaph0d wrote:

How will Kildare services terminate in Spencer Dock before the interconnector is built? by using the Park Tunnel?

Yep, I believe so. Interconnector is only for electrified rolling stock.

murphaph

Transport21 Fan wrote:

McKee Barracks is about to be redeveloped into one of the largest residential projects in the country and right next door could be the Lucan Luas/Platform 10 interchange.

That's a great idea if the Lucan Luas goes that way, but it seems unlikely IMO. The problem with running the luas that way is that population density is zilch north of Conynham road (though I would favour some hig quality development inside the park walls with a strict NO CAR OWNERSHIP policy-that's a different thread though) and the line would likely have serious difficulty climbing into Ballyfermot under either of the N4 overbridges so it may have to head straight out the N4 the way it used to and again, you hit the zero population density issue as the liffey valley won't see any development (and rightly so IMO) and to the south is very low density semi detached housing (quite some distance away actually). Personally I think te whole Luas to Lucan is silly when two heavy rail lines border Lucan and north-south shuttle buses could feed into them and have people in town a lot faster.

The Lucan Luas could be made work but personally I'd like to see it originate somewhere else completely on the southside before hitting town and on to Broombridge, preferably between the 'gap' between red and green lines (and I'm not a biased southsider!).

pork99

Transport21 Fan wrote:

McKee Barracks is about to be redeveloped into one of the largest residential projects in the country and right next door could be the Lucan Luas/Platform 10 interchange.

Surely you mean Clancy Barracks? McKee Barracks is on the Northside adjacent to the Garda Depot

Winters

Andrew Duffy wrote:

Once Spencer Dock station is finished in 2008 (?) it is intended to terminate Kildare line commuter services there. The Interconnector tunnel proposed for 2013 will change this, as those services will go under the South city centre via Stephen's Green, Pearse and Spencer Dock and from there onto the existing Dart line to Balbriggan or beyond.

Spencer Dock is due for completion in 2009 and as far as I know shall only be used for Maynooth line services (Only 2 or 3 platforms planned I think). The interconnector tunnel, the final piece of the whole IE Dublin Integrated Rail Plan, is due for completion in 2015.

Currently the preferred route for the Lucan Luas is Ballyowen Road, St. Lomans Road, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre (Interchange with metro west), Coldcut road, Ballyfermot Road, Kylemore Road (Interchange with DART) Bluebell (Rejoins Luas red line)

An extension to the plan is that the Lucan Luas line would diverge from the Luas Red Line at James' Street and run the length of Thomas St/Cornmarket/High St (Interchange with DART) /Christchurch Place/Dame Street/College Green/Westmoreland (Interchange with Luas Green line and metro north) and O'Connell Street (Interchange with Luas Green line and metro north). From there it could possibly follow either the Green line to Liffey Junction or the Red line to Connolly/Point Depot.

Chapelizod Road/Conyngham Road/Parkgate is far too underpopulated to warrent LRT. It is currently well served by buses 25 26 51 66 and 67 and all their different variations. Incidentelly the RPA offices are on Parkgate.

Ideally a station at Inchicore would serve the area your talking about or even better access to Heuston Station from north of the river and from the SCR.

Mark

Andrew Duffy

Kildare suburban services terminating in Spencer Dock via the Northside is approved - the folks in Platform 11 claim it as a major lobbying victory.

spacetweek

Andrew Duffy wrote:

Kildare suburban services terminating in Spencer Dock via the Northside is approved - the folks in Platform 11 claim it as a major lobbying victory.

Just to clarify - i presume this Kildare-Spencer service will not be non-stop? I presume it will stop e.g. at Adamstown station, work on which is due to begin shortly according to hoardings in the area. The Spencer service should be progressed with all speed with work taking place in tandem on the new Fonthill Road and Park West stations (badly needed) with the whole ensemble aiming for 2009.

If people using Adamstown station have to take a different service that drops them in Heuston then the scheme is rubbish.