[article] Metro plans to include station under Liffey

Navan Junction

03 September 2006 By Niamh Connolly, Sunday Business Post

A rail station will be built under the Liffey at O’Connell Bridge, as part of plans to be approved next month for the new Metro North linking St Stephen’s Green to Dublin Airport and Swords.

A rail station will be built under the Liffey at O’Connell Bridge, as part of plans to be approved next month for the new Metro North linking St Stephen’s Green to Dublin Airport and Swords.

An underground station at the airport is now planned, instead of earlier proposals for an overground station at the Great Southern Hotel, 700 metres away from the airport terminal.

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA), the state agency responsible for the Metro, will meet on September 15 to sign off plans for the project, which will then go to cabinet for approval.

Under revised plans for the rail link, a Metro station will be built under O’Connell Street Bridge with access for passengers coming from north and south of the Liffey.

RPA chairman Padraic White said: ‘‘We’re looking at having a flagship city centre Metro station under the river Liffey, with entrances at both sides of the river.

‘‘Our intention is that this station would be mined underground to reduce the impact during construction on the O’Connell Street area.”

The underground station means that the Metro will not run under Trinity College, as previously envisaged, as some concern was expressed over the foundations of the college.

The Metro will run underground from St Stephen’s Green to Dublin City University, from there it will continue above ground, before running underground at Dublin Airport.

The route will run overground again after the airport to Lissenhall, Swords. It will also be routed by Drumcondra to serve Croke Park.

White said a pre-qualification process for companies bidding to build the Metro was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

The RPA is hoping construction will start in early 2009.

An underground station at Dublin Airport will add to the cost of the project. White said he expected the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to make a financial contribution to the Metro. He said the amount expected from the DAA ‘‘would be a matter between the Department of Transport and the DAA’’.

‘‘A contribution would be reasonable since there would be huge benefits for the airport from every point of view, and that’s why we have modified the original overground suggestion,” he said.

The RPA had been working closely with the DAA so that plans for the Metro would ‘‘dovetail’’ with those for the new terminal announced by the airport authority last week.

‘‘The view of the board is that it would be seriously short-sighted to go any other way than putting it underground, given that a decision has been taken to press ahead with Terminal 2,” said White.

He declined to say how much extra the underground airport station would cost. He said it would form part of the total cost of the project, which will be funded through a public-private partnership.

The last official estimate for the cost of the Metro was €1.2 billion, which was mentioned in the Dail.

But White cautioned that this figure was made some years ago.

dowlingm

I remember thinking when that was discussed here with respect to distance between stops, from TCD etc that a cross river station might be a goer - all of a sudden you don't lose the catchment placing a single exit would entail.

Maskhadov

I thought the station at Stephens green was going to be the 'flagship'

So are they going for a stipped down cheap down version there now ?

murphaph

Who cares? so long as it's clean and functions properly most people won't give a toss. Minimalism is the way ahead for us, except when it comes to entrances-the more the merrier at each station, as dowlingm says-it widens your catchment area considerably.

Stephen's Green will be a 'flagship' in terms of integration-Taxi, Bus, Luas, metro, DART all integrating happily.

Maskhadov

What they should do now is plan a large dublin bus station in the west of the city, somewhere on the metro orbital line.

Anyone wanting to take a bus can jump on the metro and get to all those places that wont be served by rail.

wwhyte

Liffey Valley would be the obvious place.

greyed

‘‘The view of the board is that it would be seriously short-sighted to go any other way than putting it underground

... and stopping the tbm at stephens green?...

How far can entrances be placed from a station? O Connell, westmoreland dont seem like to much of a stretch from the liffey.

murphaph

greyed wrote:

... and stopping the tbm at stephens green?...

Good point alright!

greyed wrote:

How far can entrances be placed from a station? O Connell, westmoreland dont seem like to much of a stretch from the liffey.

Well, I reckon it will be an entrance at each side of O'Connell St at the junction of Abbey Street to allow seamless integration wth Luas for one. The other entrances I would expect to be along the middle of Westmoreland St and/or at the junction of Westmoreland and D'Olier Streets.

Chris_533976

Sometimes I genuinly think that these people pull ideas from this board.

SeanW

Well, considering that a station deep enough to be directly under the liffey, an escalator directly from that could go a considerable distance - at least 25-50 meters. A travelator might be another story however ...

Davidth88

I cannot believe that they were seriously considering building a station
700m away from the terminal at the airport , talk about letting the ship sink because of the halfpenny worth or tar !

Please tell me they are going to build this station at the same time as the new terminal ...


As far as the station below the Liffey , that makes a lot of sense . you can have entrances covering most of the main shopping areas.......