Bring back Monica Leech

strassenwolf

I thought this article was worthy of a new thread. If you read it, you'll see why. Unfortunately the "LUAS and the indo sensationalist rag" thread has been locked. That would, however, have been the natural home for this article.:)

Today's Independent wrote:

Pulling a transport solution Rabbitt out of a hat

So many cars, so little road space, so much grief due to the transport infrastructural desert

Engineer proposes a web of train lines and links in joined-up Dublin region system

THE debate over Dublin's transport problems has been long and often as complicated as some of the proposed solutions.

But through it all at least one contributor has managed to make sense, even if what he has to say has yet to be taken on board by those who wield power.

Engineer and transport expert Cormac Rabbitt was an early critic of the cumbersome contracting procedure chosen to deliver the Luas project and Dublin Port tunnel project.

As far back as 1996, he had argued that there were too many parties involved for streamlined delivery, within time and budget for such major construction works.

He has now come up with a solution to Dublin's transport problems.

He is suggesting a Metro system for Dublin, a project which he believes can be delivered within five years and for the relatively modest sum of €2.6bn, a saving of €31.4bn on the proposed spend.

Rabbitt has named his pet project after William Dargan, the 19th century entrepreneur responsible for building Ireland's rail system.

What impressed Rabbitt was not just the quality of his work, but also the way he treated the people who worked for him. "He was a man who has yet to be equalled," is Rabbitt's assessment.

Late last year, Rabbitt was given the chance to explain his thinking on Dublin's transport network to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, where he took the opportunity to outline his Dargan Project.

Project

According to Rabbitt, the project addresses the social and economic need to upgrade, without delay, the public infrastructure of the capital.

Apart from that, it will also help alleviate a massive infrastructural deficit through utilisation of a public private partnership fund.

"The deficit in roads and rail is €40bn. It can be done in a profitable manner, consistent with the market."

The Dargan project is similar to that of Madrid and beautiful in its simplicity, involving as it does an upgrade of all the existing lines, extending a few new lines and linking everything together.

Dublin is a bay city. It has six rail lines, nine major radial roads and a 6.3 km loop line along the north side from Heuston, around through Cabra to Spencer Dock.

The project proposes the linking of this loop line with a 5.9km line on the south side.

What will be created is a circle line that is just 12 kms long, with 80pc of this new line crossing under State-controlled land.

This Circle Line forms the heart of the Dargan project, and runs from Heuston Station, under Dr Steven's Hospital, St James's Hospital, Cork Street to the Coombe bypass, on to Cuffe Street extension, through St Stephen's Green, across the Huguenot Cemetery, under Merrion Square, to Pearse Station and over to Spencer Dock.

According to Rabbitt it will then be possible to link Dublin's railway in a web pattern which builds on all the work Dargan did with his railways.

"It is only connecting a line within what Dargan did. It is connecting the six radial rail lines. Consequently, the circle line will help form an integrated public transport network as never before, and will help give Dublin a world class transportation system."

The Circle Line would then be connected to the four mainline rail routes that converge on the capital, while it would also be linked to the two Luas lines.

After this he suggests that it could be expanded into an 18-spoke wheel by the addition of links to the 10 radial quality bus corridors, and two new rail routes which form part of the Dargan Project.

Those new rail lines include a link to Dublin Airport, which he says can be built for about €623m, as well as another new line running underground between Cabra and Templeogue.

This line would serve O'Connell Street, St Stephen's Green, Harold's Cross, Kimmage as well as the huge Crumlin area.

Dargan envisages that another huge suburb of Dublin, Blanchardstown, would get its own Loop Line, spun off the existing Blanchardstown rail line and which would serve the hospital and the nearby national aquatic centre.

The key to the Dargan Project is that this new line, as well as the Circle Line, would have to be built on the same gauge as the mainline rail network - unlike the Government's alternative proposal.

Against this, he says Dublin will not have a world class transportation system by having a few lines crossing to the coast, as envisaged by alternative plans.

The problem with those plans is that there is no integration, allowing people to plan their journeys, as they do in other cities.

Mr Rabbitt also made some estimates of how the new transport network would be used, claiming that it would carry some 36m passengers per year, taking them a total of about 3m kilometres.

Pat Boyle

I don't wish to cast any aspersions on Mr Rabbitte's idea. It may well be a good one.

But the article does suggest that the entire budget of "Transport 21" was to be spent on the metro. Clearly there is a problem getting the message of T21 to certain quarters.

It would have been some metro if it had cost 34 billion.

markf909

Yes I love the saving of approx €31bn on this project :rolleyes:
Shane Coleman fell for this cost issue when he reported on this project a few weeks back in the Tribune.

Bards

The same media are badgering on about how Martin Cullen haven't given any costings on this project and yet some lay person has all the figures.. that he magically plucked not from a hat but from thin air