[Article] Private funds to back Luas extension

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/9621583?view=Eircomnet

Private funds to back Luas extension
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 3rd January, 2007

Property developers and landowners will fund half the estimated cost of €300 million to extend the Luas Green Line from Sandyford to Cherrywood, via Leopardstown, according to Frank Allen, chief executive of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA).

"No rail scheme anywhere in Europe has captured that level [of private-sector support]," he told The Irish Times. "We've done deals with most of the developers on transferring land along the 7.5km route at a deep discount, and they've made some financial contributions as well.

"This is for real - we have money in the bank," Mr Allen said, adding that a levy scheme by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council "takes care of the 'free rider' problem" - a reference to landowners along the extended line who would make windfall gains from enhanced property values.

However, he said the line - approved last August - was "in jeopardy" because of a High Court legal challenge by the owners of a listed Georgian house due to be demolished to make way for it. This case may be heard before the end of January, and the RPA was "confident" of winning it.

About half the estimated €80 million cost of the proposed 3.5km spur from Belgard on the Tallaght Red Line to Citywest is also being funded by developers - although in this case a consortium led by Brendan Hickey, of Davy Hickey Properties, will actually build the line, including its four stops.

"We don't even have to think about land costs [along the route] because they will transfer it in its entirety to us, on the basis that we will put in the electrics, telecoms and trams and provide a level of service. We will be submitting an application for the line to An Bord Pleanála in January," Mr Allen said.

He conceded that trams on the Sandyford line were already overcrowded during morning peak periods and that the extension to Cherrywood could make this worse."We increased capacity last September, running a four-minute service at peak periods, and that's made a big difference. But clearly there is a problem between 8.15am and 8.45am. We will increase the frequency even more and we're also looking at increasing the length of trams to 50 metres."

He also conceded that journey times on the Red Line between Tallaght and Connolly Station were often taking up to 48 minutes - five minutes longer than originally envisaged - mainly because of congestion on-street, hold-ups at traffic lights and motorists indulging in "red light running".

At certain junctions, particularly in the city centre, motorists were still "ignoring red lights" and there had been several accidents that put trams out of commission for months.

Asked whether Luas gets sufficient priority at junctions, Mr Allen said: "I'm not picking a fight with Dublin City Council, but its roads department still sees the movement of cars in the city as having priority, which I don't share, so we will continue encouraging them to to give trams more priority."

spacetweek

Victor wrote:

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/9621583?view=Eircomnet

Yawn. I've heard so much about this line, will they ever start it already.

When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about Luas A1 to Saggart, wtf happened to that?

BrianD

The bell tolls for the end of the green line. This is a classic example of private interests dictating public policy. Developers need this line to justify the grant of planning permission. Nice spin on it to make it look like the kind developers are contributing to society at large.

If the line is to be extended and development is to continue at Sandyford then the park and rides in Sandyford need to be closed This means that the line can then best serve those who live along it.

spacetweek

BrianD wrote:

The bell tolls for the end of the green line. This is a classic example of private interests dictating public policy. Developers need this line to justify the grant of planning permission. Nice spin on it to make it look like the kind developers are contributing to society at large.

Bit cynical Brian, the area along the line will be developed Luas or not, which would you have it be? Better to have crowded infrastructure than no infrastructure.

BrianD wrote:

If the line is to be extended and development is to continue at Sandyford then the park and rides in Sandyford need to be closed This means that the line can then best serve those who live along it.

Explain??

MarkoP11

BrianD wrote:

The bell tolls for the end of the green line. This is a classic example of private interests dictating public policy. Developers need this line to justify the grant of planning permission. Nice spin on it to make it look like the kind developers are contributing to society at large.

I stood before the public inquiry critising the lack of capacity, which was ignored

Also pointed out the route was going to end up in a nasty legal battle

End result passenger suffers and it is getting fairly horrible on the Green line currently, seems like a case of commerical interests as in can we make a profit is ignoring the requirement that the system can cope with the full demand

murphaph

They'll have to run trams short in the peak, just from say Sandyford to allow people some chance of boarding.

BrianD

spacetweek wrote:

Bit cynical Brian, the area along the line will be developed Luas or not, which would you have it be? Better to have crowded infrastructure than no infrastructure.

Explain??

There is no point in extending infrastructure that is not capable of doing the job. Light Rail is ideal for serving urban areas i.e those that live within walking distance of the line as is the norm in other cities served by trams.

If the Green Line is to be extended in order to serve new high density residential areas and if the rate of transformation of what is "Sandyford industrial estate" from a commercial area to a residential areas then the logical conclusion that the Park and Ride facilities are no longer viable and need to be removed. The green line is not capable of serving areas that have both high density residential and have park and rides drawing in commuters from a wider catchment areas. It makes no sense whatsoever. At the moment we can have park and rides in this area because the residential density is relatively low (the area is still largely an industrial/commercial area) and the park and ride commuter effectively acts as a substitute for local commuters.

The notion that the green line should be continued onwards to Bray is utterly stupid and lacks any forward planning at all. It will simply become a second class alternative to DART. The funds would be better spent on increasing capacity and service levels on the DART. I can not see where the capacity is going to come from on the Green line. The 5 min service intervals at peak times can't really be improved upon and relalistically can the 40m tram be extended? Also, fundamentally trams are a slow way to get about. The green line has an advantage of the old rail alignment for much of it's length. However, the extension beyond Snadyford is not separated in such a way.

Slice

If there were more Luas lines on the southside along with more routes like the 46A it would relieve the pressure on the one line currently serving the whole area - extending this one line even further won't solve anything.

spacetweek

BrianD wrote:

There is no point in extending infrastructure that is not capable of doing the job. Light Rail is ideal for serving urban areas i.e those that live within walking distance of the line as is the norm in other cities served by trams.

But Brian you're forgetting it's not a Luas line, it's gonna be a Metro

BrianD

A metro? I take it you say that in jest! We all know that the Green Line in its current form (with extensions) is never ever going to be a metro line!