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Dublin: is it "too big"?

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    #62
    charlemont
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    Dublin suffers from a lack of joined up planning. its a joke that they split dublin county into rathdown/dun laoighre, south dublin and fingal, its stupid and its actually confusing, it also has basically prevented Dublin city itself from expanding as the urban area grows therefore denying the city authorities any influence in the suburbs, planning etc..

    The public transport is a joke in Dublin, why weren't these rail projects done years ago ? Dublin needs huge investment, i hope the luas, dart inter connector and metro north go ahead, also metro west is need, as for the motorway network, its great for the other provinces. it also needs a high speed line to Belfast, which would help Dublin pull business from east ulster.

    i dont think Dublin is too big, if we didn't have the famines and the emigration over the years, Ireland would have a far bigger population. cork once had 880,000 people officially (probably many more not on census). if anything our population is too small and spread out. if the political will was there, the Dublin region should be a great, efficient, easily accessible, place to live..


    By the way in case anyone thinks im biased to dublin, iv never lived there, i live in Cork city ( badly needs more people ). but iv been many a time to dublin and always had a good vibe from the dubs..


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    #63
    dowlingm
    Registered Users Posts: 5,312 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    Dublin needs control of its own public transport. The fact that DTA was merged into NTA was a step backwards towards overcentralisation.

    The metro Dublin authorities and (with lesser voting rights) the surrounding local authorities in Meath, Kildare, Wicklow etc. should control the local transportation network in Dublin - LUAS, DB, BE Dublin Suburban, the private buses and DART. The operators could remain separate, and BE Expressway and IE Intercity (beyond Kildare, Greystones, Malahide and Pace/Maynooth) beyond their scope. They should set the fares, the routes, the stops (including shared stops) and negotiate the subsidy.

    While the ultimate control of transport in Dublin resides in the dead hand of the DofT, no real progress will be made in matching the needs of Dublin to action.

    In Vancouver, Translink controls the buses, the metro and the suburban heavy rail as well as construction of bridges and so on. It is not fully vertically integrated - some parts are operated by subsidiaries, some by PPP - so it's not like "MDTA" would have to buy out BE/DART/LUAS as such. They have transport police.

    Are there tensions between downtown and the suburbs about who gets how much investment? Sure. But they have a metro to the airport and the transport during the Winter Olympics was a pleasure to be on.


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    #64
    Aard
    Registered Users Posts: 4,905 ✭✭✭Aard


    Good post.
    dowlingm wrote: »
    Are there tensions between downtown and the suburbs about who gets how much investment? Sure.
    I would prefer this any day of the week over tensions between Dublin and the countryside about who gets how much investment. :)


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    #65
    Chuchoter
    Registered Users Posts: 4,305 ✭✭✭Chuchoter


    I remember recently flying back into Dublin from London I was looking at the size of the city and its really insane. Its just this massive expanse of tiny developments that we don't have a hope of ever providing proper services to. Our problem is less the medium-low rise office blocks in the city centre, but the expanse of housing estates with no schools or public transport in areas that have seen a population explosion in the newer suburbs like Blanchardstown and Ongar in the last few years. There is just miles and miles of poorly built housing estate that we'll have to tear down in 20 years because they will be falling apart.

    On top of this you have all the wasted space in and around O'Connell street where its just loads of polish supermarkets sex shops and boarded up buildings. All of that should have been redeveloped into something useful.

    Although I agree that Ireland's development was too Dublin centric, everywhere can't be a big metropolis. Thats why we're having the problems now with all the under performing hospitals. You can't have a big hospital in every tiny town, nor can you have big motorways or fantastic buses and trains. Its unbelievable frankly that we have 8 airports plus the ones up north. How does donegal have no train station but an airport? It makes no sense.


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