Political pressure group for electrification of Maynooth line?

n97 mini

Now that the latest transport investment programme has been made public, and it looks like the overdue electrification of the Maynooth line has been long fingered indefinitely again, I'm wondering would anyone be interesting in forming a pressure group to try to advance it, even to the point of running candidates in the affected constituencies (Kildare North, Meath East, Dublin West, Dublin Central)?

I've not resorted to this kind of thing before, but I'm starting to conclude that political pressure is the only way to get things done in Ireland.

Zebra3

Political pressure group for the whole of the Greater Dublin Region with regard to proper PT is needed.

n97 mini

Small steps, small steps!

LeinsterDub

n97 mini wrote: »

Small steps, small steps!

Mé féin, mé féin?

n97 mini

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Mé féin, mé féin?

D15 has a population of over 100k, North Kildare something similar, and that's not the half of it, literally. Tu fein?

n97 mini

n97 mini wrote: »

D15 has a population of over 100k, North Kildare something similar, and that's not the half of it, literally. Tu fein?

You've just reinforced Zebras point. It needs to be a "big picture" view

n97 mini

No-one has the definitive answer to the GDA's transport problems. It's a complex and not fully attainable goal.

Electrification of the Maynooth line OTOH is very simple, can be completed with 100% success, and would make a huge difference to the quality of service.

The latter would be required as part of the former, hence the baby steps.

Grandeeod

n97 mini wrote: »

No-one has the definitive answer to the GDA's transport problems. It's a complex and not fully attainable goal.

Electrification of the Maynooth line OTOH is very simple, can be completed with 100% success, and would make a huge difference to the quality of service.

The latter would be required as part of the former, hence the baby steps.

What difference will it make?

Pete_Cavan

Would a revised KRP2 to quad track all the way to Hueston not be for more useful (not to those on the Maynooth line obviously but to rail services generally)? It could allow for the creation of a new Dart style service plus speeding up commuter and intercity services. It would benefit more commuters and probably result in a greater shift to rail than electrifying the Maynooth line. Surely that is a better goal. Maynooth should get extra paths on completion of the resignaling.

Captain Chaos

Grandeeod wrote: »

What difference will it make?

Exactly, they need more trains to increase the frequency of the service and also more time path slots into Connolly and across the loop line bridge.

Only the full proper DU program can achieve that. One DART line from Malahide/Howth to Kildare and the other from Bray/Greystones to Maynooth.

L1011

Grandeeod wrote: »

What difference will it make?

Acceleration with the ridiculous station distances, which will get worse with pelletstown

murphaph

Credit is due for doing something, but I firmly believe the aim should be to get Dublin an elected mayor with a budget of their own to implement holistic improvements. This will be fiercely resisted by the current political establishment of course. The mayor should preside over a newly defined region covering the entirety of the metropolitan area and some satellite towns. It should not pay any attention to the existing county boundaries (these should die for administrative purposes and only exist in a ceremonial sense-UK reformed along these lines 40 years ago FFS and we're still using their counties to administer the country).

As I said in other threads, anything else is going to result in looking for crumbs from the rural dominated Dail (the same Dail that disbanded Dublin County Council precisely because it was getting too powerful to control...this was a very dark day for Dublin that few realised).

ClovenHoof

n97 mini wrote: »

Small steps, small steps!

"FF, FG, Labour, SF, Greens..."

ClovenHoof

murphaph wrote: »

Credit is due for doing something, but I firmly believe the aim should be to get Dublin an elected mayor with a budget of their own to implement holistic improvements. This will be fiercely resisted by the current political establishment of course. The mayor should preside over a newly defined region covering the entirety of the metropolitan area and some satellite towns. It should not pay any attention to the existing county boundaries (these should die for administrative purposes and only exist in a ceremonial sense-UK reformed along these lines 40 years ago FFS and we're still using their counties to administer the country).

As I said in other threads, anything else is going to result in looking for crumbs from the rural dominated Dail (the same Dail that disbanded Dublin County Council precisely because it was getting too powerful to control...this was a very dark day for Dublin that few realised).

Can't see it happen as this person would probably be the most powerful political representative in the entire country.

murphaph

ClovenHoof wrote: »

Can't see it happen as this person would probably be the most powerful political representative in the entire country.

Has to happen or Dublin will decline and when there's no money to fix potholes in Mayo it'll still be Dublin's fault.

ClovenHoof

murphaph wrote: »

Has to happen or Dublin will decline and when there's no money to fix potholes in Mayo it'll still be Dublin's fault.

The people running this county would gladly let Dublin die.

n97 mini

ClovenHoof wrote: »

The people running this county would gladly let Dublin die.

Even though Dublin (along with Kildare and Wicklow) are subsidising the rest of the country.

murphaph

n97 mini wrote: »

Even though Dublin (along with Kildare and Wicklow) are subsidising the rest of the country.

In fairness that's not true. Cork is a net contributor as are some others. It's also not surprising that peripheral regions need a subsidy...same here in Germany. It's the level of subsidy that's the problem. Dublin and Cork etc. are being stripped for all their worth to finance the reelection of the government of the day. The party is irrelevant. This has to stop. Dublin etc. need to retain more of their generated wealth to enable them to continue to function.

Grandeeod

I came across all this local stuff years ago. User groups sprouting up all over the place. Nice idea at the time, but ultimately and against the backdrop of capacity and investment, it quickly became a tit for tat exercise. What one area got another area disagreed with. A win for one route was a loss for another route. Uniting various groups under a DU banner became impossible because people couldn't see beyond their local service. Then it became a bandwagon for aspiring politicians. That's why we are where we are.

The most basic thing that's needed right now (in rail terms) is a pressure group for the GDA that will expose the political BS and promote the benefits of projects like DU and MN as originally planned. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no fanboy of what was proposed for Dublin under T21,( it should have been more) but two projects are at least shovel ready and Dublin cannot afford to wait while politicians continue to impose their ignorant stamp on matters. Since the demise of a certain organisation, there is absolutely no alternative voice to political spin and a very lazy media. Despite my comments about the media/journalists in another post, they will embrace an informed alternative. But they won't seek you out. You have to bring it to them.

McAlban

I may have to move to work in Shannon... I can see LART being built before the completion of the original DART proposal from 1975...