Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

KrisW1001

Duncan Stewart's objection is disappointing but unsurprising. As he has got older, he has drifted into the hard-line Green camp, pushing hardship on the current generation as atonement for the profligacy of his. In his defence, he walks the walk personally, but it's easy for a clerical professional like him to survive without a car or mass transport, because his work doesn't require him to be in a specific place five days a week. (Also, he completely underestimates the quite shocking carbon footprint of using the Internet and cloud-hosted services).

Honestly, my own position isn't too different (professional high earning "office" worker who can do almost all their work from home), but the kind of ignorance on show from Stewart and his ilk of the reality of life for millions of people infuriates me. You can't work from home if your job is cleaning a hospital. Or working in a warehouse. Or in a factory. Or a care home. Or in food preparation. Or driving a bus. I wish they'd get out of their stupid bubble and realise that not everyone's life is like theirs, that many of those other jobs are essential (unlike theirs), and that the people doing them need to commute every day.

Accept that millions of people need to travel daily to work. Accept that they often cannot afford to live closer to where they work. Accept that this reality exists, and then try to make things better for people and planet alike rather than smugly saying "well I could do it, do why can't you?"

Sorry for the rant, but these sanctimonious bastards seriously piss me off... and this is from someone who normally votes Green #1!

oliver_murray

Duncan is an Architect too not a spatial planner nor an environmental manager/engineer. what exactly would he know about a metro?

mackerski

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121948171#Comment_121948171

He knows that it's not possible for commuters to interchange from one mode of transport to another unless both modes run on the same rail gauge. Seems legit.

loco_scolo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121946061#Comment_121946061

https://acratu.com/details-of-each-route-on-overall-luas-and-rail-map/

This website is comical. Absolutely comical. It's impressive the detail they've included, ignoring how poor that detail is.

They've suggested an even longer Metro Dart tunnel from Docklands to M50 via Rathfarnham, then above ground to Leixlip.

CatInABox

Today should be the last day of the oral hearings, with all observers, elected reps, prescribed bodies, planning authorities and the applicants all getting 5 minutes to speak.

Nothing new will be added today, so I'd doubt that there'll even be any articles that come out of today's hearing.

Paul2019

Eamonn Ryan was on Morning Ireland today for about 14 minutes.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22376978/

While it mostly covered the "Moving Together" transport strategy, Duncan Stewart's intervention in the Metrolink planning process came up.

Mr Ryan sounded competent and confident about his brief and as usual, RTE's interviewer seemed to push the usual...public transport isn't good enough yet for the public to accept these measures that will improve public transport.

One wonders if key people at RTE lost their parking places, would they suddenly understand why measures are needed to prioritise public transport?

lawred2

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2024/0327/1440282-metrolink/

Apologies if already posted.

All I can say is f**cking hell.. we'll never get anything done in this country if this type of stuff is listened to

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888713#Comment_121888713

Well Pearse is on Pearse Street

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949609#Comment_121949609

Its on Westland Row

It has a part-time entrance on Pearse Street, opened a few years ago

cgcsb

Democratically they have to be listened to. But should be immediately dismissed by the compitent authority as an uniformed whinge, which is basically what it is.

Then we should implement a reformed system that bans judges from making planning decisions firstly, and then clears the back log of planning apps by granting all critical infrastructure and centrally located housing projects even if there is some defective paperwork regarging snail mating habits. All future applications should be time limited e.g. a critical infrastructure project or large urban housing project will automatically gain approval if a reformed board does not reach a decision in 6 months.

Ireland is an unusual place in that eccentrics are given more than fair air time, culturally not a bad thing but it makes for inefficient work practices, especially because these people are either widely respected or because sensible people do not wish to engage with them.

As an example, it was only a few months ago an obese woman with flowers in her hair was floating down the royal canal in a diesel powered improvised boat, gave an interview to the main evening news on the state broadcasters prime hour on the topic of DART+, while herself not having any technical background or even much knowledge of the scheme.

She was on the brink of tears rambling about how the Dart project was going to ruin the canals eco systems while her diesel engine spluttered black clouds into canalbank otter and Swan nests, thoroughly unchallenged by her RTÉ interviewer. These types of people simply do not surface in the public eye in other developed countries, except as objects of ridicule or as a criticism of the lack of action by the mental health services.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949671#Comment_121949671

of course - entirely accurate. Think I remember someone saying before that it was even named Westland Row station at some point in its history... I was only pointing out that maybe it's not entirely accurate to say that the naming had nothing at all to do with the local area..

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949713#Comment_121949713

It was Westland Row Station until 1966 when 16 major/terminal stations were renamed after the leaders of the Easter Rising. Most of the names never really 'took' as such, except the 3 in Dublin city centre, Colbert in Limerick, Ceannt in Galway and Kent in cork.

My mother, a teenager at the time, still uses Kingsbridge (Heuston), Amiens Street (Connolly) and Westland Row (Pearse) to refer to the stations.

Tileman

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0328/1440515-metrolink/

good summary from RTÉ.

however they seem to suggest there may need to be another physical public consultation . That’s is going to add additional time.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949699#Comment_121949699

Was that the artificially constructed man-made canal? Perhaps we should fill it in and restore it to as nature intended.

Zebra3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949699#Comment_121949699

How about these individuals and all others are allowed to object, but whoever they are objecting against are allowed to take apart their objections?

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121949699#Comment_121949699

While I don't agree with them, I do understand their right to object and appeal. What I have a major problem with, is the media who report their objections and give them a platform to spout nonsense with no oversight or questioning of their views.

Sam Russell

RTE News given air to those 'vehement' objectors to Charlemont being the terminus to Metrolink, suggesting SSG or Tara St being a better solution.

But there are already stops at SSG, and Tara St allowing interchange with other PT.

'Vehement' suggests loud voices with NIMBY interests, and possibly deep pockets to upset the timeline for this project..

citizen6

I don't understand why there is never anyone on radio or tv to offer the obvious rebuttals to crackpot objections.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121950837#Comment_121950837

Nearly all modern media is ragebait

Rebuttals to idiots doesn't work as well as just having the idiots on.

Having an idiot to "rebut" something sensible but unpopular is nearly always done, though; for the same reason - rage sells.

CatInABox

Some new docs up, nothing major, although Tara St Station is to have 5 skylights, up from 3.

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121950679#Comment_121950679

That's the thing Irish culture is hyper tolerant of it. But of course it will be quietly discarded by abp there is just no appetite to publicly dismantle these peoples delusions

cgcsb

It's cultural. Most anglophone countries natural response would be either argue with those people till the cows come home or laugh them off if they've gone too whacky, the Irish sit and listen with respect but quietly file most of it away in a nonsense folder, the introduction of social media has amplified those whackier voices.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121950879#Comment_121950879

An unacceptable change. A fundamental encroachment of my human rights. This is the hill upon which I shall hang my JR that will ultimately scupper this project in favour of whatever part-bus, part-overground rail, part-monorail that is proposed by the church of cranky old D4 men and women.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121951305#Comment_121951305

I do not think it is a CHURCH of cranky old D4 men and women.

It is a PUB.

jd

Olivia Kelly from the Irish Times was on Drivetime talking about Metrolink, as was Ian Carey from the Green Party.

Prepare your blood pressure meds!

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22377303/

Sam Russell

Letter in the Irish Times taking Duncan Stewart apart on his ill-informed submission to ABP. Using census figures to show the huge carbon cost of the population that travel to the City Centre by car on a daily basis.

KrisW1001

We've seen this mentality before, but it was about money, not carbon emissions:

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0214/1029617-the-dart-overrun/

... I think that attitide only lasted about four or five years. It was very clear by 1990 that DART was a huge economic benefit to Dublin, and if you ask anyone today about DART, the only thing they want is more of it.

Tileman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955501#Comment_121955501

don’t see that in the online app . Obviously doesn’t fit with their narrative

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121957354#Comment_121957354

It is a letter.

Sir, – Duncan Stewart is “concerned” about the carbon impact of building Dublin’s Metrolink from the city centre to Swords, but he doesn’t seem to be adequately informed on the project or its priorities, which are carbon reduction (News, March 27th).

According to the 2016 census, 8,000 people from Swords travelled from Swords to the city or beyond for work or study. This increased to 9,000 in the 2022 census. The census in both years showed that 88 per cent travelled by private vehicle. This figure is not falling and congestion from this side of Dublin is severe. The number of vehicles for 2016 is approximately 5,100 making a round-trip of a total of 30km each day. By 2022, the new census showed an increase of around 1,000 commuters leaving from Swords. This is an additional 880 cars.

For the 2016 census, that would have been 15,3000km per day in private vehicles. To replace this by bus you would need a convoy of 58 Dublin buses, which would themselves still be subject to congestion, although it would be reduced. To put this into context the main Dublin Bus route to the area, the 41, has just 66 each way on weekdays. To move this number of commuters in just the hours of rush hour would require almost as many buses as run in the entire current weekday timetable. Metrolink expects to move 20,000 users per hour. Furthermore, if those 5,100 round trips take place 230 days of the year, for an average working year, that is a total of 35,190,000km per year. The carbon output of this in metric tons for even a basic petrol car (not a luxury vehicle) is 6,133.62 metric tons of carbon per year. This does not count the additional 880 daily round trips added in 2022, which add another 1,000 metric tons of carbon per year. If the Metrolink is delayed, as expected, until 2037, with similar growth, we would expect the carbon output alone of driving commuters to exceed 10,000 metric tons of carbon per year, based on the calculations at sustainabletravel.org. – Yours etc,

LAURA FARRELL,

Swords,

Co Dublin.