Ireland in 2050

fjon

From the Independent today:

Tunnel vision for the 21st century

AN undersea tunnel linking Ireland and Britain, and a giant dyke around Dublin with a motorway sitting on top are forecast for Ireland 2050.

In a major report, a think-tank of the country's top engineers has drawn up a transport plan for the country in 2050.

In their vision of Ireland 45 years from now, there will be a sub-sea tunnel connecting Wexford with Pembroke in Wales to be called the Tuskar Tunnel.

The Irish Academy of Engineering report also envisages that:

* Global warming will see a large dyke built around Dublin Bay to protect places such as Sutton, Clontarf and Sandymount from disappearing under a predicted half-metre rise in sea levels.

* The dyke would have a motorway on top of it as a final link in the M50. This would provide a convenient alignment and route for completing the M50, turning the C-ring into an O-ring around the city.

* By 2050 the population of Ireland will approach eight million people.

* There will be four million cars here, one for every two persons.

* There would be a second Dublin Port at Loughshinny to relieve pressure and congestion at the current port.

High-speed rail routes between our major cities and the UK via the proposed Wexford-Pembroke sub-sea tunnel are also called for.

The report says the concentration of world manufacturing in the South China seas region will lead to the introduction of huge container ships.

It will not be possible to safely handle these ships in West European ports other than Rotterdam and the Shannon Estuary.

Because of this there would be a need for a major freight centre for Europe. This could be located at the Shannon Estuary and connected by a high-speed rail line to the Tuskar Tunnel.

However, their futuristic plan has many worrying features, mainly due to the catastrophic effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

Dykes will have to be built to protect all coastal cities and towns from being wiped out by a predicted rise in sea levels due to global warming.

The report also calls for a major Western Economic Corridor driven by the development of new road and rail connections between Derry, Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Cork.

There would be a rail link from Derry to Limerick, with connections to Cork and Waterford along with urban commuter rail.

Liam Connellan, academy president, said yesterday they were trying to influence thinking and debate on what Ireland might be like in the year 2050.

By planning well in advance people would be able to influence what occurs by then, he said.

Faced with the grim prospect of many areas being severely affected by flooding caused by significantly higher tides, Mr Connellan said they believed that a dyke must be built around Dublin Bay.

The report has been sent to Transport Minister Martin Cullen.

The Irish Academy of Engineering includes all past presidents of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and other eminent engineers by invitation only.

Treacy Hogan
Environment Correspondent

P11 Comms

Oh god giving this to Cullen will present him with all the stalling tactics on current transport plans he'll even need. Forget the Interconnector and LUAS extentions, he'll hold off for the "M50 Coastal Superhigway..." A tunnel under the seas to Wales! The Irish Academy of Engineering do not even have their own website FFS.

Now you know why this country is in the mess it is. Instead of solving what we need now, we play Sci-Fi. These are the same guys who in the 1960's said that the centre of Dublin should be closed down and the population moved to Tallaght to be connected to Dublin Port and Airport by "super freeways" - well, at least we got Tallaght... They also suggrested that the rail network had no future and should be closed down. They are obsessed with getting a motorway along Sandymount Strand and if that means melting the North Pole to get it, so be it.

The best part has to be their answer to global warming is a new motorway around Dublin Bay!

I love the whole West of Ireland thing. Shannon will be only able to handle these mega ships "safely" and of course they have to get the Western Rail Corridor up to the arse end of Donegal in there was well. Dubliners can expect to be drown in some kind of bible retrubution if we do not listen with Buck O'Rogers and his sliderule. No mention of public transport plans which are needed now for the Jackeens of course - sure aren't we all moving to the City of the Scared Heart...

We do not even have a rail line across Dublin and we are planning one under the sea to Wales...ONLY IN IRELAND!

jank

It will not be possible to safely handle these ships in West European ports other than Rotterdam and the Shannon Estuary.

Well Cork harbour could handle it too since they do have the 2nd biggest natural harbour in the world

Flukey

A lot of those things should be happening now, not in 2050. We should do all the things in Ireland first, before we start thinking about tunnels. They might be, if you excuse the pun, a pipe dream.

Lennoxschips

The best part has to be their answer to global warming is a new motorway around Dublin Bay!

The "fighting fire with fire" approach.

jesus_thats_gre

P11 Comms wrote:

Oh god giving this to Cullen will present him with all the stalling tactics on current transport plans he'll even need. Forget the Interconnector and LUAS extentions, he'll hold off for the "M50 Coastal Superhigway..." A tunnel under the seas to Wales! The Irish Academy of Engineering do not even have their own website FFS.

clown

P11 Comms wrote:

Now you know why this country is in the mess it is. Instead of solving what we need now, we play Sci-Fi.

clown

P11 Comms wrote:

The best part has to be their answer to global warming is a new motorway around Dublin Bay!

clown

P11 Comms wrote:

We do not even have a rail line across Dublin and we are planning one under the sea to Wales...ONLY IN IRELAND!

and I am spent..

Andrew Duffy

I am utterly blown away by the beautifully crafted manner in which the argument in the above post was expressed.

jesus_thats_gre

Andrew Duffy wrote:

I am utterly blown away by the beautifully crafted manner in which the argument in the above post was expressed.

he dismissed the article with childish sarcasm, I merely did the same with my replies to his post..

The article is obviously an attempt to provide insight to what may be the situation in 50 years time.. If there is a likely hood that the world economy might become what is suggested then there is no harm in planning for such a thing now..

The transport problems in this country have been caused by thousands of short term solutions.. Long term solutions need to be considered, not mocked.. P11's stance on the Metro is a perfect example of the short sightedness of many people in this country.. The Metro may not be needed now but there is no doubt that it will be needed in the future.. Alternatives such as the spur to the Airport is a short term solution and falls intot he "ah sure it will do" mentality of our people..

Andrew Duffy

Actually, the experience of Heathrow suggests that it is the other way around - the Picadilly metro line was extended there in the seventies, but it is inadequate for transporting people to and from a busy airport due to the cramped nature of the trains and the large number of stops. The Heathrow Express was recently opened and is simply a service running on a spur to an existing heavy rail line. That our version of the Heathrow express would be far better integrated with the city's transport system than London's is an added bonus.
Also, there's not many who would be against having lots of underground train lines in Dublin; however, the 40 billion or so required to build such a system is not forthcoming at the moment, so a relatively cheap and extremely effective fix to the existing system in the short term is highly desireable.

sliabh

I would make the case that both are needed. The people using the underground link to Heathrow are not the same people that use the Heathrow express.

The underground link does not exclusively serve Heathrow and it is used by people that work in the airport. Whereas the Heathrow express is more for airport passengers (mostly business travellers in my experience). A person working in the airport (and most tourists) are not going to spend the stg£25 for a return ticket when there is a cheaper (if slower and busier) underground service.

A similar situation applies in Dublin. And in the context of limited funds it would make more sense to build the "metro" link that will service more of the City's northside than just the airport. If necessary you could designate "airport only" carriages that open only at limited stops such as the city centre and Sandyford.

The airport spur line was rejected in a recent consultatn's report for a number of reasons. One of their conclusions was:

"If the project objective is to provide a rail link between the Airport and the city centre, then that objective can be fulfilled much more cheaply by opting for the Iarnrod Éireann DART option... However, if the objective [of the] project is to build the first link in a major infrastructural undertaking designed to solve Dublin transport problems, then the Metro project has undoubted advantages."

Andrew Duffy

The quote is perfect - a metro line to the airport as part of a large scheme is desirable. However, the large scheme is not going to happen at any time in the near future, whereas improving service to usable levels on the existing lines is, and since providing service to the airport from an improved urban rail network is a small additional cost, it is worthwhile.
Of course improving transport for people living in the North of the city is important, and it could be much improved in a reasonable amount of time by building the proposed Luas line to Ballymun.
The Swords-Shaganagh train line that has been proposed in several forms for decades would be very nice to have, but the current proposal from the RPA isn't this line; in fact, it will make it quite hard to build this line in future due to the direction it will arrive at both the airport and St. Stephen's Green.