NTA Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy Review

Bsharp · 09-11-2021 9:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118142511#Comment_118142511

The luas will be planned on BusConnects corridors for the time they reach peak capacity and in turn will never get delivered; not dissimilar to the metro upgrade of the green line.

They've made a mess and a bigger mess of cleaning it up. Not willing to show humility and admit that Luas should be delivered instead of bus on some of the BusConnects CBCs to meet future demand. So we get this random post 2042 map using the same corridors for both.

Not one orbital route either. I'm picturing what the city centres stops are meant to look like in 2050 when everyone is supposedly interchanging to criss-cross the city at grade.

The outcome of this plan will be a greater focus on developers doing build to rent apartments inside M50 at lower standards to avail of reduced parking when there's poor accessibility; a poor outcome for residents. Hard to make a business case for anything else when the city is so poorly served by public transport. Outside the M50 we'll keep going with sprawl.

Consonata · 09-11-2021 9:38pm

This strategy really should be vilified by the press in all honesty.

The fact that somebody got paid to throw together this half-***ed crayoned drawing of several potential maybe likely Luas lines that could possibly happen maybe after some consultation post 2042! Like this picture strikes me as a project would throw together to cover up the fact that nothing has changed or moved on since the last planning doc. In fact we've regressed! Instead of the above, the only projects which have been confirmed to be done by 2042 is below.

MyLove4Satan · 09-11-2021 9:41pm

It is just part of a wider issue of an Ireland that is more or less falling apart on every level. The political classes have no desire to improve this country beyond getting a pat on the head from globalists and foreign CEOs now and again. As pessimistic as I am about Irish politicians and civil servants and their attitude to rail transport, even I am utterly shocked by today's announcement. Even in the darkest and grim days of the 1980s - Governments did what they could to invest in the rail system in Ireland. Here we are with undreamt of wealth and it is actually worse now. It is quite terrifying the poor caliber of bureaucrat and politicians we have in this country.

Things are really bad. Ireland is is trouble and the sacrificing of the future of the nation's capital just drives home how much in danger the average Irish person is via the demented nature of Official Ireland. Good grief! I can hardly get my head around this announcement. I really can't.

CatInABox · 10-11-2021 7:29am

The last time that the NTA looked at future does for the Luas, didn't they come to the conclusion that Lucan was the only viable option? All of the other options basically required zero cars going into the city centre, which makes this routes unthinkable in this Ireland.

dublinman1990 · 10-11-2021 6:09pm

This plan does not give me any confidence in the future allowing this mess of our rail infrastructure to continue in this way.

It basically sounds like they want to continue building any form of rail transport infrastructure that is prioritized for overground purposes as opposed to underground.

Outside of this country we have about around 70 million Irish people who live in countries abroad who have underground rail infrastructure already in place in various cities around the world. If those ex-pats are using underground rail in those countries as a means of getting around in their day to day lives; we would be giving off assumptions here all the time these ex-pats who use it regularly can do so with relative ease when they use it to go to work or for leisure activities that is miles away from their own home.

But in Ireland however; that sort of stuff just never happens here or is regarded as a pure pipe dream. We are too timid within our current approach to get major infrastructure projects like Metrolink built to support the betterment of our countries economy & quality of life. If we were really that serious in making serious commitments in reducing our emissions because of a major risk of climate change to happen in the future.

Doing things like avoiding to build an underground rail project like Metrolink should not be considered to be avoided to be built when we are making those commitments to build it either now or in the future.

Ireland is not going to stay like a country on the west of Europe with a small population forever. It is going to keep on growing no matter what the naysayers say on this matter. And our recent CSO figures said that over 5 million people live in our own country as of now. And that statistic shows to me there are no emerging signs that it will ever stop growing now or in the future. Based on other things like building new housing; those figures will never stop growing until those figures will start to plateau overtime.

If a government official based in another country had ever considered at one point in their lives to build an underground metro rail line for the betterment of their own population of their city. They just get consult the members of their public & have the planning documents submitted to their own planning authorities to just get the bloody thing finished no matter how long it takes; no questions asked.

LXFlyer · 10-11-2021 6:19pm

The NTA have been forced to clarify matters:

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/gda/

NTA clarifies GDA Strategy proposals

NTA would like clarify some of the matters that have arisen in relation to the GDA Draft Transport Strategy published this week. It is important to the NTA that our proposals are clearly understood and presented accurately to the public. The public consultation phase is a vital step in the final review of the Strategy and it is incumbent on the NTA to ensure there is genuine and constructive public consultation based on the facts.

The following sets out to correct any misinterpretations which may have occurred as it has been suggested that among the proposals that we published this week were plans to delay or defer key projects such as Metrolink, Luas to Finglas, Luas to Lucan, Luas to Poolbeg, Luas to Bray and DART+. This is not the case.

METROLINK

NTA has not proposed any change in the timeline for Metrolink. The pathway for delivery for Metrolink is the same today as it was before the GDA strategy was published this week. Metrolink is still scheduled to go to planning next year (2022) and is still scheduled to be constructed as soon as possible after that.

LUAS

Likewise, we are not proposing any deferral of the four Luas projects provided for in our current Strategy. Luas to Finglas is still due to go planning in 2024 and constructed in the years after that.

The other three Luas projects are all still on the same schedule they were on before we published our Strategy this week. We have not proposed any deferral to any of these schemes.

DART

DART+ is already being designed, and schemes including DART+ West and DART+ SouthWest are already out for public consultation. NTA has not and will not propose any deferral of these projects.

NTA and Iarnród Éireann will in the coming months announce a framework arrangement for the procurement of 750 electric / battery-electric powered DART carriages for services on the Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Drogheda lines.

PROPOSED CHANGES

We are proposing that some projects should change status:

For example, there are potentially eight new Luas lines that we believe will be necessary in the decades ahead and it is our view that provision should be made for those starting now.
There is a new rail line proposed to serve Navan for projected population increases in the years’ ahead.
DART services are to be further extended, beyond what is currently proposed under DART+ to places like Wicklow, Kilcock and Sallins.

DART TUNNEL

Provision remains in our proposals for a DART tunnel, but based on projections for 2042, we believe that the net increase of people using public transport as a result of the tunnel would only be in the order of 10,000 a day, as part of a total of about 1.4m a day. We propose to keep DART tunnel under ongoing review.

specialbyte · 10-11-2021 7:09pm

There are tons of supporting documents on the NTA's website that informed the GDA Strategy. You'll find them here: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/gda/supporting-documents/

I've only had a chance to have a quick read through some of them. Here's my quick summary of the ones I've read so far. For more details read the full report.

DART Tunnel Route Options and Feasibility

They are re-considering the DART Underground route because of the new tunnel portal location by the Chapelizod bypass and the MetroLink alignment being different to Metro North. The report considers loads of options but really you only have three semi-serious choices if the tunnel portal is at Heuston and connects up to the Northern line near Docklands:

DART+ Tunnel connects with DART at Pearse and MetroLink at Stephen's Green (the old DART Underground plan)
DART+ Tunnel connects with both DART and MetroLink at Tara Street
DART+ Tunnel connects with DART at Grand Canal Dock and MetroLink at Stephen's Green

Drum roll please. They choose the same routing alignment as old DART Underground plan. Partly because they know it will work. Irish Rail did lots of research on that route. Connecting with Tara Street was ruled out mostly because there is a massive sewer under Townsend Street that serves 270,000 people. Irish Water isn't sure it would be possible to move it given all of the other underground projects in the area (read: MetroLink and private office development).

The second half of the report is some silly "demand-led" transport modelling that shows if the NTA do spend the estimated €5BN to build DART Underground that would only add 10,000 more public transport users to the network so it's not worth building. It completely ignores the fact that it would provide better faster journeys to 100,000s of people in Dublin and be the east-west high capacity transport element we need. The second half of this report is why the NTA are pushing DART+ Tunnel out to 2042, which IMHO is a terrible idea and short-sighted.

Park and Ride Strategy

The NTA looked at building lots of park and ride areas with 500-1,000 car parking spaces on pretty much every major approach road to Dublin. The short-term many of them will be bus park and rides, with potentially dedicated bus routes to the city or places like Sandyford Industrial Estate. Medium-term with DART+ there will be more rail based park and rides.

There were two tidbits of information in that report, which were interesting to me. The suggestion to add a Park and Ride on the N4 near Maynooth to connect with DART+ West either at junction 6 or junction 7a. The other was that there is a proposal (within the NTA) to move Sallins/Naas railway station 1.1km west. This would put the station where the new Sallins bypass road was just built. This would allow easier access to the M7 for Park and Ride.

Metro to Knocklyon Feasibility Study

The NTA examined two potential metro line options from Stephen's Green/Charlemont to Ballycullen. It would pass through Rathmines, Terenure, Rathfarnham, Knockloyn. The route did not continue to connect with Tallaght at the Square, which I think is a little suspect, as there are many people in Rathfarnham and Knockloyn that I'm sure would love to travel to Tallaght. There's also lots of people in Tallaght who would love to travel to the city centre on metro and it's an ideal bus hub.

The report recommended against the metro because the passenger number would be quite low (especially compared to MetroLink). There was only high demand towards the city in the morning and away from the city in the evening. Most of the passengers transferred from the future BusConnects bus services rather than from cars. Off-peak there were less than 2,000 people heading in each direction, which is quiet different to MetroLink because of all-day trip attractors link DART+ Interchange, Mater Hospital, DCU and the airport. For context, a good bus route has capacity for 3,000 people. Though capacity shouldn't be the deciding factor on what type of public transport to build.

I've haven't been a huge supporter of a Metro South West, mainly because I don't think it should happen before other projects like DART+ Tunnel, but this report feels a little bit meh, given that they didn't analyse the metro going to Tallaght Square instead of a field in Ballycullen. That's a massive disadvantage for this paper metro.

Metro UCD to Sandyford Feasibility Report

This report is pretty short and takes a firm view that a metro here would be a terrible waste of money. It wouldn't provide great transport improvements and it would mostly benefit some of the most well off neighbourhoods in Dublin like Clonskeagh, Mount Merrion and Stillorgan. It shoots the idea down pretty hard. It looked a a few different options all of which brought the metro from Charlemont or Stephen's Green or Pearse (as a terminus) to UCD and on to Sandymount. If they were going to analyse random metro alignments it would have been nice to analyse Metro just to UCD/N11 or to UCD and then to the DART at Booterstown/Blackrock. But again I suspect the costs would have been huge for small benefits. Also hard to argue for this project above DART+ Tunnel, DART to Navan or even Metro South West, which scored way higher. That's Eamon Ryan's favourite metro idea dead, which is good news.

Draft 2021 GDA Cycle Network Plan Report

This report doesn't have much info in it at all. There have been some changes since the original Cycle Network Plan from 2013 but they aren't detailed in the report. You'd need to spend many hours comparing the old 2013 maps with the new maps. A fun job for some volunteers in a group like Dublin Cycling Campaign I'm sure.

Luas Lucan Feasibility Study

This report is long, and I admit I mostly skimmed it. However, it looks exactly like the four previous reports on building a Luas to Lucan. There are some options. They all score pretty well. There would be large numbers of passengers and it wouldn't compete with either BusConnects or DART+. The costs are reasonable and the benefits are huge. We should build it. Not sure why we needed yet another report on Luas to Lucan instead of just starting the planning process on it.

Navan Rail Line Assessment Report

This report references a lot of the work that Irish Rail did pre-2009 on planning for the Navan Rail Line. It effectively says we should build the thing because buses aren't great for capacity or journey times. There are two route options, that mostly differ by where the station is close to Dunshaughlin. One of the routes is protected from development by Meath County Council, the other route option isn't. Meath County Council should continue to protect the route and the NTA should build the thing. There's loads more details in that report but that's the gist.

Hopefully the summaries of those reports are useful to some folks here.

Peregrine · 10-11-2021 9:26pm

METROLINK

NTA has not proposed any change in the timeline for Metrolink. The pathway for delivery for Metrolink is the same today as it was before the GDA strategy was published this week. Metrolink is still scheduled to go to planning next year (2022) and is still scheduled to be constructed as soon as possible after that.

What are they even trying to say here? The NTA may not have proposed a delay but it was supposed to be finished by 2027 and now it won't be finished by 2031 at the earliest. That's a delay. Nobody cares about the semantics of it.

marno21 · 10-11-2021 10:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118148119#Comment_118148119

They have a serious messaging problem.

The 2027 timeline, which has been out the window since early 2019, has not been updated. They published the timeline yesterday that MetroLink will be operational sometime after the start of 2031.

From what I’ve seen recently, the project will go to ABP next year and procurement will also start. Construction should start in late 2024 or so with a 6-7 year construction timeframe. All depending on funding and no hiccups. 224 pages and they couldn’t mention any of this

The NTA have made no attempt to provide any timeline like above. The messaging is half the problem here and I would be surprised if the politicians don’t take them to task on it. Its really not helping their cause

specialbyte · 10-11-2021 10:37pm

If you want a view into how the NTA do public relations you just need to check out the twitter account of Dermot O'Gara who is Head of Public Affairs for the NTA. Here's one amazing tweet response:

https://twitter.com/dermotog/status/1458210474370244608

Paraphrasing, the NTA's head of public affairs has shouted fake news on twitter. There's nothing like telling random members of the public to spend 10s of hours reading all of the background documentation rather than providing clear communications in the first place. Hilariously, as marno21 points out above the NTA actually didn't clarify the MetroLink timeline (or another other project timeline) in the 224 page draft strategy document.

Peregrine · 10-11-2021 10:48pm

In short, the NTA tried to be as vague as possible then got upset when people got confused.

richiek83 · 10-11-2021 11:31pm

To be fair, there would appear to be some misinformation out there in respect of elements of the Draft Strategy. John Kilraine from RTE for example reported the other day that Metrolink would be delayed until 2037. What was said was that Metrolink would be operational in the early part of phase 2 of the strategy (the 2031-2042 period), He appeared to think that it would only go to construction in 2031 or so. Opposition politicians seized on this and waxed lyrical about it sensing a political opportunity. There is a significant amount of background reports that have informed the strategy so one can argue that it has been drafted using evidence based methodologies. Whatever anyone may think of it, its a draft strategy and subject to change following public consultation which I'm sure many politicians, members of the public and statutory stakeholder groups will make a submission. The Minister himself can also direct changes as far as I'm aware. The report was quite clear in what it planned to do and when it planned to do it but no doubt some people will differ on this view. In any event, it will all be subject to Govt funding so as we know a plan is one thing, funding it is a completely separate matter.

Podge_irl · 10-11-2021 11:48pm

The report was not as clear as it should have been, but ultimately it was just a screw-up by RTÉ that people ran with

strassenwo!f · 10-11-2021 11:57pm

The Irish Times were reporting today that Jacobs Engineering were asked to investigate the costs of a future southside extension of Metrolink either to the southeast (Sandyford via UCD) or southwest (towards Rathfarnham/Knocklyon.

Their report indicated costs of 4.5-5.1 billion euro (southeast) or 4-5.6 billion euro (southwest).

It's a bit unclear what this means.

Both of those potential termini are (when broadly measured along a possible route, basically the roads leading to them from the city centre) about 8 km from St. Stephen's Green.

If we take the current Swords-City metrolink plan (about 16 km to St. Stephen's Green) at costing about 3 billion, and these would be the costs only for the extensions, then it seems unlikely that the costs for these potential extensions alone could be so high, given that the boring machine would already be in the ground, the difficult part in the city would already largely have been traversed by the machines and at least some part, you'd think, of either of these extensions could be built overground (like the first phase).

If those figures from the Irish Times are correct, the costs (for the extensions) would surely mean that the costs for the initial phase of the metrolink would be heading well beyond 6 billion euro. Which seems unlikely, given the costs of metro lines, per km, elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, the Jacobs figure of 5.6 billion (say, for a southwest extension) is for a complete Swords to Knocklyon metro (about 24 km). At 233 million per km, is that so far out of whack with what other cities are doing?

Heartbreak Hank · 11-11-2021 12:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118147592#Comment_118147592

Draft 2021 GDA Cycle Network Plan Report

This report doesn't have much info in it at all. There have been some changes since the original Cycle Network Plan from 2013 but they aren't detailed in the report. You'd need to spend many hours comparing the old 2013 maps with the new maps. A fun job for some volunteers in a group like Dublin Cycling Campaign I'm sure.

Any idea what "network" means in the context of this plan - especially in rural areas. Does is mean segregated cycle tracks; bike symbols painted on existing roads; reduced speed limits on existing roads; way-marking signs; or just a low-res map with one route selected over another for some unstated reason?

loyatemu · 11-11-2021 12:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118150304#Comment_118150304

in the case of the 2013 plan, it was a mix - in very rural areas it was "designated routes" with reduced limits, some manner of traffic calming etc.

very little of the 2013 plan was implemented. On a lot of routes cycle lanes are now tied up with the BusConnects project, which means nothing will happen for years. Very frustrating when this is one area where things could be done quickly and fairly cheaply (as other cities have done in the last couple of years).

Heartbreak Hank · 11-11-2021 1:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118150398#Comment_118150398

Thanks for that. I searched but couldn't find any detail on what the routes would actually look like. Was this detailed in a similar report back in 2013?

loyatemu · 11-11-2021 6:09pm

I don't remember if there was that level of detail in the previous plan

documents at at https://www.nationaltransport.ie/planning-and-investment/transport-investment/greater-dublin-area-cycle-network-plan/

LXFlyer · 11-11-2021 7:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118148790#Comment_118148790

Personally I wish RTE would keep John Kilraine as far away from public transport stories as possible - he has repeatedly either got the wrong end of the stick, or focussed on whatever negatives he could find, while not reporting the postiives. He is appalling.

AngryLips · 12-11-2021 12:02am

So I think everyone is reading the revised strategy and wondering why it appears to be so drastically scaled back in ambition when compared to previous plans. This is particularly noticeable when compared to The Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy (2016-2035), and I bring it up simply because it is the most recent basis for comparison. For example, the 2016 strategy document identified a Dart Expansion Programme that included Dart Underground as being 'cornerstone project' of the strategy, and one that would be delivered over a timeline parallel to the northern section of Metrolink and in advance of 2035. So why has things changed so drastically? And where is the rationale?

I think I may have found one of the reasons why the NTA were able to justify such a drastic scaling back of plans for Dublin. For anyone unfamiliar with it, let me introduce you to the NTA's new approach to future demand modeling that's been adopted as a result of the pandemic, they call it their Alternative Future Scenario for Travel Demand and the link for it can be found here: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Alternative-Scenario-Development-Note-v-6.1_Final.pdf

In effect, it fundamentally changes the basis on which the NTA forecasts future passenger demand between publication of the two strategy documents. I'll save you all a click by summarising some of the key changes of assumption:

To quote the NTA in the doc itself: "to simplify the analysis, the basis that up to 50% of workers may commute to the office 2-3 days a week, an assumption of a 25% lower trip rate due to home working has been determined"
The NTA are also assuming that there will be a 10% reduction in journeys for secondary school children as a result of the pandemic, with second-level schools switching some of their activities online. I have no idea how this assumption makes sense because they anticipate a 10% reduction in journeys as a result of schools being in-class on a basis of between 4 to 4.5 days. That should really equate to a 20% reduction in journeys or a 0% reduction in journeys if on a 4.5 day basis - fair enough this is probably a blended number but still somewhat counterintuitive. The biggest problem with this assumption is the fact that the reality as we emerge from this pandemic does not support the assumption in any way. The Department of Education have not signaled any sort of shift to online or remote learning and it is not part of Government policy, if anything, there has been an over-enthusiasm by everyone to get the kids back to school (understandably).
Third level education trips will fall by 25% as a result of a shift to online. I appreciate that much learning is still remote in this area but I don't think it is going to be sustainable given how going to college is as much of a rite of passage for people in this country as it is a learning experience. I would argue that it's reasonable to assume that demand will return to pre-pandemic norms in this area.
People will do their food shopping more locally with a 10% shift to convenience shopping (think Centras and Spars). This assumption has been debunked by Kantar statistics for groceries in Ireland which show a marked shift in demand away from convenience retailers such as Centra and Spar immediately as lockdown restrictions lifted and back to the main chains, Tesco/Supervalu etc.

I think, if we are to be successful in sending this strategy back to the drawing board, we need to call out the NTA for these dubious assumptions and calling for them to reproduce the strategy using the old demand model for comparison. In particular, and going back to the discussion about Dart Underground (which, to me, stands out as the biggest about-turn in this new strategy) and @specialbyte's very good summary of how the NTA came to its current conclusion, it should be noted that the Jacobs' feasibility report into Dart Underground (that the NTA used as supporting documentation) acknowledges that their assessment does not constitute a business case but is rather just a relative assessment of the various route options. However, the recommended route is one which more or less mirrors the route previously advanced by Irish Rail, and that route does have a supporting business case and one which identifies a 4 to 1 return on investment (https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dart_underground_business_case1.pdf). Why are the NTA ignoring all the work that has gone into this prior proposal?

This whole strategy reeks of something designed to curtail the ambition for transport in Dublin, so as to meet the money that the authority thinks will be made available to it. The end result is that it is willing to discard all the hard work put into fairly consistent planning since the early noughties, some of which are at a very advanced stage, and - as a token gesture - we are now, in this new strategy, talking about turning a load of dedicated bus corridors which haven't even been built yet into future luas lines!

dublinman1990 · 12-11-2021 12:24am

If it were a perfect world, the role of reporting on transport from within RTÉ News should be taken away from the Dublin Correspondent altogether and be switched over to George Lee. But George himself had given some negative reporting when he had the story on the cost of the current hydrogen trial buses that came in for Bus Eireann.

There should be a separate transport correspondent in place for RTÉ News to report on public transport matters within the state as to when there is one currently in place for BBC News in the UK. Would that be a good idea for the viewers to see if was possible.

CatInABox · 12-11-2021 8:15am

That sleight of hand is the same trick that they're pulling with the green line metro upgrade, taking a model that gives them the answer they want, pushing it out in front of gullible politicians and an ignorant, uninterested media, and hoping that nobody questions their homework.

I've heard so much about how COVID means the death of the city centre, from so many different sources, and yet the reality is very different. Commercial property markets around the world have recovered already, the retail sector had recovered to a fairly good extent, and only a few companies are going officeless, not the majority that commentors where saying originally.

That the NTA would choose to go with a model that already does not reflect reality is sadly unsurprising.

Murph85 · 12-11-2021 8:57am

once the tbm is in the ground on DM , that is the main thing. the problem for them is, lying about green line capacity, isnt actually going to be too long of a strategy, it just buys time...

Peregrine · 15-12-2021 5:27pm

Deadline extended to 10th January 2022.

Peregrine · 10-01-2022 12:59pm

The closing date is today. It's now or never if you want to make a submission!

https://consult.nationaltransport.ie/en/consultation/greater-dublin-area-transport-strategy

AngryLips · 10-01-2022 3:47pm

It's quite interesting to read some of the other submissions to this document. There seems to be many submissions on unfair ticket pricing on the other side of the Irish Rail short hop zone, people complaining about the alignment of Navan rail etc

LXFlyer · 10-01-2022 5:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118449896#Comment_118449896

The higher subsidised fares have to end somewhere - there will always be people complaining about the boundary.

Peregrine · 10-01-2022 10:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118448699#Comment_118448699

Last chance to make a submission. The deadline is at 11:59pm. Until the next government creates another strategy at least. The short survey won't take longer than a few minutes. We really need more people making submissions calling for a more ambitious plan.

https://consult.nationaltransport.ie/en/consultation/greater-dublin-area-transport-strategy

Chris_5339762 · 10-01-2022 10:13pm

I'm still absolutely amazed that Eamon Ryan, the Green Minster For Transport, hasn't kicked the arse of public transport into gear. This really is the most pathetic of plans, so far removed from the Transport 21 which was at least somewhat ambitious.

cgcsb · 11-01-2022 12:22am

A few years ago I would have made a submission but as far as I can see its simply a copy of the previous plan that didn't happen with the more ambitious parts of it taken out.

I honestly don't see the point. We've been asking for 1st World public transport for a long time, the administration has no intention of giving it to us, so feel like I'd be writing a letter to myself in the future tbh.

Sam Russell · 11-01-2022 2:31pm

I just do not understand why our Minister for Transport is so detached to the need for PT in Dublin - in particular the Metrolink project.

He should be making weekly progress reports on this, but isn't.

Peregrine · 11-01-2022 2:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118452237#Comment_118452237

The Transport Strategy has to be approved by the Minister for Transport but they have no role in drafting it. Drafting the GDA Transport Strategy is the NTA's statutory role. The minister's role comes after the statutory consultation when the NTA submit the draft for approval. The minister has the choice to approve, instruct them to make changes or reject it outright.

I'd be surprised if the minister didn't make changes as government TDs and councillors across the board are unhappy with it.

Changing the process to include political involvement from the beginning requires change in primary legislation. I think that would be a mistake and a waste of time. It should be the people with experience in transport planning doing strategic transport planning, not politicians. In this case, the NTA have handed the minister a pile of crap. There's still time to fix it. If the minister doesn't fix it, that's a different story.

Peregrine · 11-01-2022 3:01pm

That's another reason why people should use this time to talk to their politicians. If you made a written submission, send it to your councillors and TDs and tell them this is your submission and this is what you want them to support. Even if they don't read all of it, it'll bring the issue higher up on their agenda and will put pressure on them.

I've just sent my submission to my TDs, councillors and minister@transport.gov.ie.

MyLove4Satan · 12-01-2022 10:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118452237#Comment_118452237

Mod: Do not make libellous statemants.

CatInABox · 13-01-2022 9:12am

I'm not the biggest fan of the greens, but they are in the process of massively increasing the availability of public transport throughout towns across Ireland, with every town over 10000 people getting a proper state run bus service, along with a massive increase in the number of planners, in authorities across Ireland, focused on active transport projects(this is more a long term thing, it'll take at least a year or two for these to start pumping out the projects).

EDIT: Removed quote as mod deleted it.

Peregrine · 26-04-2022 11:52pm

Updated version due next month.

patrickbrophy18 · 09-06-2022 11:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118981896#Comment_118981896

It has been well over a month and no update on their site yet. However, will this update include responses to posts submitted during the consultation phase?

AngryLips · 09-06-2022 11:41pm

They must be busy with their consultation on their mid-term strategic direction ...if only the NTA were as good at delivering on promises as they were on public consultations 🤔

cgcsb · 10-06-2022 3:40pm

Would happily take any version of the strategy if it were actually implemented.

Peregrine · 10-06-2022 4:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181771#Comment_119181771

You have to double every timeline given by the NTA for the real timeline. I don't make the rules.

Peregrine · 10-06-2022 7:06pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMTqH76zteg

Engineers Ireland webinar with the NTA from 4 May.

Peregrine · 29-06-2022 7:17pm

The amended Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area has been sent to the Minister.

NTA Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy Review

Comments

NTA clarifies GDA Strategy proposals

METROLINK

LUAS

DART

PROPOSED CHANGES

DART TUNNEL

DART Tunnel Route Options and Feasibility

Park and Ride Strategy

Metro to Knocklyon Feasibility Study

Metro UCD to Sandyford Feasibility Report

Draft 2021 GDA Cycle Network Plan Report

Luas Lucan Feasibility Study

Navan Rail Line Assessment Report

Draft 2021 GDA Cycle Network Plan Report