Navan Rail Line

You would never know anything is possabile. Say the next election FF and FG are looking for TDs to support them you could see peader Tobin throw his princples out the window if he was able to say he delivered the rail line as he is always going on about the rail line.

Is the route still going to be the same as the last time they talked about it or would it be changed to take account of where the population is?

Is that the same strategy that they publish every 5 years because none of it is ever built?

Actually that's not fair the strategy is different in the sense that it's less ambitious every time they republish it, the 2001 version was same as current but included metro west and a metro line from Tallaght to the City Centre. We've regressed somewhat in 20 years.

There is only 3km between Ratoath and Dunboyne a station between the two would be ideal as people could walk/Cycle to the station if the infastructure was in place. The track also needs to pick up Johnstown or its a waste of time

I think any new lines have to be electric - Europe has had almost entirely electric lines for decades.

Is the old railway line still there? Very hard to see it on Google maps. Would an entirely new alignment be needed or considered?

Is there any development restrictions between Navan & M3 park and ride similar to what they had for the eastern bypass?

The way Dunshauglin and Navan are expanding they would want to secure a route sooner than later

Any future decision to rebuild the Meath/Navan line would presumably be made along or as a result of a political decision to favour further densification/development in the area and effectively promote the expansion of "Dublin" in this direction. Which might not suit those who are calling for the line to be built.

I think the best option would be a new alignment, skirting around the estern edge of the town and joining the Drogheda line and using those existing tracks to get into the centre of Navan. You could then have new stations on that side of the town, where most of the expansion is happening.

for nearly a billion euro (I'm sure the final price will be north of a billion) what will we be getting, a train every 15 mins? What's proposed for M3 under the Maynooth DART proposals, presumably some/all of those services will be extended to Navan?

As mentioned above, if you have a relatively high frequency service you would need to develop the towns along the line to ensure usage levels, & if you're not providing a frequent service, what's the point in spending a billion euros.

Rail Users Ireland had a proposal for this many years ago. They estimated a 80 minute journey time to Connolly with a small number of stops, but you'd be quite limited by the availability of paths on the northern line. I think Navan politicians and campaigners are lukewarm on this idea as they feel it would reduce the case for rebuilding the direct line.

With the 10 minute DART there are no spare paths, especially with the plan for an hourly Enterprise.

So you’re looking at probably 90 mins journey time or so and using one of the existing Drogheda commuter services which are already very busy.

The northern line is not an option for Navan as it would be too slow and the capacity isn’t there.

Construstion to start on a rail line in nearly a decade from now that is more or less in-tact. What a joke.

Less than 10 years is not to bad when you consider all the hoops you have to jump through such as planning and route selection, Public consultaion, tendering and construction

It won't even have planning approval in 10 years, nevermind be operational. The whole thing is a cod.

Sounds like a silly policy that encourages long commutes of 40km or more when the 15 minute city is the overarching policy which is much more sensible for obvious reasons. There is still large scale dereliction and poor land utilisation in Dublin. A proper planning policy could see 3 million people comfortably live within the M50 if we got rid of derelict and semi derelict industrial estates, golf courses ( yes no joking there are literally golf courses inside the M50), and of course rows upon rows of vacant buildings.

Navan and Dublin should of course be connected by rail, but urbanisation of green fields far from the city in a country that has so much dereliction in existing urban areas is a silly act of environmental destruction, humans have more than sufficient living space in existing urban areas.