Dublin Metrolink - future routes for next Metrolink

Folks I’m seeing reports of 4 years of a closure before the metrolink trams can use the existing GL south of Charlemont.

How so?

I thought the GL was built to metro standard to allow for this eventuality- I know metro trams will be driverless and hence need full segregation from other traffic, but where are the crossings that will take four years to grade separate on this line?

What are the choke points here?

There was talk of those upgrades being undertaken as stand alone projects. Did it ever progress to design stage or further? Or was it just guess work by posters?

The four year disruption to Green Line was real, and legitimate, and there was no way to avoid it due to the need to reconstruct part of Green line itsrlf. It was not a smokescreen. I posted a link to the relevant engineering report on the Metrolink thread.

This loss of through service for years is why an extension south of Charlemont was dumped out of the current Metrolink proposal.

However, between now and when an upgrade is needed, it would be possible to create a second Green branch south of Charlemont that would eventually become its future alignment. That would allow the current alignment to be closed to facilitate its upgrade to Metro without making the Green line useless for years.

I really don't fancy the idea of Dublin attempting the novelty of allowing cars, pedestrians and cyclists onto tracks carrying driverless trains. Use some self-driving-car tech to detect if a kid has fallen between the level crossing barriers? No thanks.

I posted the report in the Metrolink thread, but here it is again: https://web.archive.org/web/20210824030640/https://www.metrolink.ie/assets/downloads/ConstructabilityReportGreenLineClosure.pdf

It was a four year disconnection of the northern and southern sides of Green Line, rather than a complete closure, but it was disruption for four years, and it would have also permanently removed Ranelagh station.

A new rapid build high quality bus corridor with a mix of bus gates and bus lane, enforced by camera through Ranelagh, Miltown Road, Dundrum Road could be built with a new radial bus spine operating every 3 minutes could be implemented with little fanfare, close the luas for 4 years between sandyford and Charlemont and upgrade it to metrolink, job done in 4 years, keep the bus lane after

That route would serve a much lower population.

Metrolink is not Airportlink. It is primarily a mass transportation system for Dublin City, but the line happens to also serve Dublin Airport.. on its way to connecting Swords with the city centre.

extending platforms at surface level stations is a completely different prospect though. The tie in would require bringing the metro up to luas level and joining the tracks within the route corridor, not as easy a task by half.

Even still a new Sandyford bus corridor and a 9 month closure is fine, this is a normal level of disruption in most big cities in west europe where projects like this are common. People can adapt and the short term inconvenience is necessary for the long term benefit. If it were the north side this would be barely mentioned, people would just get on with it. How long did we have no red line luas in the city centre for the cross city line? It was months to my recolection, people just got on with it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its easy, just not the impossibility that the media or some public figure make out.

Yes but think of the frequency of service that these will provide.

That's the easy part

ML is pretty much a downgrade on MN in every way. The two most notable design choices are that the Stephen's Green stop has been moved to the east side of the green which is further away from where people are going, while interconnectivity with Dart at Tara Street has come at the expense of a much more centrally located station under O'Connell Bridge. One improvement though is that ML will now connect with a new station at Glasnevin providing interchange with both lines along the canal where MN only connected with the line at Drumcondra station. And of course, MN already had planning permission so it would have been built by now.