DART+ (DART Expansion)

"The Legal System" gets altered all the time in fairness, the planning courts are an example of that, but a wholesale scrapping of the common law system in favour of a European style system isn't happening outside a total government system change (I.e. revolution/extreme left or right wing party in total control/invasion by a foreign power)

Our best shot was when Napoleon tried to invade, the European legal code is probably his longest lasting and most significant impact on the continent.

In fairness, the Railway Order process is about as streamlined as it's ever going to get.

There is not one major transport project under construction anywhere in the country at the moment and hasn't been for over a decade. All stuck in the bureaucratic planning and political circus we have running here.

The whole system needs to be completely overhauled. We can't get anything done.

N5 is under construction as we speak is it not?

Birdhill-Killaloe bypass just opened?

What is your criteria for a major construction project?

DART+ has actually progressed fairly quickly (yes obviously significant speed improvements could and should be made for future projects).

I do remain mystified why tendering etc (at least to some extent) cannot take place in tandem with awaiting approval or at least JR. Anyone preparing a tender who "doesn't make the cut" is as put out as anyone making a tender and the plan getting rejected, I'd look at it as the difference between approval/JR completion being followed by maybe up to 6 months of finalising the contract/tendering process and it being 6 months till we see an initial tender document

And to add to that, labour costs in Dublin are nearly 50% higher than in Madrid, so not just construction costs but also professional fees and services are much higher here. I would also imagine land prices are probably much higher in Dublin too.

Given that Metrolink will require 16 new stations, and CPO'ing all the ground structures for those same stations, in some of the most desirable land auctions in the country, and building the command and control centres for a brand new rail alignment with new rolling stock and new signalling systems, in a country which has never done any of the above before.

Yes, it is entirely reasonable to say that the cost per km comparison is silly.

Nope this is more complex because of the 4 tracks

It'll be interesting to see have IÉ learned anything about access and permeability. Will east cabra be cut off from the station or will they facilitate pedestrians coming from the east. They might need to buy some land from the apartment block behind the homestead to get access from the east

Fingers crossed, we will see next week.

Edit: I've seen the plans. And no, no lessons learned, access from the west only. So the station isn't much use to east cabra. Quarry road residents will have a 1km+ round trip to get to the platform behind their back gardens

Is this a land ownership issue, an access one, or a planning one? I haven’t seen the plan yet, but this site is in a deep cutting, so access will need a lot of room for lift/steps/ramps. Perhaps there just isn’t room for both sides..

Here’s the Cork Commuter station for Blackpool, which is the opposite issue: the platforms are 14 metres above the level of the street to the west, but look at the bottom of the image to see how much space is needed for the steps and ramp:

How deep is the cutting where Cabra is going?

What I suspect the real problem is, though, is planning permission to break into the private development’s footpaths. It is notoriously difficult to get planning to bring public foot traffic into an existing cul-de-sac: the locals will keep it in the courts forever and a day, fuelled by fear of noise and rumours of higher crime risks (although burglars tend to prefer houses at the end of cul-de-sacs as there's less risk of being spotted by passers by)

A bit of reality is needed here. Most people around the city wouldn’t have that short a walk to get to a station, so I don’t see it being this big an issue.

They are looking to build both stations within the existing railway footprint so that they don’t need to go through the whole railway order process again. Going down the lengthy route of land acquisition would take ages and likely just get the immediate locals backs up, just what certain posters keep complaining about.

Space is limited enough there - let’s not go OTT about this here. People won’t have to walk much further than they already do to the nearest bus stops.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is IÉs long term plan for the Dart+ network. Get it all over the line and up and running, then come back and try and solve the contentious stuff