DART+ (DART Expansion)

Meant to comment on this at the time, but there was an incredible response to the heights on this plan, to the point that DCC couldn't ignore them. They have since updated the draft plan, and where the original proposal was to have mostly 4 to 5 storey buildings, the plan now has mostly 6 to 8 storeys.

It's all very suspicious though, as the increase height has apparently not resulted in any increase in the number of apartments, or an increase in the density. Dublin Inquirer asked them about this, but it doesn't seem like they got back to them at all.

I think DCC screwed up some basic maths on the first plan, and don't want to admit it, so they're actually blaming everyone else for it in the report. Like, look at this:

Many of the submissions to the public consultation had criticised the council for failing to meet national guidelines for density, says the report.

But that was actually a difference in how they had calculated, said the council report. 

The Ballyboggan masterplan area cover 77ha. But only 28ha of that is to be developed for housing, the report says. 

What a load of auld bollix.

The good news out of it is that DCC have also heard how utterly insane the name was, and are now calling it the Broombridge-Hamilton masterplan. Still can't believe that they even went with Ballyboggan on a temporary basis, you'd swear that DCC don't actually say these words out load and hear themselves.

No, the distance is too great. The distance is about 80km as the crow flies, and that's about the rated distance that the trains can do on battery. IR aren't going to do that when they'll be building in a safety margin into the journey, i.e. the batteries will never be allowed to get to the point that they might run out on a journey.

Yes, a lot of the businesses there are going concerns. A few will close down and sell up, but most of them will want to continue operating in some other location.

Any price offered for their land will need to cover the cost of buying another warehouse in another location, plus the cost of adapting that warehouse, plus the cost of adapting their business model to the new location, plus an amount that could be considered "profit".

It's a load of bull, to be honest, one that shows the people talking about it don't know how a CPO works.

CPOing the land means that they have to buy it at fair market value, but in order to successfully get a CPO, you need to show a legitimate need. What's the fair market value of land that is being purchased to be rezoned as residential? It'd 100% be the value of the land when zoned as residential.

The AIRR says that they'll bring the Dart to Wicklow. I believe that's running on batteries from Greystones.

Wexford to Greystones would be the shuttle service then.

It appears that the best way forward for boosting connectivity in the South East of Ireland in the shorter term is to introduce an hourly shuttle service between Wexford and Greystones, with DART services to be extended to Wicklow.

Connectivity could be further improved by reinstating the railway between Waterford and Rosslare (including a chord/curve to the south of Wexford) and extending some Dublin – Waterford intercity services to a new station to the south of Wexford O’Hanrahan once the line between Heuston and Waterford has been upgraded. With improvements to the intercity corridors described above, this would reduce journey times between Dublin and Wexford by around an hour. This intervention would also support further development of freight services to and from Rosslare Europort.