Navan Rail Line

"Penny pinching"? 3 billion euros is "pennies"?

It is impossible to build a public transport "network" which does not involve transfers. The very idea of attempting to provide a zero-transfer PT service is so strange - I don't understand it at all. Transfers and transfer nodes are as vital to successful PT as the actual links between them. The best public transport systems in the world (Japan and Switzerland, imo) are all about enabling transfers as much as possible.

There is NO bottleneck between Navan and M3 Parkway, the AADT numbers are some of the lowest of all the radial routes. The only busy section of the M3 is that between the M50 and Blanch - and this Navan rail project has absolutely nothing to do with adding capacity to this section.

@bk's suggestion of express coaches connecting Navan with M3 Parkway - providing a transport hub/interchange at M3 Parkway is the right solution for not just Navan but much of this part of the country which is characterized by relatively low density and distance. It would get people from Navan to a DART train quicker than by the train that this project would provide. You could make the coach completely free for about 1/100th of the cost of building a new heavy rail alignment between Navan and Pace.

3 billion is only an estimate and there is nothing to say it will be that cost and in all likelyhood it won't be anything near that.
even in the event it was, the alternative of more road capacity is going to cost more due to all the cost associated with it as a whole.
there is a public transport network which involves transfers and then there is a public transport network that has stupid transfers that make no logical sense and are pointless, and a bus between navan and m3 is a perfect example of making no sense.
the navan rail project will remove large scale traffic from that area meaning the traffic issues are a lot less, and of course the large scale issues on the old n3 where most of the traffic travels from navan anyway.
the suggestion of an express coach between navan and m3 parkway is not the right sollution for navan as it has little potential usership, provides no incentive to be used, and does not address the issues.
there is no evidence it would be quicker then the train, it is just a belief to try and justify a poor quality sollution that will do nothing for navan and has no incentive to use it over the car whereas the rail line does.

Are you going to acknowledge that many of those buses (the 51) only stop at Colbert.

Tell me what other Ennis to Limerick bus is frequent and stops in more than one city centre location*

*For non Limerick people Colbert is very central. Every bit as good as Arthurs Quay for a city centre worker before anyone mentions that joke of a Dublin Bus service.

I think most people coming from Ratoath and Dunshaughlin avoid the toll as it is quite easy to join the M3 at junction 5 and save yourself a few quid each day. That’s what most people I know do.

the alternative of more road capacity is going to cost more due to all the cost associated with it as a whole.

I don't know where this is coming from - nobody is suggesting more road capacity? Nobody on this thread that I can see believes in building more roads over developing public transport. I don't even believe the M3 was justified.

there is a public transport network which involves transfers and then there is a public transport network that has stupid transfers that make no logical sense and are pointless, and a bus between navan and m3 is a perfect example of making no sense.

The M3 Parkway will be a DART stop post DART+. It's a terminal station with no immediately surrounding population to speak of - so NOT providing connecting bus services to the DART here from places like Navan and Dunshauglin - 25minutes or less bus ride - would be insane. While you think it would be illogical and "make no sense" to provide such services?

It's exactly how public transport is supposed to work - a high capacity but inflexible rail core feed with buses to extend its effective catchment area.

between navan and m3 as a way to try and get out of building the railway absolutely i do believe providing a bus service between the 2 is illogical as it is clear the reasons for doing it.
if the line to navan is built and they are offering services from other areas, or they are offering services from areas which will never be rail served, then sure but that's a separate issue/discussion.

the navan project which is not my project but that of the people is already 100% compelling hense why there was and is a plan and want to do it, and why the bit to the m3 parkway was built in the first place.
an express coach between navan and m3 parkway which is likely to have little usage doesn't and will never make it less compelling because that 's not possible ultimately.
it absolutely is the thinking of a supporter of public transport and a public transport realist who understands that lots of people while they use public transport, they do have a limit to where, when and how much they will use it.