New Government plan for elevated rail system in central Dublin.

New Government plan for elevated rail system in central Dublin

Dublin may have escaped mass inner city road development that was envisaged during the 1960‘s and 1970‘s, but that does not mean that Dublin has escaped the flyover or viaduct - far from it in fact if a radical new rail plan comes to fruition. The DART Inter-connector (replacing DART Underground) and DART North (replacing Metro North) could commence construction as one mega-project before 2020 and would be much cheaper than the combined rail plans under Transport 21 without compromising the level of service or capacity to passengers.

The DART Inter-connector would consist in part of two high level viaducts flanking the River Liffey with the new line starting from a new station at Inchicore, before passing on an elevated structure over the existing railway towards Heuston Station. At Heuston, the inter-connector would have two new platforms sited over the existing terminal platforms before passing over the current Luas and road system towards the quays where a new station would be sited in the vicinity of Wood Quay. Along the quays, the twin viaducts would pass over the proposed DART North flyover (along O’Connell Street) where another new station would provide direct interchange links with the DART North line. That would mean 3 levels of railway in the vicinity of O’Connell Bridge - the Luas Green Line extension (soon to commence construction) at street level, the DART North on the middle level and DART Inter-connector on the upper level. The DART Inter-connector viaducts would then proceed towards the Loop Line Bridge. At the Loop Line, the Inter-connector would require the demolition of Liberty Hall so as to allow for a curve that would direct the new route onto an alignment above the existing line towards Connolly - this would involve the construction of a new super-structure that would allow most existing train services to operate while the overhead deck is constructed above - obviously, some night-time and weekend line closures would be unavoidable. On a side note, a replacement for Liberty Hall could be sited within the Docklands. On the main subject, a new superimposed island platform (likely to be called Platforms 8&9) would be constructed at Connolly above the existing platforms 6 & 7 with escalators connecting the two levels thereby allowing a very easy interchange between what would be two DART Lines in similar fashion to those of the older DART Underground plan. DART 1 would still run from Bray/Greystones to Maynooth with an extension to Kilcock while DART 2 would run from Hazelhatch to Balbriggan/Howth via the Liffey Viaducts. The old DART entrance at Connolly would be re-opened as a complete new construction with lifts and escalators to the above platforms. The tie-ins for the DART inter-connector would be North of East Wall and just South of Inchicore where the super-imposed upper levels would dismount and join the tracks at the lower levels - four tracking is being considered for the DART line on the North side - some demolition in the vicinity of the current DART stations may be required to accommodate additional tracks and platforms in similar fashion to the stations on the now complete Kildare Route Project which involved four tracking a section of the Cork Railway Line.

O’Connell Street, College Green and Grafton Street are set for radical changes as a new DART flyover would form part of a line connecting UCD with the Airport - this ‘The DART North Project’ would be known to passengers as DART 3 when it goes into service in the 2020‘s. Transport planners believe that Dublin would become a post modern city that would not be out of place in Asia and would stand out from any Western World city. In fact, the National Roads Authority is talking about dropping the Leinster Outer Orbital and replacing it with an M50 mark III which would see high level parallel flyovers flanking the M50 with new spaghetti junctions similar to those in Taiwan - this would bring the M50 to between 5 & 7 lanes in each direction and would bring Dublin‘s suburbs into the middle of the 21st Century along with the city centre and its new elevated rail infrastructure. This whole new approach to urban planning (including higher density development) would save thousands of acres of rural landscape in the future.

Back to the railways, amid our new drive for modernity however, the new infrastructure would also provide grandstand views of our great old buildings like the GPO and Trinity College - in fact, there’ll be a station above College Green where the Southbound platform would allow a splendid high level view of Trinity College and the Northbound Platform doing likewise for the Bank of Ireland (once the home of the Irish Parliament) - another great building. Through Grafton Street, the railway would be elevated at approximately 2nd Floor level thereby allowing largely unobstructed views of the shop fronts at street level while protecting shoppers from the elements. No demolition would be required and in addition, a sophisticated lighting system would provide light as good as daylight according to the planners who believe that with sustainable heating and full enclosure, Grafton Street would effectively become a Shopping Centre of well over 1m sq ft would all of the old character retained - this would be a win win situation for everyone! Regarding O’Connell Street, a symmetrical twin flyover system would compliment the Spire as well as the overall street layout. The flyovers opposite the Gresham Hotel would be merged to provide a central platform and likewise would be done over O’Connell Bridge, but with additional escalators connecting the central platform to the high level platforms along the DART Inter-connector viaducts above the Quays. Another piece of good news for Dublin is that the a high level rail flyover over St. Stephen’s Green (from Grafton Street to Leeson Street) would, along with the new inter-connector route, permanently eliminate the need for any underground station in the vicinity of St. Stephen’s Green - this means that far fewer trees would be destroyed as only the site of columns and the relatively easy access to same would have to be considered. The work on the viaduct would also require far less time which obviously means much more rapid restoration of the park to it’s original state. Many new trees would be planted, especially in the vicinity of the viaduct - in fact, for every tree destroyed (including old trees needing to be removed in any case), there would be 3 new trees planted.

The planners insist that the radical new rail plan along with managed M50 parallel viaducts would rid Dublin of traffic congestion for once and for all - The City Manager stated “obviously, building elevated motorways in Dublin’s city centre is no solution to traffic problems, but railways are a different thing altogether - it was said that that a 2x7 lane highway would be required to replace a single tube line in London and that’s not even considering the car parking requirements - why would it be any different for a high capacity elevated railway system in Dublin - we want to be different, we want to do something that’s new and innovative to Europe - in fact, elevated railways work well in Chicago and would be much cheaper to build than underground tubes and stations as well as being far less consuming in terms of energy and resources - a green and economical initiative all round”.