[gjim]

Originally Posted by strassenwo!f

But why bother with any of the above plans for converting the Charlemont to Sandyford section into a metro at all?

Because the current configuration is a dogs dinner and wasteful - you have a high speed/high capacity section from Charlemont to Sandford connected to an on-street, at-grade speed and capacity limited section from Charlemont to Broadstone.

The only way to actually use the available capacity between Charlemont and Sandford involves stupid stuff like 55m trams and adding turn-back facilities near Ranelagh which just means dumping people who want to get to the centre kms from their desired destination.

The fix is simple and obvious - connect the segregated metro-like section to the end of the METRO line that is being built and run it as a metro. Extend the on-street tram system south from Harcourt St. to wherever you want and run it as a tram line.

Build a proper north/south metro spine connecting high density and high employment centres and build the Interconnector to provide east/west and heavy rail interconnectivity. Everything else is not only a distraction - it's a direct hindrance to developing PT in Dublin.

[Sam Russell]

Just a bit of reality here.

The Luas Green Line is currently hugely oversubscribed. It uses the longest trams available and so longer trams are not an option - also longer trams are slower and cause traffic congestion.

The current proposal, as published, increases the capacity many time over. Current planning applications for housing and industry show that this extra capacity is needed. The route is designed and is ready to go to ABP. [Apart from a few small problems - a sewer, a few objectors, and a problem at St Raphaela's Road]

It would be madness not to proceed as planned.

A new metro line is needed through the SW route and should continue through to the NE of the city. That should be a different project, and planning should start now. The current metro plan started in the 1970s so it takes a long time.

It is always possible to improve on a plan, but it is not an improvement to start again. We have already lost a decade over this redesign nonsense. Let us not lose another decade.

[CatInABox]

Originally Posted by Sam Russell

It is always possible to improve on a plan, but it is not an improvement to start again. We have already lost a decade over this redesign nonsense. Let us not lose another decade.

Yes, this. I happen to think that the current Metrolink plan is far, far better than the old Metro North plan. If I was given the choice of having Metro North up and running on schedule in 2015 (or so, can't remember when it was meant to be finished) or the MetroLink running in 2027/28 on this better alignment, I'd bite your arm off to get Metro North back then.

Again, once the first line is operational, there'll be others planned and built in a fraction of the time.

[Sam Russell]

Originally Posted by CatInABox

Yes, this. I happen to think that the current Metrolink plan is far, far better than the old Metro North plan. If I was given the choice of having Metro North up and running on schedule in 2015 (or so, can't remember when it was meant to be finished) or the MetroLink running in 2027/28 on this better alignment, I'd bite your arm off to get Metro North back then.

Again, once the first line is operational, there'll be others planned and built in a fraction of the time.

You could go back to the plans from the 1970s that only saw the position on the shelf along with other such plans.

I have one bit of advice for our Green Party Minister of Transport - "Build it and build it now. Accelerate the building in any way that can be done."

He has in the past, when looking for votes in Dunville Ave, suggested all sorts of crayon wielding routings for metro and Luas, but now is the time to build it.

[MJohnston]

There's been some discussion of a potential future (and I stress that it should be a future addition to Metrolink, not a modification of that project) UCD spur that connected to Sandyford and Charlemont. It's not the worst idea I've heard — it could alleviate Luas capacity issues while also serving other parts of the city that lack rapid transport.

Where would you put it though? IMO the only route that works would have to be entirely underground. Here's my crayon attempt:

[salmocab]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

There's been some discussion of a potential future (and I stress that it should be a future addition to Metrolink, not a modification of that project) UCD spur that connected to Sandyford and Charlemont. It's not the worst idea I've heard — it could alleviate Luas capacity issues while also serving other parts of the city that lack rapid transport.

Where would you put it though? IMO the only route that works would have to be entirely underground. Here's my crayon attempt:

UCD doesn’t make sense to me. The students only attend for so many weeks a year anyway and have various start times, if a line was being built that passed that way it would be a good idea but to build a line that appears to be using The university as a justification for a route seems a stretch.

[MJohnston]

Originally Posted by salmocab

UCD doesn’t make sense to me. The students only attend for so many weeks a year anyway and have various start times, if a line was being built that passed that way it would be a good idea but to build a line that appears to be using The university as a justification for a route seems a stretch.

Maybe, although there is a large amount of residential development due to happen on the RTE Montrose site soon.

UCD is also the kind of university that is in heavy use well outside of term times.

[tom1ie]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

There's been some discussion of a potential future (and I stress that it should be a future addition to Metrolink, not a modification of that project) UCD spur that connected to Sandyford and Charlemont. It's not the worst idea I've heard — it could alleviate Luas capacity issues while also serving other parts of the city that lack rapid transport.

Where would you put it though? IMO the only route that works would have to be entirely underground. Here's my crayon attempt:

Why look to put it in the east as opposed to the west?
The east already has the dart and GL plus a very good bus corridor along the n11, whereas the west has.......... well nothing really.

[MJohnston]

Hold the f**k up lads — I'm not the one whose talking about this UCD spur, that's Eamon Ryan. Given that he IS talking about it, I think it's fair and fun to try and estimate where it might go. That's all!

Besides which, a south western route will be held up for years by the unrepentant arseholes of Rathgar and Terenure. I know they keep going on and on about having a Metro instead of BusConnects, but I guarantee they'll complain about a Metro just as much.

[salmocab]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

Hold the f**k up lads — I'm not the one whose talking about this UCD spur, that's Eamon Ryan. Given that he IS talking about it, I think it's fair and fun to try and estimate where it might go. That's all!

Besides which, a south western route will be held up for years by the unrepentant arseholes of Rathgar and Terenure. I know they keep going on and on about having a Metro instead of BusConnects, but I guarantee they'll complain about a Metro just as much.

Apologies wasn’t suggesting you were pushing it or having a pop was just voicing my feeling on it.

[tom1ie]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

Hold the f**k up lads — I'm not the one whose talking about this UCD spur, that's Eamon Ryan. Given that he IS talking about it, I think it's fair and fun to try and estimate where it might go. That's all!

Besides which, a south western route will be held up for years by the unrepentant arseholes of Rathgar and Terenure. I know they keep going on and on about having a Metro instead of BusConnects, but I guarantee they'll complain about a Metro just as much.

I don’t see the point in putting a metro line in between a Luas line and a dart line when there’s a large swathe of the city with no access to decent PT.
This is all hypothetically speaking of course.

The GL needs to be upgraded to metro standard and connected to metro link of course, but yeah metro SWNE should come next not metro ucd.

[gjim]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

Hold the f**k up lads — I'm not the one whose talking about this UCD spur, that's Eamon Ryan. Given that he IS talking about it, I think it's fair and fun to try and estimate where it might go. That's all!

Besides which, a south western route will be held up for years by the unrepentant arseholes of Rathgar and Terenure. I know they keep going on and on about having a Metro instead of BusConnects, but I guarantee they'll complain about a Metro just as much.

All right, since you're disowning it and making it Eamon Ryan's baby, I won't hold back.

Ideas like this come from people gazing at maps of Dublin and seeing "gaps" and thinking it would make sense to have a metro/tram/heavy rail/BRT/etc. in the gap - "because area X is starved of PT options".

Try overlaying the route on a population density map for Dublin:


And look at where the line goes - it traces a path which manages to avoid any areas with any sort of population density. You're talking about digging 7km of metro tunnels and mining out 3 underground stations - probably costing in the ballpark of 2B. And this area has no easy wins in terms of scope for real densification and the existing (sparse) population is largely mature so there is little scope for "organic" growth either.

It's not quite as daft as suggesting a circle metro line for the hill of Howth but that swath of Dublin does not need a metro line.

We need to sort out the capacity problem getting in and out of the centre first and foremost.

[lucernarian]

Originally Posted by MJohnston

There's been some discussion of a potential future (and I stress that it should be a future addition to Metrolink, not a modification of that project) UCD spur that connected to Sandyford and Charlemont. It's not the worst idea I've heard — it could alleviate Luas capacity issues while also serving other parts of the city that lack rapid transport.

Where would you put it though? IMO the only route that works would have to be entirely underground. Here's my crayon attempt:

Hmmmm I'd rather see something go southwest to be honest, given the options available on the N11 corridor and land set aside for the eastern bypass (which could be repurposed) Vs the lack of options for a large part of Dublin.

[D.L.R.]

This country really is a joke sometimes.

Use the line that's already there morons.

[lucernarian]

Originally Posted by D.L.R.

This country really is a joke sometimes.

Use the line that's already there morons.

The idea of replacing functional "tram" lines with something else is not exactly established anywhere in the world. Happy to stand corrected.