£600m investment in transport urged

Massive further investment in public transport, totalling almost £600 million, is required to underpin the new planning strategy for the Greater Dublin area, according to the consultants who drafted it.

Their proposals include a new city-centre rail link, east of the existing Loop Line between Connolly and Pearse stations, as well as the possible diversion of the Belfast main line via Swords and Dublin Airport.

The overall objective is to develop a "mesh" of public transport routes throughout the metropolitan area. These would be primarily bus-based, but with significant contributions from Luas and a much-enhanced suburban rail system.

"The conclusion is that there is no alternative to a sustainable public transport-based solution, and that failure to implement appropriate measures could seriously prejudice the economic and social growth of Dublin", they say.

The consultants see Swords as a priority, suggesting that it could be served by a rail link to Dublin Airport, either by taking a branch off the Maynooth line or by rerouting the Dublin-Belfast main line to run through the airport.

The latter option would release capacity on the coastal line, allowing for further development of towns such as Balbriggan. Bringing Dublin Airport on to the national rail system would also be a "significant" advantage.

Within the city centre, the consultants' favour creating a strategic rail link between the planned DART station at Barrow Street, beside the Grand Canal Docks, and a new station adjoining the proposed National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock.

They note that most rail services in the Greater Dublin area pass through Connolly station, where the track capacity "effectively constrains the whole system"; current signalling arrangements limit the number of trains to a maximum of 14 per hour in each direction.

The guidelines suggest that Barrow Street could even become the city-centre terminus for commuter trains on the Kildare line, which currently terminate at Heuston station; they could be taken through the Phoenix Park tunnel and on to Barrow Street.

Increases in suburban rail capacity are also proposed, including an upgrade of both the Kildare and Maynooth lines to quadruple track, to eliminate conflict between mainline and suburban services. At present, the Maynooth line is single track beyond Clonsilla.

THE report also recommends reinstating the inland rail route from Dublin to Navan, which is to become a major "development centre", with the line routed through Blanchardstown to the former Midland Great Western terminus at Broadstone, near Phibsboro.

It calls for further measures to improve bus services, including more bus priority measures, more orbital routes and more park-and-ride sites in addition to those currently planned under the Dublin Transportation Initiative's strategy, devised in 1994.

This was based on projections which have been "comfortably exceeded". The consultants also say the major transportation schemes currently planned would only address existing shortcomings rather than provide capacity for large-scale growth.

They recommend further improvements to the M50, including a second bridge at West Link, additional lanes and upgraded interchanges. They also favour a new "by-pass" of the M50 to facilitate local traffic and free up the motorway for longer journeys.

The concept of a full Eastern Bypass, linking Santry with Stillorgan, is endorsed as a "long-term possibility", although it would require "significant additional study". Such a route would also at least partially relieve congestion on the M50.

However, the consultants warn that a strategy which promotes more use of the private car "is not sustainable" and say the existing problems of widespread traffic congestion in the Greater Dublin area "indicate the consequences of following such a path".

Although cars would still be important, especially in rural areas, and further road improvements were required, future development in the metropolitan area "must be based around public transport, with enhanced opportunities for walking and cycling".

If this approach is not adopted, the consultants warn, new development would occur only in locations close to highway infrastructure, necessitating significant investment in further road-building, mostly outside the "C-ring" formed by the M50.

"People would work in peripheral locations and would be largely dependent on the car", they say. "In the absence of a viable public transport alternative, congestion would increase and accessibility would be massively reduced.

"Employment would be relocated from the centre of Dublin to those outlying areas that retained some vestige of accessibility and eventually a situation would be reached where the car-dependent society would be strangled by its own transport system".

The consultants, led by Brady Shipman Martin, note that Dublin already has substantial traffic problems and warn that a similar situation could arise in the future if the recommendations on public transport are not fully implemented.

"Short-term growth would be partially accommodated within committed DTI schemes, such as quality bus corridors and Luas, but the longer-term viability of the area . .. would be compromised" by growing traffic congestion, particularly on radial routes.

The report notes that it is "widely recognised throughout Europe that public transport provides an important social function" and this is reflected in the provision of operating subsidies. Capital investment might be aided by public-private partnerships.

In his response to the report, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the Government did not need any convincing of the need for major new investment in transportation and this would be provided in the new National Development Plan.