Government considering two rail links to airport

The Government is considering two rail links to Dublin Airport, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday.

Speaking at the start of work on the Tallaght Luas line, Ms O'Rourke said she favoured two lines serving the airport, one of which is already planned as part of an extension to the Ballymun Luas line.

The Minister said that while the light rail airport service was planned as part of the Luas extension to Swords, "it makes sense to have a heavy rail link to the airport as well". She believed that growth figures for travellers and workers at the airport would justify both lines: "There is a ready-made customer base among the people who work there as well as those who travel," she said.

Consultants Ove Arup, on behalf of CIE, are examining options for the development of a heavy rail link as part of their overall review of suburban rail services. Mr Barry Kenny, a spokesman for Irish Rail, said yesterday this review was examining options for a spur from either the Dublin to Belfast line or the Sligo line.

The spur from the Belfast line would leave the existing line at Howth junction and travel via Coolock to the airport. The spur from the Sligo line would begin at Ashtown or Cabra station and cross through Finglas and Ballymun to emerge at the airport just south of the main runway. Provision for this route has been made in the draft Fingal County Development Plan. CIE is understood to favour the Sligo option, rather than linking the additional airport traffic to the already congested DART and mainline rail traffic. The Dublin to Sligo line is not heavily used, although it does incorporate the Maynooth suburban service.

It is earmarked to be upgraded to twin-track as recommended by the Dublin Transportation Initiative's final report of 1994, and finance for this is expected to be set aside in the forthcoming National Development Plan.

While "substantial" investment in the existing rail network has been promised in the National Development Plan, Ms O'Rourke said the two routes to the airport would be suitable for a public/private partnership. "We are too far advanced with the two south Dublin Luas lines to offer them as public/private partnerships, but the advice is that the underground section in the city centre and the northside line with its connection to the airport is ideal for a PPP and the heavy rail link would fit into that too," she commented.

The light rail proposal for the airport service is for a route from Broadstone passing west of Finglas through Ballymun and Poppintree and along the ring road south of the main runway, at Dublin Airport. It is also proposed to extend this route to Swords.

Ms O'Rourke said she intends to take two unannounced journeys on Dublin's controversial Quality Bus Corridor within a few weeks of its official opening on Monday.