A revolutionary passenger craft brings the start of a water bus service on the Liffey a step closer, writes David O'Brien.
Many a harassed commuter on Dublin's traffic-jammed quays has gazed wistfully at the empty River Liffey running parallel and dreamt, if only they had a boat . . . Water buses operate in many cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Sydney, London, Lisbon and Copenhagen, so why not Dublin?
But the Liffey poses what, up to now, seemed an insurmountable challenge. High tides leave little room for boats to pass under the river's 15 bridges between Heuston Station and the East Link Bridge. In addition, few river transport services have to cope with the rolling sea conditions that can be experienced east of the Matt Talbot bridge as the Liffey flows out into Dublin bay.
But now Danish naval architects Ole Steen Knudsen appear to have cracked the age-old problem in what is a step nearer to providing Dubliners with a water bus service. Full-scale tests of an innovative hull design were carried out on the river during spring tides, the highest of the year, on April 15th, and the results suggest a clever circumvention of the puzzle presented by the ebb and flow of river levels.
The firm tendered for a design competition held by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), seeking solutions for a passenger craft capable of negotiating city bridges that often have less than five feet clearance above the water.
The Danes came up with the idea of a hull that has a greater depth in water than would normally be needed, in order to reduce its cabin height above the water. It looks like a boat with low headroom but it has full standing height inside and can pass under bridges with inches to spare.
For last month's test, the Danes, led by naval architect Jan Haase, used a mock-up of the cross-section of the boat above the waterline, mounted on a conventional craft. The naval architects chose to test under one of the lowest bridges, the Talbot Memorial bridge, which has just 1.6 metres clearance at high water, and under O'Connell Bridge, which has the longest passage underneath a bridge. Inspectors from the Marine Surveyors' office, who sanction a vessel's seaworthiness, monitored the tests.
Peter Coyne, DDDA's chief executive, says the new design can navigate west from the East Link to Heuston at full tide. This means it even fits underneath the recently completed Blackhall Place bridge with a clearance estimated at only 1.3 metres.
Despite the innovative design, problems remain. Even a low passenger boat probably wouldn't be able to pass under all the bridges from the East Link to the Sean Heuston bridge at certain times of the year during tidal surges. Even more problematic, the Millennium Bridge might well be the furthest point west that travel would be possible during low tide.
The architects also had to take into account other constraints, including stringent Department of the Marine safety requirements. The craft needs to be weatherproof and have rapid embarkation and disembarkation options for passengers. In Copenhagen, the city's river bus has a bow that doubles as a gangplank, which allows for wide and safe access to and from purpose-built landing jetties.
The Liffey runs alongside Dublin's most important transport hubs, offering huge potential to connect Busaras with Heuston, Tara Street and Connolly stations. The docklands authority sees the possibilities for the water bus service, and is keen to regenerate the river and use it to knit the docklands area into traditional city life. The authority's plans for the quays will make an 80-acre site along Dublin's north quays - stretching from Spencer Dock to the Point - the most intensely developed area in the country.
Water bus stops could be located at Tara Street (DART), IFSC I, IFSC II, Forbes Street, Britain Quay, the Point Depot and the ferry terminal at Alexandra basin. The stops will most likely be close to bridges to allow access from both sides of the river. The docklands authority envisages the river service would be used by a wide mix of passengers including docklanders, tourists, cruise line passengers, Irish rail passengers, ferry passengers, commuters, pedestrians and visitors to the Point. According to DDDA figures, there will be almost 70,000 people working in the area by 2012, with a third of Dublin's three million tourists per year visiting the docklands.
But Coyne stresses that the river bus means much more than the transfer of people. He acknowledges that the capacity of this river bus, less than 100 passengers per trip, is limited in city transport terms; but, far more importantly, it will "animate" the dormant river and bring it into focus as a city asset.
The area will not only be directly serviced by DART and LUAS, as well as local and QBC bus services, but also by a new Docklands heavy rail station.
This week Coyne received the results of a DDDA-commissioned report into a marketing survey that examined the feasibility of the project, and the authority is inviting proposals from those interested in running an upstream/downstream service. This, coupled with the design of a boat for the demanding Liffey conditions, are two big steps towards turning one of Dublin's most overlooked features into an attractive and green alternative to gridlock.