Frank McDonald: The NTA has put the cart before the horse by prioritising Metrolink rather than Dart Underground, the long-delayed plan to link Heuston Station with Spencer Dock running in a tunnel through central Dublin.
How it could be: a diagram of Dublin’s rail network in 2045 envisaged by the Irish Cities 2070 working group, including the vital missing link – Dart+Tunnel, running underground between Heuston Station and Docklands – as proposed in a feasibility study by Jacobs Engineering for the National Transport Authority.
For politicians, Metrolink was more alluring and conjured up images of the Paris Metro; they never seemed to grasp the strategic importance of Dart Underground. Also, the latter was an Iarnród Éireann project, whereas Metrolink is the NTA’s baby, having been conceived by its predecessor, the Dublin Transportation Office. Such bureaucratic compartmentalisation is the enemy of joined-up thinking on public transport.
Gerry Duggan, the group’s transport specialist, notes that Dart+Tunnel “requires approximately half the tunnelling distance of the Metrolink proposal and half the number of underground stations, thus reducing capital cost, technical risk and construction time”. It would also “maximise redevelopment opportunities within the M50″, including the largely redundant 50-hectare Dublin Industrial Estate at Broombridge.
Furthermore, advances in train technology have led to the development of hybrid commuter trains that can be powered by either overhead wires or on-board batteries, thereby reducing the cost of infrastructure. Indeed, Iarnród Éireann has placed a €270 million order with Alstom for hybrid train sets to extend Dart to Drogheda and is preparing plans for Dart South West from Heuston to Kildare using the same technology.
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