Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The National Transport Authority has put back the consultation on the revised metro link route on the southside of Dublin. The expectation was that the authority would lower the route on Dunville Avenue to avoid problems at the Beechwood station. The rumour now is that it is thinking of tunnelling a little further south of that station. There are real problems in building the metro, a driverless segregated system, and joining it to the light rail system which is pedestrian-friendly and has completely different characteristics. In trying to combine the two there is a risk that we will have to take out the green line for a year and a half, which would have major consequences for the city.

The question I have is whether the Government would think of asking the NTA to think bigger and look at two or three further options. The first option which I have pushed previously is that we not stop the tunnelling machine but follow the original route the metro was meant to follow towards the south west. There could be stations at Harold's Cross, Terenure, Rathfarnham, Knocklyon, Firhouse and Tallaght, as originally planned. There would be major benefits because that corridor, as the Taoiseach will know being a former Minister with responsibility for transport, has the worst public transport problems. It is the hardest bus corridor for us to get right. It is the area of the city that would be most affected by the BusConnects project in terms of front gardens being taken out and disruption being caused for people living in that area. It would make real sense to keep the tunnelling machine going towards the south west to service that area and provide proper public transport for once.

Another route has recently come into view. The option involves taking a slightly different direction and not stopping the tunnelling machine but heading slightly to the south east with a stop at Donnybrook and another at UCD. It would transform the college and provide a connection between DCU, Trinity College Dublin and UCD. It would have extraordinary development potential for the city in connecting the three main universities. We would not stop there because there is an obvious line that we could follow on the reservation for the eastern bypass that would bring the metro to Sandyford. In that way, we could provide the high capacity connection needed to Sandyford to cope with further growth on the line.

This is eminently doable, but it needs political direction. The Taoiseach could, if he was thinking big and serious about how we could make this city work, look at one further development - a connecting line between Marlay and Balinteer which would join the two lines. With it we would have a southside circular route that would transform the southside of the city similar to what has been done in Copenhagen. Those responsible started to think about a metro at the same time as we did. In the meantime they have built two metro lines. Next year they will open jsuch a circular line. Therefore, this is doable and we need it because we are not meeting our climate change targets and transport is one of the worst sectors. The city is gridlocked, which is not good for anyone in the country. The right set-up would help the economic system to work to pay the taxes which, in turn, pay for all of the infrastructure.

Dublin is grinding to a halt. It needs a transport Minister and a Government that is willing to think big. Will the Taoiseach ask the National Transport Authority, NTA, to look at those options as part of the review it is doing on the south side part of the MetroLink project?

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