Written answers

Thursday, 10 November 2005

Department of Transport

Public Transport

5:00 pm

Photo of Finian McGrathFinian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Transport the reason the north side of Dublin was excluded in major transport projects in the transport plan for 21st century Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33719/05]

Photo of Martin CullenMartin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I reject the suggestion that the major upgrading of public transport in the greater Dublin area contained in Transport 21 excludes Dublin's northside. The position is that the northside will gain significantly under Transport 21 as follows: Transport 21 provides for two new metro lines, metro north and metro west. Metro north will operate from St. Stephen's Green to Swords, serving places such as DCU, Ballymun and Dublin Airport. Metro west will be an orbital line linking the LUAS line at Tallaght with the metro north line at Ballymun and connecting Clondalkin, Lucan and Blanchardstown along its route.

The Tallaght Luas line will be extended from Connolly Station to the Docklands. A cross-city link will also be built to connect both the Tallaght and Sandyford lines in the city centre. This line will then be extended from the city centre via Broadstone, and serving the Grangegorman development area, to link with the Maynooth rail line at Liffey Junction.

A city centre signalling project will be implemented. This will relieve congestion on the city centre rail network, allowing an extra four trains per hour to operate through the city centre. This will increase the number of trains per direction per hour from 12 to 16. The Navan rail line will be re-opened in two phases. Phase 1 will be a link from the city centre to Dunboyne and a new station in the docklands area. Phase 2 will see the line extended to Navan.

A rail interconnector tunnel will be built by 2015. It will link the southwestern suburban line out of Heuston with the northern line. This project will relieve a severe bottleneck in the city centre rail network and permit a major expansion of the suburban rail service. With the interconnector in place, Transport 21 will deliver new DART services from the city centre to Balbriggan on the northern line and also new DART services to Maynooth. There will be a significant investment in new rolling stock to provide services on these lines.

Under Transport 21 there will be a greater focus on the development of orbital, feeder and local services and integrating the city. The quality bus network will be at least doubled over the period to improve the quality, reliability and efficiency of the bus service. Buses will, in particular, be used to meet the immediate and short-term requirement for additional public transport in Dublin while other infrastructure is being put in place. I have asked Dublin Bus to review its network in light of the planned investment and to examine the most effective means of expanding bus services in the short, medium and long term and it is to report to me early in the new year. Overall we will see the capacity of the bus network increase by 60% over the lifetime of Transport 21. This will bring significant benefits to the north side of Dublin.

Along with the public transport projects outlined, the M50 upgrade will be completed giving a 50% increase in its capacity. The port tunnel will also be completed thereby reducing the number of heavy goods vehicles travelling through the city centre. All in all Transport 21 will provide huge investment in new transport infrastructure and services right across the north side of Dublin. This is in addition to the large investment which has already been made which benefited the north side, including the doubling of DART capacity, increased suburban rail capacity and investments in buses and improved bus priority. With the implementation of Transport 21, Dubliners living on the northside — whether in Ballymun or Ballybriggan, Swords or the city centre — will see a massively expanded and fully integrated public transport network offering attractive and frequent services and also offering choice between buses, Luas, metro, DART and suburban rail.

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