Transport 21 – Wonderful Shortcomings

On the surface of it, much of what Transport 21 aspires to is great, but it is fundamentally flawed in so many ways. Do the two existing Luas lines need to link up if, as the Green Party proposes, Metro North is extended south from St Stephen’s Green to connect to the Luas green line at Beechwood station from which point the Luas and Metro trams would share the same tracks, thus connecting the green line to the red line on O’Connell Street, the airport and Swords so negating the need for the BX line in the first place? The RPA yesterday announced they were finalising plans for the BXD line which will ultimately connect to Broombridge, and perhaps one day Finglas, but for now the RPA are planning to spend money on two lines that run the same route, while at the same time digging up at least a third of St Stephen’s Green park, largely so that Metro North can simply turn around. Metro North will happen, the money will eventually come from somewhere, it will take a long time to happen and it will be a good service when it arrives, it’s just a pity the important decisions that can easily be made now are being ignored. The BX line will go ahead, of course, so in conceding defeat my parting shot queries one last detail, that of the proposed route. It will add to an already congested O’Connell Street going north, whereas if both north and south tracks were accommodated on Marlborough Street it would bring some much needed re-activation to that street – although also, owing the acoustic impact of two tram lines, surely hasten the Abbey Theatre’s exodus from its current location (to the GPO we wonder?).

Advisors said 40m trams would be required on the Tallaght Line; the advice was ignored and the RPA have been pushing to expand to that ever since. Wrapping around Dublin Bay, the Dart only has half a catchment area, yet is invariably jammed at rush hour, the capacity of both Luas lines was never going to come close, yet were persisted with anyway. Linking Metro North to the green line would require an extension of platforms on the line, but that is a minimal intervention that would go some way to future-proofing the project. However, simple but important decision making remains aloof from the important people involved in the RPA. A feasibility study of a Luas line from Rathfarnam to Broadstone was undertaken in 2008 and the idea brought no further owing to some negative traffic disruption and problems to do with height clearance, the incline at Christchurch and the previously deemed unsuitable O’Donovan Rossa Bridge. A previous study finding the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge unsuitable surely begs the question why weren’t the two either side of it considered this time or as in the case of the BX line, a new one proposed. The line would’ve connected to the existing Green line at Nutgrove, the proposed Lucan line as well as the high capacity Dart line at Christchurch and potentially Glasnevin/Phibsborough or Broombridge and could’ve gone someway to reducing the need for the number 16 bus, some of which could then be deployed on Quality Bus Corridors elsewhere in the city; alas though it seems to have been abandoned despite being deemed feasible from Nutgrove and Rathfarmam to at least Christchurch. The proposal appears on the Green Party’s policy papers; it might be cynical to suggest the study was done to appease them in Government, but then that might also be the truth.

Why is the Lucan line proposed to terminate on College Green when it is likely plans to extend it to Grand Canal Dock, Ringsend and Poolbeg will be proposed when it is completed? Why was the Port Tunnel built too small for all trucks? How does it take two hours on the Western Rail Corridor to get from Galway to Limerick? Why do Sligo and Mayo people pay the same toll for the M4 when they only get half of what Galway people get? Why is the existing connection between Connolly and Hueston Station under the Phoenix Park not utilised? Why is Metro West not proposed to connect to the Dart at Howth and Dun Laoghaire? And what of integrated transport for Dublin City, the easiest item on that Transport 21 list of ‘things to do’, a pipe-dream surely? Consider the ungainly Loopline Bridge, it met much opposition and stirred controversy for its imposition on the Custom House facade in 1981, and the debate continues well over a hundred years later. Perhaps well-intentioned but ill-considered moves toward transport infrastructure is just our way. But look, it’s not just the public transport powers-that-be that do wonderful things but leave certain baffling shortcomings outstanding? Why did we build two of Europe’s finest sports stadiums and somehow not get the north-end right on either of them? There is sound rationale behind a lot of the decisions, but decisions toward better solutions could easily be made while these projects remain drawings. As to why they are not? It baffles the mind.

The Hunger

It seems begging on the streets of Dublin has reached chronic levels. Some are saying Dublin is going, or indeed has gone to Hell, but complaining that things aren’t the way they used to be anymore tends to be a staple of Irish people. A prominent Dublin charity spending €50,000 a month on food and the Capuchin Day Centre preparing 600meals a day, however, does confirm something of Dublin’s trouble. Walking idly around the city last week, it did seem quite prominent; at the ATM on Saint Stephen’s Green a sunburnt twenty-something lady in a sleeping bag, in the park with stories of needing a bus fare, on Baggot Street hassling smokers outside the pubs, one just beyond the canal at Milanos swimming in his own vomit, Saturday night on Harcourt Street and a flow of luckless men and women hoping to catch people coming out of the night-clubs, on any bridge over the Liffey, Wolfe Tone Park, under the Loop-line on Talbot Street, the list could be as long as Ulysses and the words to describe them might actually enable one to rebuild the city.

Why is the question, with recession the immediate answer. But the ‘why’ still lingers. Might it be said, harshly or otherwise, that being generous is akin to feeding a stray dog. Would they do it if they had no other choice? Would they do it because it had been too long since their last fix of heroin? Would they do it if it didn’t yield some return? Ours is not a country, of course, that turns its back on the hungry but if the problem is as serious as it clearly is, this country ought to be doing more – and that does not mean throwing coins into a styrofoam coffee cup.