Airport line
Surely in the 21st century a link to the airport by rail is possible.if you look at the map there are two line running v close the Maynooth line and the Dundalk line. The airport is planning a huge business area yet these plans seem to omit a rail link.travelling on the Sligo line to airport means crossing the M50 and having to go all the way into Connolly to get a bus or taxi back out in traffick despite passing so near the same applies to those from Belfast etc when a link would allow direct connection. Is there any politician that is willing to think beyond the next election and place Dublin in a similar position to most cities in Europe. In Geneva you check your bag in at the rail station and collect it at your country of arrival.
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Not the answer you are looking for, but there are direct bus services from Maynooth (may need short walk) and Drumcondra.
www.airporthopper.ie www.aircoach.ie |
Airport line
Thanks I never knew it strange tha CIE don't announce on trains that there is an airport link at Maynooth
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Same way that the so called Travel Information desk (which is actually a commercial sales desk for CIE) will send you on a wonderful mystery tour of a city to get to places that may be connected by direct services of other companies. Hoping that the NTA have more control in future to have a more joined up system. |
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There are also Bus Eireann buses from Longford/Mullingar/Maynooth direct to the airport. |
Airport link
It's about 12km from Clongriffin to the airport which would connect the Belfast line straight in to the terminal. Surely in 2017 a way could be found to link the airport by rail like any other modern European city. Too many vested interests in Dublin have obstructed the rail link over the years which has relegated Dublin to a lower level. It's possible now in many cities to check in at a rail station and collect your bag at the destination. Join Clongriffin to the airport and forget all the studies that are never ending.
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Additionally the DAA don't want a rail link to the airport as they fear a loss of revenue from car parks at the airport would result. I think the only solution is move closer to the airport if you're a regular user, as otherwise you're looking at a PITA with no end in sight. |
Rail link to airport
http://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-airp...33770-Oct2017/
Looks like any rail plan has been further kicked down the line - the lobby opposing must be quite strong to counter all the best advice into the future. |
metro
http://www.independent.ie/business/b...-36218162.html
Good new for Dublin and metro planning at last |
I wonder could the timeframe be accelerated by a year or two. Appreciably there are compulsory purchase orders etc... but a decade is a long time...
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shift2rail
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/e...hell-1.3263324
While rail is the obvious solution to the gridlock in Dublin and has been for years the car lobby is very powerful and well connected which is why solutions like rail to Navan and an airport line cannot attract political attention. When M50 was being built it would have been simple to run a luas type ssystem to the airport similar to other capitals. Opening up Phoenix park tunnel was like drawing teeth as CIE resisted with every possible argument. When Croke park was built it cleverly included a rail platform on the canal side but has yet to be used. The money is in motorways! |
Lets be clear here its politicians
Metro north is just too big and takes too long like DART underground. Both are needed, the numbers stack up. But as long as we have parish pump politics its going nowhere, mayor for Dublin is the only way forward. Navan, just isn't workable given the 450 million price tag and the lack of population centres on the route, the northern line in contrast as large towns dotted every few miles which generate large demand. There is an urban myth about Croke Park, there is no station or provision for such, at the time of plans for the new children's hospital at the Mater there was talk of trying to locate a station eastward of Croke Park but came to nothing |
I had also heard the myth about Croke Park, so I took a look, and there are structures that look somewhat like platforms, but I think they are just concrete supports to hold the stadium up. The clearances are just too tight for passengers to safely disembark trains, and there's no way you could fit a station in there.
If Metro North does go ahead (and I believe it has to eventually), I think the ideal place for an interchange station with the Maynooth line would be further west of Drumcondra near Phibsborough. It would seam feasible to put a station near the tennis courts on Whitworth road, which would allow both train lines to connect with the Metro platform. This would be a minor alteration to the current route, and would allow the station to be built using cheaper cut and cover methods, rather than more expensive mining methods that would be required in Drumcondra. I sometimes wonder if we are putting the horse before the cart expecting existing high density population centres before we consider a rail connection. Inevitably the centres we are trying to connect are too spread out to make the best use of the rail connection that eventually gets built. If we built the rail line to Navan, and zoned a number of areas along the route for medium to high rise housing, the population centres would follow. I suspect nothing is really change until the cosy political cartel of FF/FG gets broken. |
Myth Croke Park rail platform
Myth or no myth the canal end stand design included provision for a rail platform and very cleverly allows the stand extend out over the rail line with a platform in place. For whatever vested interest the platform has not been opened most likely due to well known decision making process in CIE. To confirm best to go and do the Croke Park tour which includes showing you the completed platform. Why it has not been kitted out and used is the mystery.
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Well, one reason is that any Croke Park Canal end station would only serve trains coming from Maynooth. Pace and Sligo, which is a very small part of the rail network. Now if you re-configured Glasnevin Junction... not gonna happen, creates other problems.
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Glasnevin junction
You hit the nail on the head. The interchange at that junction would need to be realigned and then there would be many options and allow greater movement. Like the opening of the Phoenix Park tunnel CIE will be dragged screaming to consider the options they prefer to see only the problems which is why public transport in Dublin is so slow to evolve into a 21st century city system. The rail infrastructure in Dublin is really well connected and linked up except for the airport but the whole system was put in place by the Empire we have added ver little.
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Underground
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...an-465212.html
The saga of the underground trundles on meanwhile the developers are ahead of the curve. To think after all the debate and discussion the station locations are undecided is revealing. The underground project is strategic and long term but politicians only think to the next election so no gain in long term planning. Look at the reaction to the intended plaza at Trinity......no vision of what such a creation would do for the city.....the bus routes take precedence....God save us! |
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Personally I think they may have side-stepped the rail issue (politically only) via the sheer number of bus routes now operating out of the airport. Shur if you have a bus going virtually 24/7 to Ballina via Longford, or to Navan, then it keeps people quiet. Ironically it's most of the greater Dublin area (with a few exceptions) that is the hardest to get to/from the airport. But then again, as a culchie living in Dublin for 25 years, the Dubs were always sold short, and allowed themselves to be. |
The DAA would certainly be more interested in a rail link to the rest of the country than to Dublin. One to Dublin would is just going to take people who were flying out of Dublin from one transport form into another. Only if congestion near the airport got so bad that Dubliners would consider flying from another airport (and the nearest is 2 hours away) would it be a priority.
In terms of taking passengers from other airports, the big prize for them is the 7.7m passengers flying out of Belfast Airport, so they would far prefer to see the Belfast line diverted to operate through the airport. |
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The bus is cheaper, runs services for first flight out and most last flights in and is generally faster than taking a bus into town and changing to the train. |
This discussion shows up the dysfunctional governance of public transport investment decisions in Ireland. Major projects such as Motorways, rail electrification and new routes, main airports, all involve big external impacts (e.g. a new motorway will impact on some main rail lines, an expanded airport will impact on the demand for different modes of surface transport). As such they should not be regarded as "ordinary" investments where the only relevant measure is the financial impact on the investor.
This is why we have bodies such as the NTA, and a Department of Transport. They exist to regulate transport providers and co-ordinate big investment decisions. If a major airport acts like a car-park provider and retailer with some runways attached (OK I know this exaggerates a bit) this is clear evidence of regulatory failure. Thus a rail link to Dublin Airport should be an NTA/Government decision and the criterion should be based on costs and benefits to society as a whole, and not just to DAA (or Irish Rail for that matter). If we have a minister of transport whose main concerns (or even obsessions) seem to be the appropriate penalties for driver misbehavour or for the procedure used to appoint judges, then it is almost inevitable that major questions of governance and regulation in the transport sector will be neglected, with huge long-term consequences. |
Has anyone noticed the silence of the politician on the subject? Reason probably is that there are few votes in such a decision, no natural constituency at the airport and you only get votes from doing something local rather than national interest. This why likes of NTA need to drive progress though I’m sure there is a political hand there also.
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Whatever about the link to the airport, I'm surprised that TDs covering Swords (and possibly even Ashbourne where it could be arranged for a line to terminate) haven't been more vocal.
Knowing the way commercial interests have sway in this country, we will probably eventually get a line to Tayto Park, which just happens to serve Dublin Airport, Swords and Ashbourne on the way. |
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