[Mark Gleeson]

There where three routes out of Connolly

One was down the Quays, which given the very significant (and well funded) efforts of the IFSC companies to block the Luas this could not be ruled out.

Second was to knock the stop in Connolly and continue around the back of the IFSC and loop back into Mayor Street at the NCI

Third was Mayor Street

Knowing Ireland we would always pick the wrong one, the wall at the Luas stop was designed with a joint half way down to allow easy removal if the Mayor Street option was taken

Ideally you would sit down and plan the development of a system, then start building it bit by bit building the hooks for the next bit in at each stage. The enemy here is not the RPA or Irish Rail engineers but the bean counters in the DoF who seriously despise such forward planning. I've put this scenario to senior IE and RPA people and every time the answer is the same, thats the way we want to do it, but higher powers restrict

The likely outcome is that at peak hours half the trams will skip Connolly and go direct to the Point a portion will terminate in Connolly and a small number will do the Busaras Connolly reverse Mayor Street routing. Off peak everything via Connolly. Logically if you consider Dublin post interconnector, commuter flows will be either Heuston-Connolly or Connolly-Docklands you won't be doing Heuston Docklands by tram since the train would be at least half the time so it makes perfect sense

Given Connolly's status as a major rail terminal it would be utterly unacceptable to leave passengers in Busaras forcing a significant and dangerous trek to the station. It breaks with all sense in public transport integration and accessibility