Irish Railway Record Society

Irish Railway News  - Journal 150

DUBLIN - NAVAN

On 16 October, the Minister for Transport told the Dáil that 'the Dublin Transportation Office strategy for 2000 - 2016, entitled A Platform for Change, recommends the construction of a new rail line off the Maynooth line near Clonsilla via Dunboyne to Navan. The report envisages the rail link being completed in two phases, the first being the construction of a spur from Clonsilla to Dunboyne, to be completed by 2006, and the extension of the line to Navan to be completed by 2010. To date, I have not received a proposal from Iarnród Éireann in this regard. I understand the company continues to keep the proposal under review in the light of its investment priorities'.

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The National Development Plan 2000/06 (NDP) and Community Support Framework comprise six Operational Programmes. One programme is public transport, with investment managed under the Economic and Social Infrastructure Operational Programme (ESIOP). The NDP/CSF Evaluation Unit engaged consultants Indecon to evaluate progress to date. They evaluated expenditure to date and plans for IÉ, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. The rail aspect of their report is noted below.

They evaluated spending in monetary terms, as well as physical work such as track re-laying and purchase of rolling stock. The original NDP plans were adjusted by the time of the publication of the EISOP programme. These adjustments were to take account of additional public transport capacity required by, amongst others, the Dublin Transportation Office Platform for Change document ‘which led to a fundamental re-evaluation of aspects of the Government’s transport plans for Dublin’. This set the target of increasing ‘the total number of passengers using public transport during the morning peak in the year 2006 by 66%’. This is described as a key objective of the programme.

NATIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY

On 28 November, the Government launched its National Spatial Strategy. Its objective was to address the imbalance in development between Dublin and the rest of the country in recent years. It advocates promoting development of regional centres and towns. It recommended improvement of infrastructure links, including rail, between the designated towns.

Public transport corridors recommended to be upgraded included those between Waterford and Limerick, Limerick and Galway, and between Galway and Sligo. It said that 'the ability to travel between Cork and Limerick in about an hour by road or rail would result in both centres being seen to have shared strengths in their attractiveness for investment and enterprise'. 'Similarly, if roads and public transport connections between Waterford and Cork and between Limerick/Shannon and Galway were appropriately enhanced, the attractions of each gateway could also be seen in an increasingly shared sense. In time, this could also provide a basis for the improvement of onward connections, through road and public transport networks, to Sligo and Derry and other points in between'.

Ennis and Tuam are among the towns selected for development and both are on public transport corridors recommended to be upgraded. Regarding access to Shannon Airport it advocated ‘consideration by the Strategic Rail Review of the potential for linking Shannon, through the national rail network, to cities such as Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

The report also stated that ‘it will be important to ensure that rail continues to offer realistic alternatives to road travel on the key inter-city routes: Dublin-Belfast and Dublin-Cork/ Galway/ Limerick/ Waterford’. It called for 'improved rail services between Dublin and Derry (via the Dublin-Belfast line)'. It also recommends that alignments of disused rail lines be retained for possible future use. The Taoiseach said that all policies, including transport, must ‘be consistent with the Spatial Strategy’.

The remainder of these articles appear in IRRS Journal number 150, published February 2003.

Copyright © 2003 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: January 07, 2004 .