COMPANIES trading on the Sandyford industrial estate and the Custom House Docks site should receive a tax incentive to encourage them to fund much needed extensions to the proposed Luas light rail system, according to An Taisce.
In a letter to the Minister for Transport, Mr Lowry, it said there would be a considerable benefit in extending the Dundrum light rail line to Sandyford, not least to the companies on the estate, and "they should make some contribution".
Mr John O'Sullivan, transport planning adviser to An Taisce, said the International Financial Services Centre at the Custom House Docks site was in a similar situation, and a light rail extension to serve it would link up with the DART line.
He also called on the Government to ensure that investment in light rail was maintained after EU funds run out after 2000.
Despite a considerable rise in DART passenger numbers, "not a single additional piece of rolling stock has been brought into service, with the result that at peak periods the journey represents a dangerous survival course". However, he welcomed plans for new stations at Fairview and Barrow Street.
An Taisce had "grave doubts" about plans to extend light rail to Ballymun, using the relatively narrow Drumcondra Road. Instead, it favoured routing it via the old Broadstone railway line, with connections to Finglas and the Tallaght line at Smithfield.
While strongly endorsing on street light rail, Mr O'Sullivan said that a decision should be made now to establish the project as a separate company, "so that we don't have an endless tug of war over its future in the context of rivalry within the CIE group between Dublin Bus and Iarnrod Eireann".
