A five-stop underground linking the main rail stations in Dublin could be built by 2010 at a cost of €1.3 billion, the managing director of Iarnród Éireann, Mr Joe Meagher, said yesterday.
Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Mr Meagher said the Department of Transport had funded a feasibility study into the plan which would eliminate current rail congestion in the centre of the city.
The new underground, which would have stops at Heuston Station, High Street, St Stephen's Green, Pearse Street and Spencer Dock, would allow through passage for all Kildare line trains through to the Belfast line, while at the same time allowing all trains from the Longford/Sligo line to pass through to the south Dublin/Wexford lines.
In effect passenger services could be offered between Belfast and Cork or Kerry, and from Sligo to Wexford
The underground would link into the proposed Dublin Airport metro at St Stephen's Green while other aspects of Iarnród Éireann's plans allow for the creation of an airport link to the northern DART line at a cost of up to €444 million, or an airport link to the Maynooth line at a cost of €525 million.
Mr Meagher stressed that Iarnród Éireann's five-stop underground plan, which he described as an "interconnector", was not an alternative to the proposed Dublin Airport metro. "It's not an either/or option," he commented.
Mr Meagher told the Joint Committee that Iarnród Éireann had short-, medium- and long-term plans to tackle transport issues covering a wider region between Dublin and the provinces. While the interconnector was for the medium term - post 2008 - in the short term trains from Kildare could be brought through an existing tunnel under the Phoenix Park and across the north city into Spencer Dock.
A new pedestrian bridge currently being built across the Liffey will bring the south city business district into the reach of Spencer Dock and Kildare-based rail commuters.
The company is also planning capacity enhancements to bring in commuters from Longford and Westmeath. Mr Meagher told the Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, the company would consider a major park-and-ride facility at a point where the proposed Kinnegad bypass meets the commuter railway.
Other options open to the transport company were a new spur to Dunboyne, further electrification and additional rolling stock.
The proposals were given a warm welcome by the Oireachtas members with the chairman, Mr Eoin Ryan, commenting that it was a "fantastic integrated system for the city and would really make a huge difference to maximising the public use of the rail network".
