Dublin’s proposed “Bus Connects” plan is missing a vital connection which would link the Luas Red and Green lines via a bus service on the M50 , a public meeting has been told.
The meeting organised by Fine Gael in Minister for Health Simon Harris’s north Wicklow base heard calls for the orbital bus route along the M50, linking the Red and Green Lines between the Red Cow in west Dublin and Carrickmines in the south of the county.
An attendance of about 100 people heard commuting from north Wicklow and south Dublin to the industrial and business areas of west Dublin was extremely difficult and involved either lengthy tram rides in and out of the city centre, lengthy bus routes or car use along the M50.
Under the National Transport Authority’s radical redrawing of the bus network in the city orbital routes are planned, but these do not use the M50.
Mr Mitchell said there the current route 75 between Tallaght and Dún Laoghaire “takes forever”. And using the M50 for a direct link was a better alternative.
Mr Mitchell said the M50 between south and west Dublin was heavily congested at morning peaks and in the evening tailbacks of several kilometres at the M50-M11 merge were a daily occurrence. He said the bus service between Carrickmines and Red Cow could take cars off the M50.
He also told the meeting consultants for Irish Rail were considering the feasibility of his plan for a Dart service to Greystones every 20 minutes, instead of the current 30-minute interval. In a study undertaken last December Mr Mitchell said the single line track between Bray and Greystones could be improved without going to the significant expense and engineering of widening the tunnels through Bray Head. He said the line out of Bray station towards Greystones had sidings and space that could be used to double track the Dart services some distance, while at the southern end the track could be doubled from the tunnel mouth to Greystones station .
He said Irish Rail had agreed to have his study examined by Jacobs Engineering to see if it was feasible.
The importance of a 20-minute Dart service was that it would provide for a transport hub at Greystones Station, out of which a number of feeder routes would run.
Under current Bus Connects proposals the 84 and 184 routes would be replaced by an orbital service serving Bray-Greystones -Charlesland every 20 minutes.
Every 40 minutes the service would extend to Kilcoole, Newcastle, Kiladreenan, Newtown, Delgany , while a similar 40 minute service would serve the same places running in the reverse direction.
The 84x service would be retained at peak hours.
