The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has selected three route options for the Luas green line extension to Bray, Co Wicklow.
Details of the route options, which would create major housing and industrial development in the area, are to be officially announced by the Minister for Transport next Monday. Martin Cullen will also sign the railway order confirming the Luas extension.
The Irish Times has learned the route options from Bride's Glen at Cherrywood to Fassaroe, north of Bray, are: an alignment east of the M50/M11 motorway; an alignment to the west of the M50/M11; and a route along the the old Harcourt Street railway line which went through Shankill village to a halt on the coastal railway line.
A variation to the eastern motorway alignment to connect with the railway line at Woodbrook is also being considered.
The timetable for the Bride's Glen to Cherrywood extension is for services to be operational by 2010, with the Bray extension not opening until 2015. However, the RPA said yesterday it was possible the Bray extension might be built ahead of those dates.
Because of the importance of the Luas route last year, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Bray and Wicklow county local authorities commissioned a land use and transportation study from consultants Faber Monsell, with the co-operation of the RPA. It was completed last March.
Three corridor options for the Luas were identified: (1) the old Harcourt Street line alignment; (2) the M11 corridor (eastern side) and (3) the M11 corridor (western side). The report notes the RPA may also put forward a spur from the eastern motorway alignment to connect with the railway line offering a link with Dart services.
Major development at Cherrywood is pending after construction of the Luas extension from Sandyford. Now the three local authority plans also mention housing and development in the Bray environs including Woodbrook, Shanganagh, Old Connaught, Rathmichael and Fassaroe.
The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown development plan also wants to create a new Dart station at Woodbrook and to widen and improve access roads into Bray.
The RPA will put the route options on public display from Monday and will later hold a period of public consultation.
The agency is also proposing extensions to Citywest, the Docklands and a link between the two lines in Dublin city centre.
