The absence of anything that could be termed an integrated transport plan has long bedevilled the greater Dublin area, but now – for the first time – a "strategic map of transport planning for the decades ahead has been set down on a statutory basis", as Anne Graham, chief executive of the National Transport Authority (NTA), said last week.
Formally laid before both houses of the Oireachtas, it is essentially a recitation of previously flagged measures and projects designed to provide for the “efficient, effective and sustainable movement of people and goods” in and around the capital.
The lion’s share of investment over the next 20 years will be swallowed up by multi-billion euro rail projects – Metro North, linking Swords and Dublin Airport with St Stephen’s Green, and Metro South, running from there to Bray, replacing the Luas Green Line, as well as Dart Underground, which is designed to transform disparate suburban rail services into a fully integrated network.
St Stephen’s Green itself will be the most serious casualty of these ambitious projects as much of the treasured public park will need to be excavated to accommodate a central underground station and the lines serving it.
New Luas lines are also proposed, including an extension of the Red Line to Poolbeg, although whether it becomes a major development zone is open to question. The bus network, which is the backbone of public transport in Dublin, is also to be reinforced by radial, orbital and regional corridors with continuous priority “as far as practicable”.
Cycleways will be expanded to nearly 1,500km and the plan also includes some major road projects. How these schemes can be reconciled with the NTA’s declared objective to manage demand for road space is an internal contradiction that cannot easily be discounted.
Given our patchy performance in the past, the current political uncertainty and likely future changes of government over the plan period, as well as the availability of funding, it would be fatuous to assume that every element of the strategy will actually be implemented over time.