Sir, Frank McDonald's recent articles on the LUAS system amounted to very little more than propaganda for the light rail option. In the interest of some balance I would like to point out some of the drawbacks of light rail and to advance some arguments in favour of the heavy rail underground option.
1. Many of the supporters of trams have identified European cities where trams operate as evidence of their success. However one city in which I have lived Stuttgart, has buried all its trams underground precisely because of the impact on city centre pedestrian and car traffic.
In Manchester the new tram system is hugely popular - but not with motorists. Studies show that car numbers were initially reduced by less than one in a thousand, an advantage that has since evaporated. A new light rail system proposed for Croyden in south London is now under review because of the experience of Manchester and Sheffield.
2. The proposed LRT route to Tallaght will not even match the current provision in terms of quality. The present bus routes provide 2,210 places per hour at peak times of which 1,872 are seated. The new LRT will provide 2,400 places (at planned 5 minute intervals) of which only 720 will be seated. The loss of over 1,000 seated journeys will do little to persuade people to change over from the bus never mind the car.
3. On the Dundrum line it is absurd to use light rail technology on a line that was designed to cater for heavy rail. Light rail is preferred for city centre travel because it is designed to negotiate the streets. As heavy rail (DART) is far superior in capacity terms, to use light rail on the Dundrum line is a waste of a very valuable resource.
4. LUAS will cause serious traffic disruption. The Tallaght line will cut across all most major north south roads in the city at a peak rate of one every two and a half minutes. Trams will compete with pedestrians and other traffic for scarce surface space.
5. The centre of Dublin will be covered with unsightly overhead power lines. The CIE design team hopes to hang the lines from adjacent buildings to minimise impact but this will not be possible in many areas such as O'Connell Bridge. New posts will have to be erected.
The Dublin Transport Initiative (DTI) found that underground/heavy rail was the best transport option for Dublin, contrary to popular belief. However it concluded that an underground at £600 million could not be afforded. The great failure of the DTI was to accept the negative feedback of the public on the question of special taxes to fund public transport capital expenditure. It is obvious that few people want to pay more taxes. Equally there is great public cynicism over what became of other special taxes and funds such as the youth employment levy and the National Lottery. However if such taxes had gone directly to a Dublin transport authority then the public would have been warmer to the idea.
Fuel and vehicle taxes in the Dublin area could have realised about £50 million annually to spend on public transport projects. This money could have drawn down similar funding from Europe and the Exchequer to produce the level of spending that Dublin really needs to build a first rate (underground) transport system.
The only way to remove cars from the city centre is to ban them. Any ideas of persuading motorists to abandon their cars are delusional. All experience shows that if a road space becomes free then a car will emerge to fill it. The rational policy is to decide to ban or restrict cars and build effective public transport options before the restrictions are made operational. In this sense Dublin Corporation has acted prematurely in trying to cap the number of parking spaces in the city before the new public transport measures have come into effect.
The fact is that for large movements of people in and out of the city heavy rail is most appropriate while for local transport buses provide the flexibility required. LRT is an attempt to achieve both but costing heavy rail type investment while providing bus type services. - Yours, etc.,
Middle Abbey St.,
Dublin.