Metro – build it and they will come

Sir, – Your Editorial clearly articulates the need to consider alterative Southside options ("MetroLink: Back to the drawing board", February 25th) after it was laid bare last week that the existing route would "involve disrupting the successful Luas Green Line for up to four years".

The worrying thing is that if community groups did not mobilise and highlight the disruption to 45,000 daily commuters as a key consideration, the National Transport Authority would have stuck to their line of “this level of detail will be developed at a later stage after the preferred route process is concluded”, as quoted in a response to residents’ queries.

It would have proceeded with the route and then landed the public and the taxpayer with major extended disruptions and cost surprises, as we have seen on the other major infrastructure project, the new national children’s hospital.

The Government now need to get on with the Northside route to St Stephen's Green (where at a later stage it can connect to that other sensible transport project, the Dart underground). It's hard to see the logic and cost/benefit of going on to Charlemont at this point with associated disruption. In parallel with this it needs to prioritise implementation of capacity upgrades to Luas Green Line (longer trams, increased rush-hour frequency), which will make the Luas Green Line "comfortable to the early 2030s", as Transport Infrastructure Ireland informed The Irish Times last December. It also needs to select an alternative Southside Metro route that boring machines can continue to work on in five years' time. If the decision is to invest in a Metro, it makes no sense to have just one line. Arguing that Southwest Dublin does not have a population to support a Metro is not credible, given the Bus Connects plans. As we have seen with the Green Line success, build it and they (residential and commercial development) will come. – Yours, etc,