Madam, – I have long suspected that Frank McDonald suffers from hadesphobia – fear of the underground – and has lately caught a virulent sub-strain called metrophobia.
His piece on the transport element of the new Government plan (Opinion, July 28th) dismisses Metro North because it has not been analysed – but no project has been more closely scrutinised over the last 20 years. He is scathing about the selected northern terminus at Belinstown (one ‘l’, Frank), but the rationale is clear – it will provide a large park and ride facility close to the M1 and so reduce congestion and emissions in the north of the city.
Mr McDonald suggests that the case for Metro North is based on “population projections . . . now wildly unrealistic”, recalling the words of Garrett FitzGerald explaining the failure of earlier plans to provide for the growth of recent years. Infrastructure is a vote of confidence in the future and of course projections will always be approximate. Inability to foretell exactly what is to come is no excuse for inactivity.
But there is another reason for large investment in public transport in Ireland’s most densely-populated region. One day soon, petrol prices will rise dramatically. Did you ever think that petrol would cost £5 a gallon? Get ready for €5 a litre! And it will be too late then to start digging underground railways. Ni he la na gaoithe la na scolb.
A big civil engineering project with a high labour content, lots of income tax and VAT for national finances and a major boost to our fight against global warming — bring it on! – Yours, etc,