A radical alternative for transport in Ireland
- Kilian Drury
- Jul 10, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 24, 2020
In a break from my other posts, this is not a travel blog post. I said in one of my previous posts that the covid-19 pandemic has restricted travel and public transport use for most of us to memories of past trips, or fantasy of what might be possible in the future - well, this post definitely fits in to the 'fanstasy' category.
The Irish public transport network, or lack thereof, has fascinated me since I was a child. In particular I have always dreamt of what could be, and, to a lesser extent, of what once was. The need for better public transport in Ireland is fairly widely accepted but what has always amazed me is the lack of integrated and ambitous planning to improve it. Although many good proposals have been made, most of them never seem to see the light of day, and what progress has been made over the past few decases has felt exrutiatingly slow to materialise, and underwhelming when it does.
Over the years I always had my own ideas, and a sort of personal 'dream' view of what Dublin, in particular, could have, in terms of public transport. When i was younger I recorded these as hand drawn doodles, or lines on old ordnance survey maps... as I got older I made digital versions on google maps. The projects that did happen such as Dublin's 'Luas' tram network didn't quite match what I had origionally imagined, but actually fitted in to my 'vision' quite well. But then projects that I felt were probably the most important, such as the DART 'interconnector' tunnel, also got cancelled and have remained a fantasy.
It's not most people's idea of of fun, but I thouroghly enjoyed not only imagining what could be, but planning out precise routes in my head, right down to meticulously studying satellite images; and even imagining service patterns, fare structures and ticketing systems... If it sounds like a bit of a personal obsession, well, It was. It still is! But what can I say... I enjoy it.
Last year I decided to put something a bit more... I don't know if I can really say 'professional'... but certainly something a bit more structured and organised together. I put my ideas and thoughts down in writing, created accompanying maps and diagrams. In my head it's still a work in progress, but what I ended up with was the following 39 page document:
(I noticed that sometimes the link is broken, so here is an alternative link from google drive):
While I've been clear here and in the document itself that this is a fantasy project, a lot of the proposals I make are actually very simple and don't require any major infrastructure, such as:
True integrated ticketing: combined, multimodal fare structures and tickets for towns and cities, and the ability to buy combined rail/ bus tickets for longer journeys.
The NTA/ TFI to take over all resposibiliuty for ticketing and fare structure to make the above possible.
Better integration of rail and bus networks in general (buses connecting to trains and vice versa) - trains and buses should work together instead of competeing against each other.
Even though it's an extremely ambitious proposal and therefore something I have defined as fantasy, some of my infrastructure proposals can actually be seen as a step back from current strategy, with what I believe is a more measured approach:
Instead of building a new standalone metro network for Dublin, expand the current 'Luas' light rail/ tram network in the short to medium term
In the longer term plan on upgrading parts of the 'Luas' network to a 'premetro' system similar to those found in Belgium, or 'Stadtbahn' systems in Germany
Other proposals are far more abmitous, and not only involve projects that have been postponed and/ or cancelled, but invovle reviving them on a much bigger scale:
Build the 'Interconnector' tunnel to a bigger specification than originally planned, to not only form part of an expanded local 'DART' network, but form a new mainline route, linking Cork/ Limerick - through Dublin - and on to Belfast.
Build a second tunnel (following the route or using one of the bores of the Dublin port tunnel), and new northern mainline route, bringing Dublin Airport in to the centre of this new core mainline route.
I obviously go in to far greater detail on all these ideas in the document itself.
As you have probably gathered, I do not expect to ever see any of to these proposals in reality; not only becasue I am by no means an expert and am certain better proposals could be made by more qualified people, but also sadly becasue I just can't see anything this ambitous every becoming reality.
At the same time the world is becoming more enviormentally concious every day. The green party are now part of the coalition government in Ireland... maybe there is hope of at least some more ambitious transport proposals becoming reality. I think it's hope like this that made me decide to put these ideas in writing and actually communicate them - they may not be the best ideas, they may not be the right ideas - but this is the level of ambition I think Ireland needs if it is going to truly address it's lack of available public transport.
It is a shame that i feel something like this will never become reality; I've called it a radical alternative for transport in Ireland, but in reality it's not really that radical. Something along the lines of what I have come up with is not only possible, but would fall very much in line with other countries' policies on public transport. I'm sure there are flaws in my proposals, but this is the level of ambition Ireland should be aiming for.
Finally, I also know that in this time of the covid-19 pandemic public transport is not going to be a priority for a lot of people, especially while people continue to avoid travel. But in the coming months, years and decades the issue of public transport and of sustainable solutions for our transport needs needs to become a priority. I guess I really just want to get my ideas out there in the hope that it will encourage discussion about the topic, not only in Ireland but all over the world.
Please do have a look, either by downloading the pdf, or through the embedded video below. And don't hesitate to get in touch with any thoughts or comments!
Below are a selection of my favorite maps of the potential future transport network I have imagined for Dublin and Ireland....
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