10 years is too long for a reopening Navan railway line

by Hear, hear Wed Nov 02, 2005 01:59

This should have been done a long time ago, and now they will drag it out for another decade. Typical

by John McDermott - removefiannafail Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:29

It is a scandal that Dublin west is without a dart service,and no plans exist to build one to Dunboyne,Maynooth.This could even serve Lucan where people spend two hours in a traffic jam into Dublin daily.
Given that a right of way already exists from there to Navan the cost of full electrification and rapid regular trains reaching througout the hinterland of Meath,would cost far less than a wildcat prestige "Airport/city Luas service"
This mad scheme will be of minimum benefit to Dublins commuters or luggage laden travellers(most of whom are collected or have their cars parked in the rip -off car park monopoly operated by Aer Rianta of course) It will likely only cause 1000 redundancies among the taxi operators who ply their trade here .!
My guess is that the track to Navan will never be build, just like the mad "Western corridor scheme". All re-election gimmicks.You heard all the lies last election- now you will hear every promise under the moon again.!
P.S. Bertie please send me half a million Euros for this consultancy report ( its the first good one you ever got)!

by Moylan Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:31

I agree that the Government have no earthly intention of fulfilling this wild and desperate proposal. The media, predictably, lap it up and proclaim it as Christ's second coming, despite the fact that many elements of the plan are just being reannounced, that the taxpayer, as usual, will have to foot the bill, and, best of all, we'll all be in our graves before any of it even begins!

Please do not insult our intelligence by describing aspects of the plan in language such as "welcome but overdue". By praising this Government you are buying into their agenda. The plan is an attempt to shore up a failed transport policy which has poured vast amounts of money into the automotive and petroleum industries, not to speak of the construction and land speculation industries. But let's not forget the LUAS, whose only reason for existence was to raise the value of land for construction: hence the choice of route, neither line actually going anywhere of use. Except through land which needs to be rezoned.

Scrap your plan, Bertie and Co. And while you are at it, scrap yourselves.

by Spotter Wed Nov 02, 2005 15:00

Cullen criticised over provision of new buses
ireland.com

By Carl O'Malley

Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has been accused of misleading the public and talking "nonsense" over the provision of new buses for the Dublin area.

The criticism comes after yesterday's launch by Mr Cullen's of ambitious new €34 billion transport plan, Transport 21, which the Taoiseach has insisted will be completed on time and on budget.

Following a television interview with Mr Cullen last night, Green Party TD Eamon Ryan claimed Mr Cullen's assertion that only 20 buses were provided to Dublin Bus because that was all that was requested, was false.

Mr Ryan said: "The truth is that Dublin Bus have been repeatedly asking the Minister to deliver over 200 buses to meet the urgent demand for more public transport in the city."

"The National Development plan 2000-2006 provided for an expansion of 275 buses, but so far only 93 of these have being delivered. In March this year Dublin Bus made a new application for 210 additional buses for the period 2006 to 2008, but they have again been unable to get any commitment to this expansion from the Minister."

Mr Ryan claimed that Dublin Bus was almost forced to buy 20 additional buses out of its own funds.

"Having failed to get any response to their application, the chief executive of Dublin Bus finally wrote to the Minister two weeks ago stating that the company was being forced to buy 20 additional buses that were needed for essential replacement purposes, out of their own current revenues," said Mr Ryan.

"It was only in response to that letter that the Minister conceded that he would fund those 20 replacement buses. His comments last night that he only gave what he was asked for is a complete nonsense."

Speaking after the launch of Transport 21yesterday, the Taoiseach said the plan had been "fully evaluated and built into budgetary planning over the next 10 years".

Nearly €9.5 million would now be pent "every day" up to 2015 to give Ireland the services needed by a modern economy and expected by foreign investors in a country as prosperous as Ireland, he said.

"We need and deserve a first-class transport system. We have all worked to generate the resources, now we must invest to continue to improve the lives of everybody," he said.

The Green Party insists that the government will promise anything ahead of an election, but that the public were now more aware of such tactics and "increasingly sceptical".

"The Minster's comments about Dublin Bus should only confirm that they cannot be trusted when it comes to providing a proper public transport system," concluded Mr Ryan.

Under the Transport 21 plan, motorways will be completed between Dublin and the major cities by 2010, while a road of near-motorway standards would run between Cork and Letterkenny, Co Donegal, by 2013.

Billions are to be spent on trains, including "a New York-style Grand Central Station", to quote Mr Cowen, under St Stephen's Green, which will act as a hub for mainline, Luas and metro services.

by Noel Dempsey Wed Nov 02, 2005 15:51

Irish Examiner: This time it's Dempsey who says he delivered
By Michael O'Farrell Political Reporter, 02.11.05

NO sooner had the ink dried on the Government's 10-year plan than the
posters went up in Navan.

"Dempsey Delivers, Other's Talk" reads the all-colour posters hung by local
campaigners on behalf of Communications Minister Noel Dempsey.

In an extraordinary reprise of Tom Parlon's stunt following the
decentralisation announcement, the senior Fianna Fáil TD, to all intents and
purposes, declared that Meath was 'Dempsey Country'.

The poster was prompted by the promise of a new rail line to Navan in 10
years' time. It depicts a smiling Mr Dempsey in front of an aging Iarnród
Éireann engine car, with the Parlonesque slogan: "Dempsey Delivers."

So, it seems, the Parlon self-publicising phenomenon is spreading. And like
Tom and his infamous "Parlon Delivers" decentralisation posters, Mr Dempsey
is unapologetic.

A spokeswoman for the minister confirmed the authenticity of the posters
last night saying: "Seven or eight years ago, it was the minister who raised
the issue of the rail line.

"The posters are there to remind people who started the debate and who
delivered on it," she said.

But others beg to differ. Fine Gael TD Damien English had coined his own
slogan minutes after viewing the poster. "Desperate Dempsey they're already
saying around here. I don't think it's going to go down too well.

"People have been campaigning for this for years and now that we have an
announcement of a line in 10 years' time he's putting up posters as if one
person delivered it."

by Jim Wed Nov 02, 2005 18:42

The good news is that this project has been anounced but the bad news is that it will be overdue and overbudget although no sane person would object to the future of this project to relieve our transport chaos.
It is important that future governments must endeavour to eliminate the burden to the taxpayer as much as possible.
That will mean that there must be open competition without political interference for government contracts - that way instead of a company passing brown envelopes the contracts should awarded on their merits. The company that ultimately runs this service whether publicly owned or privately funded must be run efficiently and profitably and for the good of the customers perferably with competition maximised.
The planning process should be streamlined so that frivolous objections from eccentrics or greedy land specualtors who have enjoyed the privelage of holding up important infrastructure will be avoided.
In this way I can see an unnecessary delay and waste of national wealth avoided.

Unfortunately I believe these project will be scuppered by cynicism
Just as Fianna Fail and the PD's brought forth this strategy because of looming elections so too will Fine Gael Labour Greens Sinn Fein and Independents will try to cynically undermine this vital project for political gain.

There should be unanimous support for the project for the benefit of the Irish people not any narrow ideology.

by moylan Wed Nov 02, 2005 22:51

Or are you a Fianna Fáil hack? Why on earth should anyone support this plan, which is cynicism itself? In case you haven't noticed, the Govt. aren't exactly popular, and for very good reasons. Jump on the bandwagon you say, become cheerleaders for government policy. There are a number of sane proposals for public transport. This is not one of them.

by moylan Wed Nov 02, 2005 22:55

With your reference to "eccentrics" who are inexplicably standing in the way of Progress (aka Government Policy aka Orders from Multinationals and Private Speculators). Your kind would bulldoze everything so that Halliburton et. al. get to build roads where there used to be national monuments. I suspect that that is one of the fundamental motives for your craze for "development": destroying heritage. And getting the public to pay for it ten times over. It's an even better way of saying "screw you" to the electorate.

by Broom Bridge Thu Nov 03, 2005 02:06

Interesting times, indeed.

In 2003 , the local residents community council in Cabra published a comprehensive document calling for the re-opening of the Broadstone Line and Liffey Junction station. This would greatly increase Public transport within this area. They wanted this to link with the Maynooth Arrow line and the existing connector line which links Heuston to Connolly under the Phoenix Park.
They campaigned for these works and lo and behold, their wishes come through.
Only concern is, there is an election coming and several Dublin Central seats are up for grabs.
Bertie must be panicking.
If the Luas comes, its great news.
If Bertie Goes, its even better!

by Jim Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:30

I'm not a Fianna Fail hack.
I don't give a shit who builds this project as long as its built.
Anybody who proposes extending the Luas the Dart and finally building a rail link to the airport gets the thumbs up from me.
If its built on time on budget and its works of course.
For years and years its been a nightmare getting around Dublin.
U can't afford to be cynical about that.

by Radio Head Thu Nov 03, 2005 19:04

Dempsey said in a radion interview yesterday that building would start immediately.

5 minutes later in a pre-recorded interview Barry Kenny said in a pre-recorded interview that there was no way that they could start straight away as they didn't even own the land.

To make things even worse he said that the money was already ring fenced, when Dempsey had said he would raise the money privately, and then poor Barry went wobbly because they kept asking how much was ring-fenced, how much were the costings to Navan and what was the budget.

Something a bit dodgy about this..