I was in N.U.I. Maynooth earlier this week, where I gave a guest lecture on social media. The lecture title was ‘socialnomics’ and I focused on technology and particular the web was changing the world and how it could and should be used by organisations. I can share the slides with anyone interested, just drop me a line.
I was in town (Dublin) in the afternoon, back to the day job, so rather than drive back to Sallins for the regular commute I decided to park up at Maynooth rail station and get the train in from there. I used get the train to Maynooth all the time, back in the distant past of the nineties, when my wife was a student there and I was in lil old Trinity up the road, but it had been a while. It’s a decent little station. Small sandwich shop and newsagents beside the ticket desk and modern conveniences like an electronic next train display. Parking was a bit mad with a very linear strip running alongside the canal – had to go to the very end to get a spot and queueing for little while coming out later on. Pay parking was in operation at the rate of €2 a day, €8 a week, same as Sallins except for the extra option of paying €30 for a four week ticket. The machines were branded CIE rather than Euro Parks, which might allow more flexibility re the tariff options.
A day return to Connolly was €6 so the trip cost me €8 in total. Still a lot cheaper than driving to town but maybe slightly more than I expected. Of course regular trippers will have annual or monthly tickets so likely to work out much better. And Maynooth benefits from being considered inside the commuter zone for Irish Rail so on a per mile basis is better value than Sallins, Newbridge or even Hazelhatch stations.
Good timetable, lots of trains, mine was punctual. Busy though, even middle of the day. I gather this Northern line has less of the punctuality difficulties that trouble its Southern cousin (i.e. the Sallins line) which is obviously a good thing. However given we are currently at a passenger low point, due to recession etc the car park was still brimming over, and there wasn’t a huge amount of spare seating – I imagine the service may struggle under normal / peak conditions. One to watch in future.PS If there are any Maynooth rail groups reading (are there any?) feel free to get in touch, we might compare notes.
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Where to bite on this one?
First, let us consider Maynooth with regard to its geographical and its political location. I came across a submission towards the Kildare County Development Plan which envisaged a corridor of development in East Kildare, joining Maynooth and Naas, surrounding a new major road between these two centres. Now if one considers Maynooth and the nearby towns of Leixlip and Celbridge purely in the context of Co. Kildare, they appear as peripheral locations that ideally should be linked in with the rest of the county through the creation of a corridor of development. However Leixlip might alternatively be regarded as a natural centre whose catchment area includes both Maynooth and Celbridge, but also includes areas of Co. Dublin and Co. Meath such as Lucan, Clonsilla, Blanchardstown, Mullhuddart, Clonee and Dunboyne. Moreover one might consider the Intel plant in Leixlip and NUI Maynooth as two poles of a corridor for development of ‘smart’ high-tech industry. But how to plan for this on an inter-county basis?
Now the Maynooth-Leixlip-Celbridge triangle is separated from the other population centres in Co. Kildare by (what is presumably still) a belt of sparsely-populated agricultural land. I suggest that a natural centre for development in the South of the county is Newbridge: close to a junction of motorways; lying on the railway; and a reasonably central location with regard to Naas, Kildare and Athy, and within reach of Monasterevin. Given the proximity of the Curragh, etc., I would suggest that Kildare is less suitable. Of course the Curragh lies to the west of Newbridge, but maybe one could locate the development areas away from this more sensitive landscape.
It occurred to me, last night, looking at a small-scale map that the two railways through Co. Kildare come fairly close near Leixlip. This made me toy with the idea of joining the two with a link line. I would propose that such a line might leave the line from the south-west somewhere near Tipperstown, pass to the west of Celbridge (as close to the town as possible, given the location of housing estates), and join up with the Sligo line to the west of Leixlip Louisa Bridge. Many commuter trains from Kildare, after passing through Sallins, could be routed along this new line so as to pass through Leixlip, Castleknock and Drumcondra, to terminate either in Connolly, or if necessary in Docklands. Indeed such trains might be Dart services that would continue down to Bray or Greystones. Somewhere like Sallins, might indeed become the terminus both for Dart services coming from Howth or Malahide, via Docklands and the interconnector tunnel to Inchicore, and Dart services from the south, routed through Connolly and Drumcondra. The new link line would effectively link the population centres in the northeast of Co. Kildare to the rest of the county.
One might obtain a shorter route to the east of Celbridge. But this would inevitably pass through Castletown Demesne, which should surely be a protected environmentally-sensitive area. But of course, given the track record of Irish planners, if they were to consider a new link line at all, they would presumably insist that it had to pass within a hundred metres or so of Castletown House, and they would accordingly look forward with relish to a prolonged legal battle with the Irish Georgian Society, An Taisce, et al.
Just idle toying with outlandish proposals, of course. But it passes the time!
@David W
Glad someone spotted my outrageous submission towards the upcoming KCC County Development Plan.
Connceting the M7 and M4 (and the 2 rail lines) would greatly enhance future development of Kildare and the creation of jobs. As it stands, Kildare depends too much on Dublin.
The situating of IT incubation units, business development labs, financial services offices in or around the university itself could help progress our smart economy, anchor our graduates in the real world, skill them fit for purpose and build a real silicon valley in county Kildare. Maynooth seems an ideal location for post-graduate and SME cross-pollination.
I like the M4 to M7 connector idea. The radiation eastwards of a ringed infrastructure allowing business to develop out of Dublin while maintaining efficient access around the fringes of the xcity.