Kildare Commuters Lose Out As DART Underground Axed

dart underground james lawlessTuesday 22nd September 2015 is a sad day for Kildare commuters, and indeed commuters from across the Greater Dublin Area. Minister Paschal Donohue has axed the plans for the DART Underground project which would see the Kildare commuter line directly connected to the city centre via an underground line from Heuston to Pearse. Despite evidence based research indicating that it would be of major benefit to the economy in the Greater Dublin Area, the Government have allowed the project to lapse which had already passed design and planning stages (at a cost of €40m).

It marks a depressing absence of vision to hear the Government announce that the DART Underground project will not proceed as currently designed. The project offers enormous benefits for commuters and businesses across the entire Greater Dublin Area. The decision made by Fine Gael and Labour means that opportunity will now be lost.

DART Underground would transform the public transport network and would provide a long term economic return for not only Dublin, but also the entire country. DART Underground is underpinned by solid research and analysis which clearly outlines the major economic benefits of the project.

Commuters in Kildare currently have to put up with a rail service to Dublin which is far from adequate. There is no direct access to Dublin City Centre which means longer and more expensive commuting times. DART Underground would help solve this problem by giving Kildare commuters direct access to not only Dublin City Centre, but also to rail services along the eastern coast.

We have serious problems with our public transport network in the Greater Dublin Area due to lack of forward planning. The rail network that was in place in Ireland over a century ago was more advanced than the current services available to commuters. The Government continuously talks about the need for people to use utilize public transport but it is not making the necessary investment to allow them to do so.

This decision was clearly made to give Minister Donohoe political cover to proceed with announcing a far less ambitious project which will under-perform from day one. The DART Underground project was at an advanced stage and had already been subject to a number of independent reports which outlined its economic benefit for the Greater Dublin Area. The public transport network for Kildare commuters has been setback by another decade due to the decision made by Fine Gael and Labour this week.

One Reply to “Kildare Commuters Lose Out As DART Underground Axed”

  1. Paul o Flynn

    Dear Cllr, words cannot describe what a monumentally poor decision this is. Dublin is the engine for the country, we are losing competitiveness rapidly, no houses, no offices, companies and conferences deserting Dublin. FG are incapable of delivering infrastructure. You cannot delay and redesign dart underground. Each day is too late. It is the spine that the city is missing. It would suck in so many areas crossing the city it would be massively transformational. Every effort should be made to drive this home and force the government into a rapid u turn.

    Paul

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