DART plans could cause traffic gridlock nightmare

PLANS to increase DART services in the city could lead to traffic gridlock on the Southside, a local councillor has warned.

Iarnród Éireann recently announced that it intends to increase weekday DART frequency from every 15 minutes to every 10 minutes.

There’s also a proposal to have a consistent schedule every 15 minutes on Saturday and 20 minutes on Sunday.

Dublin Bay South candidate Jim O’Callaghan (FF) said that while this major improvement in service is to be welcomed, it was important to note that the impact on traffic congestion for Southside commuters, particularly around the busy areas of Sydney Parade and Merrion Gates, would be significant. 

“Currently 160 trains pass through Sydney Parade each weekday, which is approximately one every seven minutes,” Cllr O’Callaghan said. “This will increase to 225, which is approximately one every five minutes.

“Recent observations indicate that the level-crossing train barriers come down roughly two minutes before a southbound train passes and up to three minutes before a northbound one.

“At several points the downtime can be up to five minutes when northbound and southbound trains cross within two minutes of each other. This amounts to approximately six hours’ daily of barrier downtime between 6am and midnight.

“The proposed changes in frequency times would increase the barrier downtime to approximately 7.5 hours per day, effectively closing the road 40 per cent of the time, which will prove dangerous and frustrating for all road users but particularly for emergency vehicles.”

Cllr O’Callaghan said he had made a submission to Iarnród Éireann asking it to make sure that changes to the DART service will not result in traffic gridlock.

“The solution to this imminent problem is to modernise level-crossing barrier gates to provide a more updated and efficient coordination of arrival and departure of train times through each station,” Cllr O’Callaghan added.

A spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann said the increase in service planned for the draft timetable would provide greater frequency and capacity on the DART service, meaning more people can switch to public transport.

“Particularly at peak times, it is only public transport that can solve increasing demand as there is limited capacity in the city centre road network,” the spokesperson said. “All plans and policies from national and local government and from the National Transport Authority support public transport expansion.

“However, it should be noted that the increased schedule brings frequency back to where it previously was, and through which road transport operated for many years.  That said, we hope the continued improvement in DART services will encourage motorists to make better use of their time and switch to DART or other public transport services for a faster and more sustainable daily commute.”