Green Party wants Southside Luas line extension

By Darren J. Prior

Blackrock Cllr. Conor Dowling, and the Green Party, in general are backing the report published recently by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council which called for a new Luas line to be built on the Eastern Bypass corridor land – land originally earmarked to be used as an extension to the M50 in the South-East Dublin region.

But according to Cllr. Dowling the Government are “kicking the can down the road” on the idea and on new infrastructure in general in Ireland so the project is unlikely to go to tender anytime soon.

In late March Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council published their engineers transport report on the Eastern Bypass corridor land, where the engineers outlined what they believe the choices are for the corridor.

Instead of proposing extending the M50 as originally envisaged, the report stated that the engineers within the council agreed that the ideal solution to help alleviate traffic logjams and growing population in the region would be for a Luas line to be built on the corridor.

The line could also according to the report support “the potential for supporting Active Travel facilities — from the city centre to Bray via Sandyford.”

The new line, if built, would have approximately 30 stops and would travel from St. Stephen’s Green and several stops to Pembroke; serve UCD and then travel through Kilmacud, Stillorgan, Sandyford, Carrickmines, Cherrywood and other areas and conclude in Bray.

Speaking to Southside People Cllr. Dowling said that the proposed new Luas line would be “fantastic” for South-East Dublin.

“What has come out of this study is the best use of the land is for a new Luas line, and that will be able to move the most amount of people in the most efficient way.

The report highlighted that the Luas Green Line will reach capacity by 2030 so “we are going to need something to help with that issue and this would really take a lot of the pressure off the existing Green Line” according to Dowling.

However, Cllr. Dowling and the Green Party in general are very disappointed that under the current Government “we have seen a huge amount of transport projects cancelled all over the country and there is no real new major public transport project on the horizon that wasn’t already planned.

“While we know the answer to congestion in Dublin is these public transport options they are not getting the backing by Government to go ahead with them”.

Because the Government are not according to Dowling “backing existing projects and giving them the funding they need; the Government is just pushing out everything that we need to do to make our city work again.

“The M50 is an absolute car park. “The only way to move that amount of people efficiently is on trains and buses and public transport that moves people rapidly”.

But the Government are “just kicking the can down the road so at very best case scenario I could see this project being backed in 2042, which is in the plan, but realistically it will be a little bit longer than that with the way the funding is going at the moment” nationally according to Cllr. Dowling.