Leo Varadkar vs David McGuinness on Dublin's transport proposals - who is correct?

[ThomasJ]

Ff counsellor david mcguinness has been fairly loud in recent times, criticising leo varadkars failure to submit any of the postphoned transport proposals to the european bank for consideration. Anyone think mcguinness is right

http://www.davidmcguinness.ie/dublin...irish-stimulus

UK Transport Secretary Justine Greening, this week, outlines Multi-Billion Investment in transport to generate ‘Jobs and Growth’Fianna Fáil Dublin West Councillor David McGuinness has expressed disappointment at the ‘laziness’ of Transport Minister Leo Varadkar not to present much needed Dublin transport projects to the European Investment Bank at a recent bi-lateral meeting between the EIB and the Irish government.

Now, leaked reports suggest a multi-billion euro stimulus plan is set to be unveiled but a parliamentary response, obtained by Timmy Dooley TD on behalf of Councillor David McGuinness, displays the lack of foresight and imagination of the Transport Minister.“In a recent PQ, Minister Varadkar acknowledged that he had forwarded none of the stalled Metro, Luas or electrification projects for consideration for funding by the EIB. This despite the EIB co-funding many such projects in places such as Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Montpellier, London (Crossrail), Nottingham and more.

This is a slap in the face to commuting Dubliners who have seen their fares increase and four out of five major Dublin Rail projects cancelled over the lifetime of this government,” outlined McGuinness.“What makes this an even more embarrassing slip up for the minister is that his counterpart in the United Kingdom, Transport Secretary Justine Greening, has this week announced a multi-billion euro stimulus plan on the UK-rail system in a bid to generate ‘growth and jobs’.

The very type of projects that are being prioritised in the UK are specifically the ones being ignored here in Ireland such as the electrification of train lines, such as the Maynooth Line, and increased rail connectivity like bringing Metro North, Metro West and completion of LUAS to Fruition,” added McGuinness“The European Investment Bank has an excellent track record in delivering rail projects throughout the European Union which directly leads to job creation, improved services for the public and growth in domestic economies. It is such a pity that Ireland does not have a Transport minister who will fight his corner and put Transport at the forefront of Ireland’s economic recovery,” concluded McGuinness.ENDS

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

(McGuinness)This is a slap in the face to commuting Dubliners who have seen their fares increase and four out of five major Dublin Rail projects cancelled over the lifetime of this government

Only because FF refused to do so despite the writing being on the wall - leave the bad news to the next crowd etc.

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

increased rail connectivity like bringing Metro North, Metro West and completion of LUAS to Fruition

I have two alternative responses - pick one:

1. Supporting Metro West as a national priority disqualifies the rest of anything you say Councillor
2. Why isn't membership of FF - or at the very least standing for office on their behalf - a criminal offence yet?

[James Howard]

Varadkar does not present an impression that public transport is very much to do with his brief. All of the recent transport announcements were road-based aside from a few miles of tram-line to Broombridge and this is at a time when we have recently spent billions of euro building more than enough motorways for the country. Spatially, this country is completely banjaxed and they need to stop adding infrastructure that makes this worse and start trying to fix the mess that was made over the last 15 years.

I do think that at this point, adding tram lines makes the most sense as they help city centres gain critical mass. They are the cheapest by far which means that any money found under the mattress would make the most difference. They certainly makes a lot more sense than investing in more white-elephant motorways.

Electrification makes little sense until the rolling stock gets a lot older or if the DART underground was to be built. If the Maynooth line was electrified, Irish Rail would suddenly have a heap of relatively new 29Ks on their hands that would just be left to rot with 20 to 30 years expected service life remaining. It isn't likely that they would use the opportunity to increase frequency, so all that would happen is that several hundred million euro would be spent and no passenger benefit would result.

[richiek]

I think McGuinness is bang on the money here. If he was from a different political party, people would probably think he is right. The fact is the recent stimulus has made sure that rail based investment is so low down the current Govt's transport priorities. The likes of Metro North and Dart Underground which are both nearly shovel ready and both come out very strongly in cost benefit analysis and have the chance to shape the city of Dublin for the rest of this century. It is these two projects along with some other Luas extensions that would help in making Dublin a more sustainable future from a planning perspective.

What we got was the M17/18 and M11/ N25. Some sections of these roads have less than 10,000 vehicles a day and in any other country would not reach a satisfactory cost benefit ratio to justify investment. Metro North and DU does.

Varadkar has lost a chance to make his mark on Dublin.

[Inniskeen]

Colm Mc Carthy is not much impressed with the recent road investment announcements. He strongly questions the wisdom of expending scarce resources on infrastructure which doesn't (and is unlikely to) have anything like the usage thresholds necessary for viability.

Hard to see much of a case for the DART inter-connector at present given the extraordinarily modest demand at the KRP stations and the operational mess that the interconnector would create on the northern line out of Connolly. The obvious pre-requisite for the inter-connector and a DART service to the airport are dedicated suburban lines north of Connolly. This is the huge advantage Metro North has - it will have dedicated tracks and equally importantly doesn't destroy other services.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Colm Mc Carthy is not much impressed with the recent road investment announcements. He strongly questions the wisdom of expending scarce resources on infrastructure which doesn't (and is unlikely to) have anything like the usage thresholds necessary for viability.

Hard to see much of a case for the DART inter-connector at present given the extraordinarily modest demand at the KRP stations and the operational mess that the interconnector would create on the northern line out of Connolly. The obvious pre-requisite for the inter-connector and a DART service to the airport are dedicated suburban lines north of Connolly. This is the huge advantage Metro North has - it will have dedicated tracks and equally importantly doesn't destroy other services.

The KRP is underused because the passengers are dumped at Heuston, instead of D1/D2. Build the interconnector and those stations will be successful.

Assuming Bray DARTs end up in Maynooth, trains from the Interconnector need not have a negative effect on the northern line. In fact, it would give northern line passengers a choice of destination. It is only when you start adding more termini (the airport, Balbriggan) that the northern line becomes problematic.