Broadstone

New 20,000 student campus to adjoin Old Navan rail terminus

Press release: Wednesday, 7th December 2005

The Dublin Institute of Technology is set for a move to a new 65-acre campus adjacent to Navan's former rail terminus at Broadstone, Dublin. The DIT is currently spread over 30 different sites around Dublin, but is to be centralised in a new 20,000 student, multi-million Euro campus adjoining the disused railway station near Church Street in Dublin's city centre.

According to Education and Science Minister, Mary Hanafin, the Grangegorman DIT project will 'be the most ambitious educational building project ever seen in this country'. The new 'state of the art' campus is set to provide a dynamic environment for third level education in the heart of Dublin city centre.

Welcoming the announcement, a Meath on Track spokesperson pointed out that 'this announcement means that Meath's students may soon be able to take a forty-minute train journey directly to a third level campus. The days of exhausting commutes and costly 'digs' in Dublin may soon be but a memory for students from the county.'

Minister Mary Hanafin recently requested funding on behalf of the Meath on Track campaign for the Navan railway outline design study from Transport Minister Martin Cullen. The Education Minister has undertaken to respond to Meath on Track as soon as possible with feedback from Minister Cullen.

Broadstone, under Transport 21, would be linked by Luas to O'Connell Street and Stephen's Green. Rather than reopen Broadstone, the proposal is to extend the Luas along the old line, formerly used by Navan trains, up to the Clonsilla line at Liffey Junction. However, DIT Students travelling from Navan would incur additional Luas ticket costs under this option.

In light of the DIT announcement, Meath on Track has called for the former terminus to be reinstated for Meath rail services with a Luas transfer at there at Broadstone rather than Liffey Junction. Broadstone's location is seen as more central than the proposed station at Spencer dock near Dublin's Sheriff Street.

Statements Ends..

[Mark Gleeson]

Broadstone will never see heavy rail traffic again, its never been on the agenda and never will as it was always reserved for some class of light rail metro usage since the mid 1990's. Spencer Dock serves a much bigger purpose and is fully integrated

If you are going to Navan, and its a pretty fat chance you will see a rail link to Navan anytime soon thanks to Meath CC you would board at Liffey Junction or Glasnevin Junction, then change at Clonsilla as per the plan, people have feet they walk plus no fare agreement is in place so no one knows what the fares will be

The luas plan envisages an extension to Finglas

Broadstone is brutal from an integration point of view, no metro connection, no intercity connection no connection to the existing DART setup, thats why Glasnevin Junc is the key location

And its at least 50 minutes to Navan not 40 minutes from the city centre, maybe 3 minutes less from Broadstone. Navan Dublin would call, Drumree Pace Clonsilla Potterstown Glasnevin and Spencer Dock/Connolly. Note that every station bar Drumree is a connection point and thus you would have to stop, regardless there are other trains in the way

[Thomas J Stamp]

A real link from Glasnevin Junction to Grangegorman is to have a proper shuttle bus service. It's not that far.

I think Broastone should be made the new Busaras when the LUAS link goes in. It's an idea location for Dublin's new central bus terminal.

[Kevin K Kelehan]

Thomas,

you make a critiacl error in your analysis of the Central Bus Station; it is for national services for which Busaras is perfectly adequate. What Busaras will never be large enough to accomodate are the commuter services to places like Kildare Wicklow and Meath. These should probably be moved to Broadstone as a stand alone project but Busaras should be left to perform the function it was so perfectly designed for.

Not a bad short term or transisionary idea Kevin, but Dublin needs a major bus station and Busaras is too small and surrounded by congested streets. The moronic idea of running the Luas around half of Busaras approach roads as a 50% moate consigining the predestrians, tram and bus drivers to playing Russian Roulette ironically reduced it effectiveness as a bus station even further.

The capcity of the Busaras will always be an issue and there is no room for expansion. Dublin needs a dedicated central bus station for all InterCity and Regional buses, not just BE and Translink. Most other European capitals have a bus terminal which all bus companies both state and private all use, (CIE's mentality in this regard would be more at home in Tirana than Dublin).

For Dublin to have a major bus terminal (and it should) we need a big site on public land, on the periphery of the city centre, a rail link to the city centre (Luas 2010) and major room for bus storage, cleaning and driver rest areas and most importantly room future expansion. Wide approach roads leading to the bus station etc. Broadstone fits all these criteria. You could not pick a better location for a new bus station if you tried.

The Busaras would make a great public market with indoor and outdoor stalls and people could then really enjoy it architectual beauty without having to worry about being killed by the 7:15 to Kells or a Red Line Tram.

Busaras has long outlived it usefulness as a public transport centre. It belongs in another age and a Dublin and Ireland which no longer is with us.

[turnapin]

You could always use the large CIE site out the back of Connolly and send the buses out via the port tunnel.

[Kevin K Kelehan]

Something along the lines of Victoria Bus Station?

[turnapin]

Well, it's a large site and it's used for little more than a carpark/dumping ground at the moment. It's also already integrated with rail and Luas and it's close to the original site, so you're not confusing the hell out of customers. The only downside I can think of is it's probably worth a fortune and CIE would rather have the money.

[Kevin K Kelehan]

Victoria Station is currently being redeveloped with a large office & retail element above a completely new international bus station for London. The property value excluding the bus element is €3.3bn

[philip]

Originally Posted by turnapin

You could always use the large CIE site out the back of Connolly and send the buses out via the port tunnel.

This is the best solution IMO. I'd compare this to Glasgow Central Bus Station behind Bunchanan Street. It is well located right near the M8 (which is a God awful monstrosity of a road slicing right through Glasgow city centre on stilts, but ho-hum it exists anyway). If we're going to have the M1 (and maybe someday an eastern bypass) penetrate right into the city underground (and the Docks isn't bad, with the Luas and Interconnector etc. in close proximity), then we should use it as an express route out of town for all long distance buses. Clearly this only works with an M50 upgrade and IMO they should make the outside lanes 'Bus Only' in heavy traffic, like the M4 Bus lane on the approach to London.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by philip

Clearly this only works with an M50 upgrade and IMO they should make the outside lanes 'Bus Only' in heavy traffic, like the M4 Bus lane on the approach to London.

Can you imagine the outrage and condemnation from the AA if they attempted something like that? :-)

It's definitely a terrific idea - busaras right now is a terrible place to travel from and the recent renovations did little to help. Combining the IC trains, dart, bus depot and possibly even some of the DB services would be a huge leap forward for Dublin transport. It could even be done on multiple stories to take up less space.

Which means it'll (probably) never happen.

You could always use the large CIE site out the back of Connolly and send the buses out via the port tunnel.

Oh course you are 100% correct, this perfect location for a new central bus station was first mooted years ago. It's a perfect site if you are dealing with a public transport company that is. However you are not. You are dealing with CIE which is a public sector oursourcing employment agency, and a property developer as their core business. CIE also dabbles in public transport on the side from time to time.

Hence the Broadstone idea. It had the least land value in the CIE property portfolio and therefore the most likely to be used for public transport.

This is CIE we are talking about here not a public transport company. We have to work within the parameters of CIE core business model (property development) when talking about public transport development in Ireland.

There isn't a hope in hell of the land beside Connolly being turned into anything other than office buildings with some token mention of being "integrated with the rail station" - this will be a door in the side of the office block leading into Connolly. It'll be called something like Great Northern House and will contain over 1,000 car parking spaces.

[Kevin K Kelehan]

In fairness to Dublin City Council they would not permit anything like 1000 spaces at that location or any comparable location in the central zone.

But in comparison to UK redevelopment PPPs CIE are light years behind; they really need to see what Land Securities have done with Victoria Station with the Telegraph Group signed up as anchor tenant. Article in Property Week