The State agency behind the proposed Finglas Luas extension rejected submissions from Dublin City Council for the tram line to cross the M50 to a park-and-ride facility which would have been within sight of Dublin Airport’s terminal buildings.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), which is developing the 4km extension from Broombridge to Charlestown, also rejected a proposal from the council to have the line link up with the proposed MetroLink at Northwood near Santry.
The proposals were made during two rounds of consultation on the extension of the Green Luas line. A third round of public consultation on TII’s preferred route closes on Friday.
TII’s preferred route would see the line terminate at Charlestown, which is east of the junction of the M50 and N2, with a large park-and-ride facility at the second-to-last stop at St Margaret’s Road. From the roof of the car park, it would be possible to view planes taking off and landing on the airport’s south runway.
The distance from the proposed Charlestown terminus to Harristown Lane, close to the south runway and in the vicinity of the airport’s “blue” holiday car park, is in the order of 2.5km along existing roads.
[ Finglas Luas: New tram line could service population of 60,000 by 2031Opens in new window ]
A planning application was submitted in November and the line is expected to be built within four years of permission being granted. The journey time from Charlestown to College Green is expected to be some 30 minutes.
The council submitted in September 2020 that it would welcome the exploration of delivering a “park-and-ride and tram storage facility outside the M50”. In January 2022, the local authority noted it had “previously expressed a preference to see the route terminating to the north of the M50 with a park-and-ride facility located outside the urban built-up area”. However, it ultimately said it accepted that “providing a bridge over the M50 is not within the scope of the project”.
The council then offered another alternative, saying it “encourages TII to explore the extension of the proposed route from the current terminus at Charlestown to continue along St Margaret’s Road and terminate next to the proposed Northwood MetroLink stop”, where the council owns land.
“Such a connection would greatly open up the catchment of both routes and provide high-quality rail access to Dublin Airport,” it said.
Paolo Carbone, head of public transport and capital projects at TII, said it would be wrong to say the organisation had not considered alternatives for the Luas Finglas route.
“We considered all the alternatives and they are detailed in chapter 4 volume 2, all of the alternatives,” he said.
Mr Carbone said it was important to understand that the policy was to build a line from Broombridge in order to bring Finglas into the Luas catchment. He said the scheme was influenced by the Greater Dublin Area Draft Transport Strategy 2022-2042 as adopted by the National Transport Authority.
The strategy sets out the framework for investment in transport infrastructure and states that the airport would be served by the MetroLink. “We didn’t simply ignore the submissions of Dublin City Council, they were considered,” Mr Carbone said. “Dublin City Council supports the plan as developed.”
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
