A new short-term plan to tackle traffic congestion in the capital is being finalised by the Dublin Transportation Office, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, announced yesterday. He said the plan would take elements of the DTO's longer-term "Platform for Change" programme and these could be put in place between now and 2003, including the delivery of more QBCs.
The DTO's chairman, Mr Conor McCarthy, said the new short-term plan would include extra tracks to improve Arrow commuter services on the Kildare line, completion of an upgrading of the Maynooth line and improved railway signalling in the city centre.
The LUAS lines serving Tallaght and Sandyford would also be completed in 2003 and, with a "huge increase" in the number of railcars, he estimated up to 55,000 commuters would be able to use track systems.
He said the M50 should also be completed in 2003. In the meantime, traffic congestion in the Knocklyon and Templeogue areas "will disappear - though it may move to Dundrum". The long-delayed Port Tunnel would be finished a year later.
He also promised to investigate complaints that buses serving Lucan now took up to 75 minutes to get into town, compared to just 45 minutes before a QBC was introduced on the route - largely due to a huge increase in traffic over the past two years.
