Metro North – mind the gap

Sir, – It’s now almost 20 years since a unified proposal was made by a Japanese consortium led by Matsui to build a Dub Sub, a €500 million self-financed proposal to build a metro line from Sandyford and Dublin Airport in return for a 25-year concession. That plan was rejected by the government of the time.

Almost 20 years after Matsui put forward its proposal, it seems the Dub Sub is back on the political agenda again. Depending on which way you read it, the proposed metro will extend far beyond the airport to service new developments north of Swords, and if your most recent article on the subject is to be believed it will extend into the southside suburbs (News, February 16th).

One could be very cynical as to who exactly are going to be the real beneficiaries of the Dub Sub as it bores its way towards the undeveloped land banks of north Co Dublin?

And while the Government continues to mull over the project, might I make a simple suggestion? Perhaps the weary travelling public should erect a temporary plinth outside Government Buildings with the following words inscribed on it, “Delay has a cost”. – Yours, etc,

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NIALL NELIGAN,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Metro North will no longer be confined to north Dublin but will be extended into the south county and renamed Dublin Metro. When the next economic downturn occurs they can scrap the northern bit and continue with the southern bit. Forward-planning, parish-pump politics or just plain ordinary northside cynicism? – Yours, etc,

LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,

Santry,

Dublin 9.