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Closure of Luas Green Line to facilitate Metrolink 'off the agenda', Ross says

The Minister’s comments follow reports that the Luas Green Line could be closed for up to four years.

0723 Shane Ross_90564265 Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT Shane Ross has said that any extended closure of the Luas Green Line to facilitate the Metrolink route through Dublin is “off the agenda”. 

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Ross was responding to media reports which claim that the Southside section of the Metrolink project will be abandoned under new plans due to be published by the National Transport Authority (NTA) next month. 

The route, which is due to connect Dublin Airport to the city centre by rail for the first time, will still run from Swords to the city centre but it’s now likely to stop north of Ranelagh at Charlemont.

Plans for a Metro in Dublin have been floating around for some time; plans were halted in 2011 due to the economic downturn. In March last year, a new plan was published for the MetroLink, which would see a route run between Swords and Sandyford.

That plan, however, received a significant amount of criticism. The NTA then suggested a ‘cut and cover’ plan which would see the Metro travel underground. Ross, however, held crisis talks with the NTA this week to warn against that plan, which would cause significant disruption to the Luas Green Line. 

Speaking today, Ross stopped short of confirming the scrapping of the Southside section but added that a four, or even two year, disruption to the Luas Green Line would be unacceptable. “I will not countenance that sort of delay.”

Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan has welcomed the proposed scrapping of the Southside route, describing it as “a matter that has deeply frustrated those living in the areas most impacted.”

“The fact that this ill-considered plan could be taken off the table means that there may be a welcome opportunity to draw up a better, more environmentally friendly MetroLink plan for South Dublin and this time, in proper consultation with the public.”

A revised route for the Metrolink is due to be published in the coming weeks, an NTA spokesperson confirmed. “Those amended plans will be subject to a further round of public consultation.”

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    Mute This Guy
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:29 PM

    I wish Shane Ross was off the agenda.

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    Mute Toomasu Sumitsu
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:18 PM

    @This Guy: Why? He’s doing a cracking job

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    Mute paul kelly
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:26 PM

    @Toomasu Sumitsu: if only Harris would stop his bad idea as quickly.

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    Mute Whoswho
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:00 PM

    @Toomasu Sumitsu: cracking job? Selling profitable bus routes from the state and taking people’s front gardens. He’s doing a terrible job!

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    Mute Patrick Nolan
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:57 PM

    @Whoswho
    Every penny earned in fares on those routes still goes to the state.
    Breaking up the bloated monopoly that is db is the ONLY good thing Ross has done.

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    Mute Mark Brown
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:30 PM

    Closing the green line should be an absolute non-runner in any scenario. Far too many people depend on it with very poor alternatives when it’s out of order or the drivers decide they need a bigger salary for pushing that one lever forward.

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    Mute Shane Murphy
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:30 PM

    @Mark Brown: the green line will hit capacity in a few years again. It’s going to have to be done one way or another …

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    Mute eoghanoc
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:46 PM

    @Mark Brown: totally agree- madness that they thought this was an option and how much was paid to who for such a genius idea. It would have stunted the Luas green line going south and could have even meant it been mothballed at a later date. A more sensible solution would be to run this metro line to UCD / donnybrook or out-towards Terenure

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    Mute joe
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:55 AM

    @eoghanoc: well it was never going intended to close the green line. It was going to be disrupted! This upgrade needs to happen!
    All those proposing a line to Rathfarnham. Where is it going to go? How is it going to get there? What is the cost? How many people will object to tunnelling cpos etc. Easy to just say bring it there!

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    Mute Fintan O'flaois
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 5:56 AM

    @Mark Brown: Have you tried getting onto a green line tram in the morning? It’s at capacity and getting worse.

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    Mute Sean Whelan
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:34 PM

    Is it not possible to just build an underground and link everywhere in dublin up?

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:41 PM

    @Sean Whelan: ‘just build an underground’! It sounds so, so easy.

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    Mute Warren Mcdermott
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:45 PM

    @Sean Whelan: only talking about that today would be brilliant if they could and then if u could hav it going to parts of kildare and some other places would be excellent now a massive job but if only they could

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    Mute Sean Whelan
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:55 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: it might take years but as Warren said in the comment underneath it could be added to to include other places as time went on.
    Surely it would be less disruptive than building above ground, it also has the added benefit of never been affected by the ever increasing above ground traffic.
    Anyway just my 2 cents worth.

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:02 AM

    @Sean Whelan: stop speaking sense… the “Dublin is unique” crowd on here can’t get their heads around the idea that our lovely capital is just another medium sized city that needed a metro 20 years ago…. in the meantime Dublin bus remains the best reason for having a car in Dublin

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    Mute SPQH
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:33 AM

    @Sean Whelan: its almost as bad. to build an underground still involves a lot of over the ground disruption, especially where the stations are situated. Just my own 2 cents from actually living and working beside underground construction sites in the past.

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    Mute Peter McGlynn
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:38 PM

    Which just emphasises that it shouldn’t be run parallel to an already perfectly good Luas. Serve some other area…

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    Mute Ian McNally
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:41 PM

    @Peter McGlynn: why cant we do both? The green line is already over capacity in certain peak hours and thats before the 4000 new units are built at the very far end of it in Cherrywood

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    Mute Mark Brown
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:44 PM

    @Ian McNally: don’t forget the thousands more in all the new Sandyford developments.

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    Mute Lar Meyler
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:00 PM

    @Mark Brown: Fully automated as in Dubai, there would be no reason the Luas could not run at one minute intervals at peak.. The Dubai line is 30+ km long.and has no drivers…

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:03 AM

    @Peter McGlynn: we need a metro….20 years ago

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    Mute joe
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:57 AM

    @Peter McGlynn: it won’t run parallel it will use the existing line. Just platform, signal and junction upgrades required

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    Mute gofreak
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:54 PM

    So it can’t go ahead because the area literally has transport links tripping over each other. Meanwhile in west Dublin: tumbleweed.

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    Mute Sega Yolo
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:53 PM

    @gofreak: nothing new in that, decent transport links vs tumbleweed,
    Also look the public space …
    Stone walls and iron railings vs concrete and three point fencing,
    Architectural street lamps vs industrial sodiums,
    Leafy trees and flowering shrubs vs scrawny ash and two weeks of daffodils
    I used to wonder if it was the old county council robbing all the motor tax from the west to beautify the south suburbs. Maybe it was.

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    Mute will
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:05 PM

    Get the Chinese or the Japs in to do it. Our government are clearly incapable of implementing this.This is like Ireland’s equivalent to the first mission to the moon. Before we know it, another economic crisis will hit and this project will be sidelined for another 10 years.

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    Mute Sean Buckley
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:19 PM

    @will: Ross has just announced that Ireland are going to be the first to land on the Sun..When asked did he not think it would be too hot he replied..’I got this one sussed we are going to go at night’.

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    Mute Hans Flouride
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:46 PM

    @will: “the Japs” says Bernard Manning

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    Mute SPQH
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 12:35 AM

    @Sean Buckley: the front pages of the Sun

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    Mute Ian McNally
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:40 PM

    What happens when 10000 commuters move into Cherrywood?

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    Mute Ian James Burgess
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:16 PM

    @Ian McNally: Shane Ross will be enjoying his unearned pension and won’t give a flying F

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    Mute Ian McNally
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:38 PM

    While this is great id love for him to explain how we are now going to increase its capacity when the green line is already over capacity at peaks hours in the morning

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    Mute Denis Reidy
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:31 PM

    What a disappointment, not the luas or the metro

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    Mute Σ ΛΛ ΛΛ Θ
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:43 PM

    I bet he wouldn’t care if the red line needed closing

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    Mute Terry Cunningham
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:54 PM

    I think it’s time to plan a full scale metro for Dublin now,then pick sections from city centre out for development and I’d suggest starting with the airport.As funding becomes available over time the plans will already be in place to extend another section of metro line.Eventually we will have covered the city and the greater Dublin area.

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    Mute Ernie Gallagher
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:55 PM

    What are we like? This discussion about what seems to be a straightforward rail project feels like it’s been going on for decades.
    The underground in London started operating over a century and a half ago, the New York subway in the early part of the 20th century; the contribution from the Irish, no doubt immeasurable. What the hell happened to us along the way?
    Just design and build it. Do it right and it’ll pay for itself in no time.

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    Mute Hugh Mc Donnell
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:22 PM

    Extend the line to Dunshaughlin and navan public transport to Dublin centered. We’ve already got the permanent way and a station in navan

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    Mute Scott Milne
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:28 PM

    Why a metro link South, they have the Dart, and the Luas, remember Dublin has a North, and West, and close to Co. Meath, look after the commuters from there first of all!

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    Mute Cormac McKay Dublin
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    Feb 21st 2019, 8:48 PM

    Time we cancelled the obsolete destructive
    divisive primitive outdated overpriced 20th century transport MetroLink & BusConnects let’s invest in real 21st century transport infrastructure that’s Electric Self-driving shared transport infrastructure from Elon Musk’s boring company The Dublin Loop After the success of the Dublin port tunnel putting all large trucks underground, its time we put all city center traffic underground with the Dublin Loop we can! let’s keep the surface roads for cyclists and pedestrians. €5 billion the so-called budget for #busconnects & #MetroLink we all know #Ireland this will probably double! at today’s price’s we could get 10000 Electric #elfDriving Shared 16 seat Tesla transit pods & ((650km)) of tunnels this is today’s price’s this will probably come down!

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    Mute Gene Tunney
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    Feb 21st 2019, 7:27 PM

    1000 miles of road underground in Tara Mines

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    Mute Al Fresco
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    Feb 21st 2019, 11:11 PM

    I wish Ross would concentrate on his other work of bringing peace and love to places like North Korea and the Middle East and just leave us alone.

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:17 PM

    Closing the Luas Green Line would be madness… just to clarify the plans.. it was to replace the Luas with the underground overground for some of the Luas line.. . better to push the Luas to link with the Dart towards Bray.

    People have build their lives around the Luas line and it’s removal for a few years would have been a disaster…. I think the Luas line users and Shane Ross got this right – have to deal with the capacity issue in another way..

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    Mute Graham Sullivan
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    Feb 22nd 2019, 1:26 AM

    @Niall Ó Cofaigh: it was going to be partially closed for 9 months and was going to be upgraded to metro standard vastly improving capacity. This is utter madness

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    Mute Gisbert Bayertz
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    Feb 21st 2019, 6:28 PM

    Another loser

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    Mute Wadi
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    Feb 25th 2019, 1:31 PM

    Minister Ross … AKA Lyle Lanley from the Simpsons

    - I give you the Dublin Monorail! – [All Gasping] I’ve sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook and by gum, it put them on the map! Well, sir, there’s nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide electrified, six-car monorail.
    - What’d I say? – Monorail! – What’s it called? – [ Together] Monorail! – That’s right, monorail! – [ All ] Monorail.
    - Monorail.
    - Monorail.
    - I hear those things are awfully loud.
    - It glides as softly as a cloud.
    - Is there a chance the track could bend? Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
    - What about us brain-dead slobs? You’ll be given cushy jobs.
    - Were you sent here by the devil? No, good sir.
    - I’m on the level.
    - The ring came off my pudding can! Take my pen knife, my good man.
    - I swear it’s Dublin’s only choice.

    Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-simpsons&episode=s04e12

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