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THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority has defended its decision to build a new MetroLink station at the Mater Hospital in Dublin despite a €12 million spend on a ‘station box’ structure 500 metres away for the shelved Metro North.
Locals in Dublin 7 are calling for the ‘station box’ site, built under the Mater for Metro North in 2012, to be incorporated into the revised MetroLink plan to prevent the dismantling of a local green space. A ‘station box’ is an underground station typically used for Metro lines. At the time of its construction, the new Mater Adult Hospital was under development.
Under revised MetroLink plans published last year, the Mater area will now be served with a MetroLink station located at the corner of Eccles Street and Berkeley Road adjacent to St. Joseph’s Church instead of the proposed ‘Metro North Mater’ stop, an underground concrete structure located beneath the forecourt of the Mater Adult Hospital.
Phibsborough resident Pauline Cadell is calling on the NTA to reconsider its design and use the ‘station box’ site under the Mater instead.
“We have so few green spaces in the North Inner City,” Cadell, who has started an online petition to prevent the Berkeley Road station plan, told TheJournal.ie. “We know that we need Metro, we know that. But that is a much-loved park.”
‘Stop-start approach’
Metro North, a 16.5km combined underground and surface light rail service, was due to link Dublin City centre with Swords via Dublin Airport but the plan was put on the back-burner in 2011 by-then Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.
In the meantime, the Metro North Mater ‘station box’ site was completed by BAM Contractors Ltd. between January and July 2012. Built using concrete diaphragm walls, the overall excavation and construction costs of the structure totaled €12.9 million, the NTA confirmed to TheJournal.ie.
“Due to the location of the Mater Stop Box, it would not be possible to construct the stop box at a future date without causing significant disturbance to the operation of the Mater Adult Hospital,” a 2012 report noted.
In May 2018, the NTA announced plans to revive the metro project in the form of MetroLink.
Last month, a revised route was unveiled for the project, which will now terminate at Charlemont Luas stop on the Southside. The line is expected to open in 2027, with construction likely to take up to seven years.
According to a spokesperson for the NTA, the alignment of MetroLink has changed from Metro North which has resulted in “the angle of approach to the Mater shifting away from the previously planned station box”.
Metro North provided an interchange with Irish Rail’s Sligo-Maynooth rail services near Drumcondra. Under the MetroLink plan the interchange will now be at Cross Guns Bridge in Glasnevin.
“Given that the Phoenix Park tunnel is now in operation, MetroLink can avail of greater interchange opportunities at this station with the Newbridge-Hazelhatch line as well as the Sligo-Maynooth line,” the NTA spokesperson said.
Local Green Party councillor Ciarán Cuffe has said that this interchange between rail lines is a positive.
“I accept that the Berkeley Road stop will significantly impact, and close off, traffic…but it allows us to interchange between two rail lines. Surely that’s a good thing.”
Cuffe has said, however, that “the stop-start approach that we’ve seen on these major infrastructure projects is problematic”.
Four Masters Park, the plot at risk under MetroLink, features a large memorial cross erected in 1876 to commemorate the Franciscan friars of Donegal town who between 1632 and 1636 compiled a history of the ancient kingdom of Ireland which later became known as the Annals of the Four Masters.
Concerns expressed during initial public consultation for MetroLink included the impact on the park and the surrounding area as well as the station no longer being located under the Mater Hospital, as was originally proposed.
Sean McCabe, a candidate in the upcoming local elections, has said the lack of engagement of local communities by the NTA on the decision is a major issue.
“There’s a big difference between informing a community of what is happening and treating communities as partners in the development of public services,” McCabe has said.
“Poor consultation means that communities are in the dark about why they may lose this park when there seems to be a viable solution under the hospital.”
This breeds resentment. Meaningful participation, on the other hand, would seek to arrive at solutions that work for the project and are welcomed by the community.
The NTA spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that a “key strategy” of MetroLink is creating a fully integrated public transport system for Dublin.
The additional interchange opportunities under the Cross Guns Bridge design has been “deemed sufficiently advantageous to shift the alignment,” they added.
“This meant moving out of line with the station box originally proposed at the Mater. But we decided that benefits outweighed this cost.”
Public consultation on the revised MetroLink route continues until 21 May.
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So not enough fire fighters, not enough gardai, not enough bus drivers, not enough childcare workers, not enough healthcare workers…
All just random chance, no connection, Ireland number 1 on these lists all around the world, trust the establishment, vote for the same, sure be grand.
@GoodBrother: +1 They make us think the opposition is worse tho !! The state of this country from years of the same government. FF/FG
@GoodBrother: Ain’t full employment terrible.
@Kilkenny Proud: full employment on minimum wage is disgusting.
@Paul Gorry: average wage is 47k
@Roj Blake: median is only 33.5 (roughly) though.
Daragh o Brien needs to grow up and so do the government. Fixed pay like any other job is what Firefighters deserve, not working on a commission basis based on other people’s misfortunes.
@Bomber M: bigger balls on a female Yorkshire terrier than O’Brien.
When is any government going to put a significant financial value on very difficult manual jobs that will never be able to be completed by blended working from home or in a comfortable office? A massive majority of young people now just do not want a career involving any form of manual physical work or even the chore of having to be in the place of work on a daily basis. In the next ten to twenty years this is going to bring serious consequences.
I am sick to the teeth of hearing we can’t get new Gardai, we can’t get new Retained Fire Fighters (retained should be scrapped, design a new viable system to make them full time), we can’t get anyone to join the army, no healthcare workers no childcare workers. Yet there is no crisis finding people to work in IT, financial services, electrical/mechanical Engineering, media, business, pharma etc. You don’t need a PhD in social science to work this out.
I’ve worked on call before, requiring your physical presence on the spot immediately and it is the most soul-destroying intrusive thing to ever be in your life. It effects your entire family, your partner and children being disturbed night after night from sleep by ringing phones at insane hours. The payments for all these types of unattractive careers will seriously have to be looked at going down the road because if these demanding roles don’t exist in years to come, this country will become an even more dangerous place to live in.
This is outrageous that brave people who put their lives at risk every day don’t get a decent wage to live on.. TDs and Senators probably get more in expenses that the wages Fire Fighters get.
Firefighting should not be a part time or volunteer job, these people literally save lives everyday, while putting their own lives on the line. If we can find money for even more worthless and pointless managers and paper pushers since they have decided to change up the health service again, then these fire fighters deserve something as they actually do something worthwhile
It is suppose to be a part time job. You cant expect to buy a house or lice on the salary of a part time job, plus it is voluntary. It is like saying to you could live on the salary of a RDF soldier
By the sounds of it the small town stations need the extra money to keep the lights on. But what’s changed do part time firefighters want to be full time now? Were they ever able to make ends meet based on being part time before or was it always a sidegig on top of something else? Why would that fire in Wexford hospital have been worse if it had been at night? Is there less cover at night? If extra staff are recruited does that not spread the burden more and make the job more attractive for others straight away?
Have the T&C s changed since the original contract agreement?
They need to up the numbers of retained firefighters so that there can be 2 teams and each can get a break. The retained fire service was always a part time job that people done on top of an existing job or on social welfare. If, as people commenting here as saying, we go to a full time service there will be massive cost increases to cover the increased wages and also the need to build all new fire stations with accommodation quarters and for most to be sitting around all day. The other option is to go full time and reduce the number of stations and spread the service with rural areas having little cover. Either way, as it’s a local service provided by the local authorities, any increase in expenditure should come from a corresponding increase in property tax.
Why should it be voluntary at all? The alternative to a properly funded service is a burned down building or people dying in a car wreckage. Maybe full withdrawal for 6 months would focus the minds. Let’s not do half arsed public services anymore. I pay a shedload of tax, let’s see properly paid front line workers and close down the likes of rte.
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