Clongriffin rail line to Dublin airport would be quick and cheap, committee says
March 8, 2022
A heavy rail link between Dublin Airport and Connolly station off the Dart line at Clongriffin, first unveiled decades ago, could still be built for less than €500m, the TD and Senators have said.
The proposed link would include two additional tracks between Connolly Station and Clongriffin, a move that would have the added benefit of removing an existing bottleneck where northern services to Drogheda and Belfast currently share track with Dart services, it was claimed.
The proposal envisions the link leaving the current Northern Line between Clongriffin and Portmarnock stations and traveling some 7 kilometers west across open land to the M1 motorway, and a further kilometer to the airport’s main passenger terminals.
Transport consultant Richard Logue, who has previously worked on projects including Heathrow rail and Thameslink, said the Clongriffin line would not be an alternative to the government’s proposed MetroLink, which he said was intended to serve the Dublin metropolitan area. But he said the Clongriffin line would provide direct access to the national rail network, allowing services from regional cities to reach the airport.
“What we have to do is look at airports, in my opinion, also in the context of domestic connections,” he said. But he said another advantage was that it “would also solve a significant bottleneck on the existing railroad” where he said “Tara Mines and Enterprise Trains were “creeping behind Dart.”
Mr Logue, who engaged with the Oireachtas Transport Committee on the issue of the Government’s ongoing National Railway Review, said the line could be built in two to three years, but added that the same amount of time for planning. . “As you know, with MetroLink that has been a problem in and of itself,” he said.
beyond capacity
He said: “I’m really surprised that Dart’s coastal consultation doesn’t include adding more capacity on that route, because in my opinion, that’s already a route that’s beyond capacity.”
In relation to the cost he said; “I’m going to give you a ballpark figure here, you’re looking at a cost of around 350 to 500 million, which would still be much cheaper than building additional roads, because what people don’t realize is that building the rail cost It’s cheaper than the highway.”
UK transport consultant Hassard Stacpoole said he believed Logue was right. He said that he believed the “biggest hurdle” was the planning process. “The main advantage of plugging in the airport is that you connect it to the entire network, so you are serving the entire country,” he said.
Mr. Stacpoole, who was on the committee as a witness for The North Tipperary Community Rail Partnership, also supported investment in commuter rail lines into and around Limerick City.
A West on Track representative, Colmán Ó Raghallaigh, told the committee that the case for reopening the western rail corridor from Athenry Co Galway to at least Claremorris, Co Mayo, has been made many times and the only limitation is political will. to approve the project. He said the area served by the line was a “seriously neglected region” and that a “meager” €154 million was needed “to reopen a key piece of infrastructure”.
