Minister directs Regional Authority to change Transport Plan. Welcome

The Minister for Planning & Local Government has instructed the Eastern & Midland Regional Authority to amend its recently adopted Regional Plan to 2031 on transport matters. I welcome this direction as the changes to the Plan make it more likely that the DART as far South as Greystones will be improved and that the LUAS to Bray, Finglas, Lucan & Poolbeg will be properly planned & designed. I wrote to the Minister some months ago seeking this change.

I voted against the changes which were proposed to the Transport Strategy but was outvoted by a Green party proposal to reroute the METRO & LUAS to lots of other places. To implement the original strategy, including DART to Drogheda, Maynooth & Cellbridge & Metro to Sandyford (required for LUAS to Bray) will be a major engineering & financial challenge. Every representative would like LUAS in their area but it must be feasible and have a dense population. The Ministers wording ‘continuing to improve DART services on the South-Eastern line as far South as Greystones’ is far better than the Green Party’s ‘continuing to provide DART…as far South as Greystones’

In 2018 I wrote a paper on providing a better rail service to East Wicklow. Although ignored by Irish Rail, the NTA got Jacobs to check the proposal of providing a 20 min DART to Greystones, without tunnelling. This was reported to be feasible which is why the word improve is important.  Submissions can be made to EMRA until 2ndSeptember.

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