A Luas terminus at Connolly Station, costing over €30 million, has been described as defunct, after details of a proposed extension to the Point Depot were revealed yesterday.
The planned extension will also see Luas drivers having to switch driving positions from the front to the back of the trams at Connolly Station when travelling between the city centre and the Point Depot.
The situation has been described as "a farce" by opposition politicians who said the the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA) decided to proceed with the 30 million terminus despite concerns of staff about it becoming unnecessary in the event of an extension.
Yesterday, the RPA, which is overseeing the construction of Luas, announced that it had chosen the route for the proposed extension of the current Tallaght/Connolly line to the Point Depot. The route will run from Connolly Station through Mayor Street and on to the Point Depot. In 2001, however, the RPA decided to proceed with a planned terminus for Luas at Connolly Station, even though it was aware of proposals for an extension to the Point Depot.
The terminus has seen the purchase and removal of a ramp at Connolly Station to allow trains to arrive at ground level, at an estimated cost of €30 million.
It will mean the trams will travel up to the station terminus from the city centre.
The driver will get out and change his position from the front to the rear of the tram, and then drive the tram back down and onto the new extension to the Point Depot.
Sources close to the RPA acknowledged yesterday that the terminus at Connolly Station would now become defunct. Fine Gael's spokesman on transport, Mr Denis Naughten, described the situation as "a pure farce of a thing".
"It highlights the whole problem in relation to the development of infrastructure in this country. A three-year-old child could see that there was no point in spending 30 million at Connolly Station if you are going to extend the line to the Point."
However, a spokesman for the Department of Transport said that Connolly Station would be a primary destination for many travellers, and having a stop in the station was in accordance with a fully integrated transport system.
In 2001, the RPA's then acting chief executive, Mr Donal Mangan, told his board that developing a Luas stop on the ramp site "no longer represents a feasible option if the planned extension to docklands is approved". The board decided to proceed with the original plan. A full public consultation and inquiry on the proposed extension is to get under way, and to be completed by the end of this year. A decision on whether to proceed with the extension, which would be cofinanced by docklands developers, would then be made by the Minister for Transport.