Plans for a Dublin city-centre Luas terminus are being opposed, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
The Dublin Docklands Development Authority is opposing plans to remove the ramp at Connolly Station to make way for a street-level Luas terminus, even though it stands to gain up to €20 million from its demolition.
In a letter to the new Railway Procurement Agency, the docklands authority is understood to have expressed strong reservations about the scheme, which it sees as an impediment to extending the Luas line from Tallaght into the docklands area.
The rail agency's board recently reaffirmed plans to demolish the ramp on the basis that this was the scheme approved in October 2000 following a public inquiry into revised plans for the Luas line from Middle Abbey Street to Connolly Station.
But the docklands authority, with its eye to extending Luas into docklands, sees no logic in trams entering a new station at the southern end of Connolly, where the ramp is located, and then reversing out to proceed to the Point Depot.
Though it owns the ramp and would have to be compensated for its land value, the docklands authority wants the current plan to be revised so that Luas would connect more directly with the DART line at Connolly, via a "transport hub" on Sheriff Street.
This would involve rerouting Luas from Store Street through Talbot Place - currently used as a private car park by gardaí - into Talbot Street, swinging around into Amiens Street in front of Connolly Station before turning into Sheriff Street.
However, the the Rail Procurement Agency's chairman, Mr Padraig White, said discussion of options for Luas had "gone on long enough". His agency had "a job to do and we're going to get on with it" - and that meant proceeding with the scheme already approved.
If the rail agency had to examine other options, such as rerouting Luas via Sheriff Street to link up with the proposed transport hub, a new light rail order application would be required and this could delay the project for at least two years.
Mr White said he understood that acquisition of the ramp would be covered by the 2001 Transport Infrastructure Act under which all property owned by CIÉ that the rail agency required would be vested in the new agency.
Even if the docklands authority owned the ramp, he expected that the issue of compensation would be "resolved within the family of State agencies". He disputed estimates that its acquisition and demolition would cost over €20 million.
The removal of the ramp is also opposed by Bus Éireann, which uses part of it as a storage area for coaches serving Busaras. Iarnród Éireann is also believed to have strong reservations about its impact on the servicing of Connolly Station.
The Luas project team originally submitted plans to extend Luas to Connolly to the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms Mary O'Rourke, in October 1999. But the extension was opposed by residents of apartments in the Custom House Docks.
The intention was that the extension would come into service as part of the Luas line from Tallaght, then scheduled to open in February 2003. According to the timetable given by Ms O'Rourke, the Luas line from Sandyford was due for completion six months later.
Opposition was aroused by a proposal that the extension to Connolly would terminate at Harbourmaster Place.
Following a public inquiry, the concerns of residents were upheld in January 2000, the original plan was vetoed and the Luas project team was told to come up with a more acceptable location for the terminus at Connolly. This led to the proposal to demolish the ramp.
Under the revised plan Luas trams would terminate at street level outside the southern end of Connolly under sail-like canopies.
The demolition of the ramp and its limestone walls would free 2,500 square metres for the proposed Luas station, creating a public square along Amiens Street that would open up the IFSC to the city centre.