Feasibility study into south Dublin Luas line planned

A feasibility study is to be carried out into a possible new Luas line in south Dublin. It would link Rathfarnham, Terenure and Harold's Cross with the city centre and run roughly parallel to the existing Luas line between St Stephen's Green and Sandyford.

The study will be carried out by the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) and will begin in April. Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said a new line could serve an area of south-central Dublin that does not have access to the Luas or the Dart.

"It is vital that the workforce in the area and its residents have access to a range of public transport options if we want to get people out of their cars and on to public transport," he said.

Mr Cullen also said yesterday that negotiations to bring the controversial M50 West-Link toll bridge into public ownership have reached "endgame".

The National Roads Authority (NRA) and its private operator, National Toll Roads (NTR), have been in negotiation over the reported €600 million sale of the M50 toll bridge for the last year. It is understood the NRA and NTR have reached agreement on the sale and it is now up to the Department of Finance to decide how the tolls should operate and how much of the revenue should be returned to the State.

Mr Cullen said the deal was "very close to finalisation" and he would then bring proposals to Cabinet. He also confirmed the Government is looking at varying the toll, depending on the time of day.

"There are a range of options when you are in control of a toll bridge as to what you can do to focus on helping the motorists move better," he said.

"You can vary the toll and encourage people to go more off-peak. A lot of people, with an incentive, might be able to change their ways to go off-peak.

"If you do that, you benefit both on-peak and off-peak traffic. Let's get the process completed and then we can look as we go forward on what will be, in the next few years, an entirely new M50."

Mr Cullen was speaking at the launch of 100 new buses for Dublin yesterday. The buses, part of the Government's Transport 21 plan, cost €30 million and brings the Dublin Bus fleet to almost 1,200 vehicles. Dublin Bus confirmed that many of the new buses, which go into service next month, will help to improve public transport links on the western fringes of the city.

New routes will be announced for north and west Blanchardstown, Ongar and Adamstown. A review of traffic management plans in the area involving Dublin Bus, Fingal County Council and the Garda is almost complete. Dublin Bus said it will be looking for more Quality Bus Corridors in west Dublin to improve services.

"Clearly there has been an explosion in the population of the Dublin 15 area and that has created a lot of problems," a Dublin Bus spokeswoman said. "The key thing for us is to improve bus priorities. Where the bus has priority, it has been shown to work.

"In the Blanchardstown area, buses get caught in the same congestion as cars. We would be hoping to improve the bus priorities as well. Where you have the effective priorities, the bus feeds will increase and improve."