MetroLink is a missed opportunity

We need a truly integrated system

Sir, – Jason Fitzharris (Letters, January 11th) rightly states that “the city and county of Dublin has a population of 1.5 million and all its residents are entitled to have a Metro”.

However, the latest version of MetroLink (when delivered) will be of benefit to a very small proportion of that population.

The long-planned Dart underground or interconnector (which has nothing to do with connecting Heuston to Connolly and everything to do with removing the current city centre bottleneck on the commuter rail network) and the associated upgrade of the existing suburban rail network would facilitate an interconnected high-capacity urban rail network to serve all of the existing Dart catchment, as well as large parts of the the Greater Dublin Area, extending from Sallins through Lucan, Clondalkin, Ballyfermot to Inchicore, and from Maynooth and Dunboyne through Clonsilla, Blanchardstown to Drumcondra.

This would go a lot further than MetroLink to achieve your letter writer’s dream in terms of population served and passenger capacity.

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The decision to effectively eliminate the Dart interconnector in recent Government transport plans stands in the way of the large-scale shift to public transport required by our adopted Climate Action Plan.

The so-called “connections” from MetroLink to other transport systems mentioned by your letter writer are not to a standard of integration that would be recognised by anyone familiar with the many integrated urban rail networks across Europe and further afield and will do very little to encourage the required shift to public transport. – Yours, etc,

ADRIAN CONWAY,

Kilcloon,

Co Meath.