Sir, - The decision to have yet another study on the Luas is highly undesirable and could be construed as an attempt to delay the start of the project sufficiently to kill it off. The warnings from the EU Commission further reinforce what we have been saying about the amount of time available for its completion.
Does anybody seriously think the Minister is going to find an extra £100 million £300 million to build the underground section, which will do nothing to solve traffic problems and will certainly not reduce air pollution? If the Minister is keen to spend an extra £300 million on public transport there are much better ways of spending it: e.g. on the third leg of Luas to Ballymun/Airport in phase one, or on high-quality bus corridors linked to properly maintained park-and-ride schemes.
What will happen in Dublin if Luas is not built and public transport is not raised above the level of tokenism? The city will, within a few years, grind to a halt, air pollution will further increase, the accident rate will probably increase and city businesses will lose many millions a year. In the end we will probably have to build a system like Luas at much greater expense and without any EU funding.
If Luas is not built it will be a betrayal of the people by the politicians. - Yours, etc.,
Nick Armstrong,
Earthwatch Dublin, Dundrum, Dublin 16.