Dublin's various transport plans desperately need a single co-ordinating body, writes Olivia Mitchell.
The Dublin Port Tunnel, the true cost and knock-on effects of which are only now coming to light, highlights the urgent need for a single body to oversee transport for the entire city. Such a body would ensure not only co-ordination in the planning of the various transport projects, but also co-ordination in their delivery.
The absence of such a body, which would operate to an agreed agenda and establish spending priorities, means the many agencies involved in Dublin transport continue to operate in isolation.
As far as the tunnel is concerned, it seems there has never really been any widely agreed and accepted consensus about its expected role and contribution, and about how it would mesh with traffic flows and other transport projects in the greater Dublin area. The result is that it now seems to be creating as many problems as it solves, and all these problems have costly solutions.
For example, the M1/M50 roundabout will have to be enlarged to cope with the traffic headed for and from the tunnel. Unfortunately, work on this project will get under way just as the tunnel is about to open, causing yet more congestion.
Meanwhile, down at the port end of the tunnel, the congestion caused by the opening of the tunnel itself, and from the port's growth, is giving rise to demands for an eastern bypass to turn the C-ring M50 motorway into a full circle.
Although debated and examined endlessly, the decision on an eastern bypass to complete the M50 circle has never really been made.
Similarly, from time to time, we have been tantalised with the suggestion of a second major port in north Dublin.
These decisions need to be made by a single transport body before any more costly and irreversible investments are made. Otherwise, transport planning in Dublin will remain in disarray with the many agencies involved promoting their pet projects.
Other questions remain unanswered. For instance, why does the tunnel have a capacity of 80,000 vehicles a day when only a potential maximum of 9,000 trucks will use it? If the toll for cars is aimed at dramatically reducing car usage, why then does the truck-only tunnel get two lanes each way while all the rest of the M1 traffic gets only one lane?
Why, if we are spending three quarters of a billion euro to get HGVs off our city streets, have we not banned from the streets the biggest and heaviest of those HGVs - those which won't fit into the tunnel?
Even more crucial, but still unanswered, is the question of whether all port-generated HGVs that fit will be obliged to use the tunnel.
Another project with all the potential for similar pitfalls to those now besetting the tunnel is the interconnector rail tunnel between Heuston and Connolly stations. This is a project for which Iarnród Éireann is lobbying extensively and comes with a price tag of several billion euro. In an ideal world where money is plentiful and no hard choices between projects need to be made, this would be a very worthy project. However, whether it should be our priority for Dublin is a question that needs to be assessed very carefully.
We have already, as taxpayers, paid for a Luas line between Heuston and Connolly. We have paid three quarters of a billion for the port tunnel to take all the heavy traffic off the quays between Heuston and Connolly. Do we really need to triplicate that investment or could a fleet of buses do the same job a lot more cheaply and release vital funds for more transport projects throughout the city?
I fully support Iarnród Éireann's plans to improve commuter and intercity services, and its plans for a Connolly Station bypass are crucial. However, building a new interconnector tunnel for several billion euro might be gilding the lily.
CIÉ would undoubtedly like to be the recipient of all the money being spent on public rail projects. But would a heavy rail tunnel really be the most appropriate transport solution in an entirely urban setting? Perhaps a citywide network of Luas lines might be more useful, and cheaper. And because a network of Luas lines would run largely overground, it would certainly be far more accessible and user-friendly.
Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has often spoken of the need for "connectivity"or "joined-up" public transport. This is necessary, but there is also a need for "joined-up"thinking at the planning stage. There are two dozen bodies currently competing for funds for their own priorities. Transport decisions need to be made and delivered with objectivity and not by a myriad of agencies operating to their own agendas.
Olivia Mitchell, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South, is the party's spokeswoman on transport