How does this affect the Interconnector - it has nothing to do with it. Any funding will be most likely shifted from the HSE into the project. The GAA have long said they wanted a station on the site of Croker and there is another pile of cash there too. Rail projects get their funding by moving money from one government department and into CIE is hardly uncommon.

The Interconnector funding is already ring-fenced the contractor are about to be tendered - the Interconnector is already in the bag. It's all to be announced very soon. Trust me on this one. If I thought this was a replacement for the Interconnector I would be against it - but it isn't. If this is what you are assuming then you are wrong, WAY wrong.

The either/or debate surrounding the PPT/Interconnector ended a long time ago. We are in a new world of Interconnector "add-ons" now. I can't see what you are being so upset about. We have a very good chance now of ending up getting both and what's is wrong with that?

Here is a clue...NOTHING. It's how is should be.

Yes but the mechanics of getting from the PPT to this station are just not there at the moment. Are you of the opinion that John Lynch has liased with IE to explore re-jigging Glasnevin/Liffey Junctions?

As it is, and with the scarcity of services that Docklands Station will be given, it is a White Elephant and, looking at the photos on Meath on Track, an ugly, barren looking one at that.

As I said above, anything can be built.

Apologies Nigel if i give the impression that I though it was a choice, or had anything to do with the interconnector.
I just used point 4 to reinforce what CIE and Dr Lynch should be focusing their energies on.....Championing early construction of the interconnector!!

My main point is that we don't need the new dorset st station..... I don't care where the €€€ is coming from. Indeed I can think of a million better places for the HSE to spend their money.
I can also think of a few hundred better places for IE to build a new station (ones that don't have a planned DART/Metro interchange within 5 mins walk of them)!!

No worries, I might have given that impression myself having been a long time high-priest of the Phoenix Park Tunnel route - but at the same time I am not a fanatic. I would sacrifice the PPT in a heartbeat for the Interconnector anyday - but at the same time I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth either when the chance of getting them both comes along either.


It's all coming very quickly now. The long wait is soon to end.

It seems to me that Bertie would promise a TGV to Holyhead if it got the Mater the Chislers Hospital. I suspect this may be the deal he wants to strike before getting out as Taoiseach, so that when the reckoning comes the locals will tug the forelock a la Haughey and say "shure didn't he gerrus the chislers hospital, a great man altogether".

lol, I just realised that the Mater will have to fork out a few million in development levies for Metro. :D

Doubt it, I'm sure they'll be exempt.

The Phoenix is to rise from the ashes...

In T22 perhaps, because this bunch are still struggling to find it. Seems like its only known to IE traffic controllers and drivers. Management have yet to realise its existence.

Great story.

Gave a lift to an IE employee today. Friend of the family. Works in Connolly. Needed to get to Heuston. Couldn't figure out why there's still no train between the two, despite 34 billion euro being spent. The track is there he said. I know says I...I know.:rolleyes:

Interconnector says I. Load of b*****s says he. They planned Luas to save them the hassle he adds.

You'd wonder.

IE management may not be aware of the PPT - but developers are aware of the value of Liffey Junction and Islandbridge (old keg loading area and carpark) landbanks and all the other smaller brownfield sites along its course. Now that the Interconnector funding is secured, CIE are no longer keeping the PPT secret anymore as the PPT can't be used as a political football. It's no longer a "works tunnel", and it no longer needs to be played down. Regular passenger services will be operating through the Phoenix Park tunnel within the timeframe of T21.