Joan Burton gets written reply from Cullen wrt Spencer Dock

[philip]

The Minister for Transport has acknowledged in a written Parliamentary reply that the new railway station at Spencer Dock to be constructed by Irish Rail will in fact be located on the north side of Sheriff street adjacent to the east side of the Royal Canal.

Deputy Joan Burton said she has been quite shocked by this admission by the Minister as this puts the new Spencer Dock station a considerable distance away from Connolly station and the proposed extension to LUAS in the Docklands. The Minister is arguing that the distance from the new station to the LUAS stop is approximately 350 metres, but that is almost a quarter of a mile, while the station will be some 800 metres from the new pedestrian footbridge across the Liffey. That is a walk of half a mile.
Commuters had understood that the new Spencer Dock station would be very close to the Quays and LUAS to facilitate people walking across to the south side to work, or wishing to get the LUAS back to the city centre.
The Minister has also confirmed that the proposed Clonsilla to Dunboyne line is not expected to be reopened until 2009 and that at that point all services from Dunboyne will go to Spencer Docl
Deputy Burton said there is a problem that most of the commuters using the line want to go to the south side of the city to the central business district. What they’re being offered in Spencer Dock is very definitely half a loaf and an extremely limited access to the city centre.
Deputy Burton said “the Minister and Government have taken years to realise the Spencer Dock proposals. I support the building of Spencer Dock. We had been given to understand that Spencer Dock would be based on the old CIE Headquarters near the river Liffey which would leave people in a much more central location I want the Minister to tell us what has happened to the original Spencer Dock site. Why can Iarnrod Eireann and Government not let the trains go right to the edge of the Liffey and provide proper integration of Spencer Dock the LUAS and the Liffey Quays and footbridge.”
If the Minister thinks that half mile, quarter mile and mile long walks for commuters are nothing, let him get out of his car and actually walk the distance himself and then decide whether or not what he is proposing to do is acceptable.

joanburton.ie