Leo Varadkar vs David McGuinness on Dublin's transport proposals - who is correct?

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Colm Mc Carthy is not much impressed with the recent road investment announcements. He strongly questions the wisdom of expending scarce resources on infrastructure which doesn't (and is unlikely to) have anything like the usage thresholds necessary for viability.

Hard to see much of a case for the DART inter-connector at present given the extraordinarily modest demand at the KRP stations and the operational mess that the interconnector would create on the northern line out of Connolly. The obvious pre-requisite for the inter-connector and a DART service to the airport are dedicated suburban lines north of Connolly. This is the huge advantage Metro North has - it will have dedicated tracks and equally importantly doesn't destroy other services.

The KRP is underused because the passengers are dumped at Heuston, instead of D1/D2. Build the interconnector and those stations will be successful.

Assuming Bray DARTs end up in Maynooth, trains from the Interconnector need not have a negative effect on the northern line. In fact, it would give northern line passengers a choice of destination. It is only when you start adding more termini (the airport, Balbriggan) that the northern line becomes problematic.