[article] Iarnrod Eireann urged to reopen tunnel

[Mark Gleeson]

Needless to say this all started because Platfrom 11 made the d connector presentation

Originally Posted by Irish Times

Iarnrod Eireann urged to reopen tunnel

Tim O'Brien

Iarnrod Eireann has reneged on a promise to reopen Dublin's Phoenix Park Tunnel to passenger services from Kildare to the new Docklands station in the financial services centre.

The twin-track route from west of Heuston station passes under the Wellington Monument, and the Garda Depot before emerging near the North Circular Road and serving Cabra, Glasnevin, and Phibsboro on its way to the docklands.

A spur runs into Connolly Station providing access for trains to Tara and Pearse stations. Iarnrod Eireann had proposed to reopen passenger services on the route as part ofit plans to integrate city centre stations.

Former managing director of Iarnrod Eireann ]oe Meagher told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport as far back as early 2004 that passenger services would resume following the opening of Docklands station.

However, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen who recently travelled the route with larnrod Eireann executives said he had been told the route was now considered secondary to the proposed Heuston, Pearse, Docklands interconnector which is not due until 2015.

While Mr Meagher had initially proposed to run services as early as 2006, Mr Cullen said he was now being told the route was longer than the interconnector and that capacity was still an issue in relation to accessing Connolly Station and the new station in the Docklands.

A spokeswoman for Iarnrod Eireann confirmed the company view that the link was Iess desirable than the route through Pearse Station.

But the campaign group Platform 11 said the issues was never supposed to be a choice between the Phoenix Park tunnel or the Heuston/Pearse route.

Labour Party spokeswoman on transport Roisin Shortall called on Iarnrod Eireann to resolve the issue and to immediately open the route to passengers "as promised".

Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell also said the route should be opened in the short term as the other interconnector was not due until 2015.

© Irish Times 2007

And the evidence
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate...Node=11&Page=5

Mr. Meagher: I will try to take the questions raised, and if I leave
anything out committee members can come back to me. The first related
to the Phoenix Park tunnel, and perhaps I did not explain myself well.
We certainly intend to use the Phoenix Park tunnel in the short term
to bring trains from the Kildare-Newbridge area into Spencer Dock
because there is a demand for that

[Derek Wheeler]

Note to Irish Rail.....



IT WON'T GO AWAY YOU KNOW!

[MrX]

It's amazing how the Park Tunnel was hidden away to such an extent that it was almost an urban legend!!
Now that everyone knows about it they'll be hounded into using it.

Why are they so afraid of it?
Is there a big scary monster living down there?

[Derek Wheeler]

I will never rest until I see it used as part of an integrated rail plan.

Facts as things stand now.

1. It can be used for Kildare line services on Sundays. (an IE manager told me at a public meeting last year that this would confuse passengers! A division of services is currently operating on the Maynooth line. Oopps I forgot, that suits them.)

2. It could have been used to route Kildare services to Docklands. IE promised this as per the info we gave to the Irish Times. P11 is determined to get answers as to why this didn't happen.

3. New stations should be provided in the areas of Blackhorse ave, Cabra and Phisboro.

4. If the interconnector is actually built, the PPT route allows these new stations to connect with the interconnector and metro. We open up huge areas of the north city to rail transport. Commuter services from the Kildare line and beyond can be divided between interconnector and PPT. Everybody wins. Integration would be vastly improved.

5. Both the SRR, PFC and Transport 21 have ignored the vast potential of the route. P11 continue to be the only transport body that recognises the merits of using this route.

6. The key to its success (Spencer Dock) has been compromised by CIE. It can be trully said that they don't appear to give a damn about communities along the PPT line. It will continue to be a missing link and may well haunt us long after the current crop of P11 people have departed.

Personally, this piece of infrastructure continues to niggle at me and Im gobsmacked by the attitude displayed towards it. It will always be a missing link in the apparent grand plan that is T21.

[Oisin88]

Is it all down to some sort of division of services?

Are Connolly services "not allowed" mix with Heuston services because "that's always been the way."

Is this the same way that you can buy tickets from all the machines on the "Southern & Western" (Heuston) division ticket machines to anywhere except stations that are served from Connolly. (i.e. you can buy Tullamore to any of those dodgy south Wexford Halts but not to Drogheda)

They also seem to run the Galway services as a completely separate entity from the Mayo services which means that the intervals between services is strange. Could this hark back to the fact that some of the services were Midland Great Western and some were Great Southern or something like that.....

enough of the conspiracy theories, just get the thing opened.

[Navan Junction]

Originally Posted by Oisin88

They also seem to run the Galway services as a completely separate entity from the Mayo services which means that the intervals between services is strange. Could this hark back to the fact that some of the services were Midland Great Western and some were Great Southern or something like that.....

They used to have scheduled trains from Galway running through the Phunnel up until the eighties (think it was the eighties) and on Dún Laoighaire (think it was there0

[ccos]

Is the PPT single or double tracked?

[Mark]

Double all the way from Platform 10 in Heuston to Glasnevin Junction.

[ccos]

Thanks Mark