DART Underground - Tunnel to be extended to Inchicore

Date: 06 April 2009

Iarnród Éireann News Release

Monday 6th April 2009

DART UNDERGROUND:
TUNNEL TO BE EXTENDED TO INCHICORE

Revised plan to minimise impact on existing services, allow for future station at Inchicore

Iarnród Éireann has announced a series of proposed revisions to the DART Underground line, ahead of an application for a Railway Order later this year.

The most significant change will see the DART Underground tunnel, a second high-capacity DART line through the heart of the city centre, extended to Inchicore. The new line - which will dramatically enhance frequency and capacity on all routes in the Greater Dublin area, as well as linking all rail modes into an integrated network – is now planned to be extended from the original proposal of Docklands to Heuston, to a Docklands to Inchicore tunnel.

The benefits of this include:

- Underground stations at Docklands, Pearse, St Stephen’s Green, Christchurch and Heuston, with the tunnel entrance (portal) now located at Iarnród Éireann land at Inchicore

- Provision for a future station at Inchicore to benefit the local community

- The extension of the tunnel to Inchicore would dramatically reduce the impact of the tunnel’s development on existing rail services during the construction phase, by avoiding the crucial Heuston area

- The extension removes the requirement to increase the number of tracks between Inchicore and Heuston to meet the underground line, which would have required significant property acquisitions and would cause serious disruption to residents, as well as road and rail users.

- No major road artery to or from the city will be affected by the portal areas

Further changes to the project include:

- removal of Kildare St exit from St Stephen’s Green Station

o Following the decision to relocate the entrances to the Metro North/Dart Underground common concourse in Saint Stephens Green North the access strategy was re-examined and the Kildare Street Entrance removed. This will significantly reduce the impact on Saint Stephens Green during construction without compromising accessibility.

- Alignment and station location at Pearse changed

o This will ensure that there is no requirement to acquire a small number of housing units adjacent to Pearse, and avoid any impact on Merrion Square.

The revisions are set to be presented to communities along the route in the coming month in a series of public consultation meetings, and have been designed to minimise the impact of construction of the day-to-day life of the city and on existing rail services.

The public consultation meetings will outline to communities and businesses along the route the benefits of the project, and the impacts on these areas during construction. They are scheduled to take place as follows:

Inchicore/Heuston: Monday 20th April, 17.00-20.00, Hilton Hotel, Kilmainham.

Christchurch: Thursday 23rd April, 17.00-20.00, Central Hotel, Exchequer St.

Docklands: Monday 27th April, 17.00-20.00, Sean O’Casey Community Centre, St Mary’s Road, East Wall, Dublin 3.

St Stephen’s Green/Pearse: Thursday 30th April, 17.00-20.00, Alexander Hotel, Fenian St, off Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

Further public consultation will take place in the lead-up to the Railway Order application.

DART Underground

DART Underground is set to be developed with a capacity for up to 20 trains each direction per hour, allowing up to 64,000 commuters to use the line hourly.

With capacity for DART services to operate up to every 3 minutes, the line - a tunnel from Docklands to Inchicore - will complete the transformation of the Greater Dublin area’s rail service capacity from 33 million passenger journeys annually now to over 100 million passenger journeys.

The new line will dramatically increase frequency and capacity for commuters on DART, Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines – development plans also include the extension of the DART network to Maynooth, Hazelhatch and the Northern line.

It will be the single most important piece of infrastructure in the state to ensure a modal shift from private to public transport, and free future generations from the gridlock which cripples the Greater Dublin area today. It is a central part of the Government’s Transport 21 ten-year transport investment plan. It also links all rail modes – DART, Commuter, Intercity, Luas and Metro – to form an integrated cohesive network. The project will be developed under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

The Docklands to Inchicore DART Underground line delivers:

- a second high capacity DART line through the heart of the city centre, a 7.5 kilometre underground line

- dramatically increased frequency and capacity for services on the Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines – the three fastest growing population corridors in the country – and relieving the current congestion at Connolly Station

- a fully integrated rail network for the Greater Dublin area, linking all modes – DART, Commuter, Intercity, LUAS and Metro – and ensuring that suburb to suburb as well as suburb to city centre journeys can be made by a frequent, high capacity public transport network

- two high capacity DART lines proposed as Balbriggan/Howth to Inchicore/Hazelhatch and Maynooth to Bray/Greystones, with DART extensions to some routes likely to be delivered in advance of DART Underground

- a trebling of the number of passenger journeys by DART and Commuter rail annually – up from 33 million currently, to 100 million upon completion

- a critical piece of urban, regional and national infrastructure

- between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs directly in each year of the construction phase, with many thousands more jobs indirectly

The DART Underground line is proposed to be developed as a twin-bore tunnel, at approximately 24 metres depth, with four hard-rock Tunnel Boring Machines to be used to tunnel through a predominantly limestone geology. Some stations will be constructed using mainly underground techniques (St Stephen’s Green, Pearse & Heuston), with the other (Docklands) being built partially using ‘Cut and cover’ methods.

Iarnród Éireann have liaised with key players including local authorities and landowners at station sites along the route, and will undertake further liaison, and more detailed public consultation under the detailed design phase.

Reference design will continue to allow Iarnród Éireann to submit a Railway Order application later this year, and enabling work will begin in 2010, with construction targeted to commence in 2011, for completion in 2015.

The line will dramatically change Iarnród Éireann’s DART and Commuter network. Northern line DART services from Drogheda and Howth will branch off the existing DART line after Clontarf Road, going underground at:

- Docklands Station where the line will connect with the Red Luas. It continues to

- Pearse, connecting with what will be the Maynooth/Pace to Bray/Greystones DART line; then at
- St Stephen’s Green it connects with the Green Luas and the Metro to the airport before continuing to

- Christchurch, connecting to Luas Line F, and onto

- Heuston, linking with Red Luas, and Iarnród Éireann’s Intercity and Commuter services, and coming to the surface at Inchicore

before continuing above ground to Hazelhatch. As well as expanding capacity on the Northside routes and to Hazelhatch, this routing frees up Connolly Station for major expansion for the Maynooth line continuing to the existing southside DART.

Commenting on the project, Iarnród Éireann and CI Chairman Dr John Lynch said “the DART Underground line is the missing link not only in our rail infrastructure, but in our transport infrastructure. It will be the most critical project under Transport 21 in enabling people to switch from private transport to public transport, and will transform the capacity of the Greater Dublin area rail network. Iarnród Éireann’s unrivalled record in delivering projects on time and on budget will ensure that as well as multiplying capacity, it will deliver value for money for the taxpayer as well.”

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD said "Even in these difficult times I firmly believe in the importance of planning and delivering quality public transport alternatives for the future. We can’t afford not to. The new DART underground is a critical piece of urban, regional and national infrastructure. It will make an enormous difference to thousands of people every day once it is in place. It will shorten journey times, ease congestion, make it easier for people to leave their cars at home and treble the rail service capacity in the Greater Dublin Area from 33 million passenger journeys annually to 100 million passenger journeys. This project makes sense."

Issued by:
Corporate Communications at Iarnród Éireann