Head over to our T
Metro North Route
Read more about: Fianna Fail, Progressive Democrats, Transport 
The new Metro route has been announced (PDF here) and it’s posted below the fold.
Headline figures from Transport:
- To accommodate an estimated 34 million passengers per year
- 17 minutes journey time from the city centre to Dublin Airport
- 26 minutes journey time from St Stephens Green to Swords
- Trains every four minutes
From Martin Cullen’s Press Release:
Using underground, surface and elevated tracks, Metro North will operate from St. Stephens Green, via Dublin Airport, to the north of Swords in the vicinity of Lissenhall. An estimated 34 million passengers a year will travel on this service, with trains every four minutes, increasing to every 90 seconds as the demand builds. The journey time from St Stephens Green to Dublin Airport will be 17 minutes.
Metro North will have 15 stops available for passengers who want to make the journey from the city centre to the airport and beyond. These will be located at St Stephens Green, OConnell Bridge, Parnell Square (possible stop), Mater Hospital, Drumcondra, Griffith Avenue, Dublin City University, Ballymun, Santry Demense, Metropark, Dublin Airport, Nevinstown, Swords, Seatown and Lissenhall.
Speaking this morning, Minister Cullen, TD said: Investment in public transport is a critical element of Government policy for the greater Dublin area and I am very pleased today to announce this next major step in making the Metro a reality the selection of the route for Metro North. Having a Metro for the people of Dublin and visitors to the city is a key component in the overall public transport network that we propose to develop as part of Transport 21. With Metro North we will have a new travel experience for business and leisure commuters. Metro will offer a higher capacity than the Luas as the trains will be longer and faster. This Government continues to provide a modern and efficient transport system that encourages people to take public transport rather than the private car for journeys in and around the city.
Is that like the 7 minute Dart service?
Poppycock.
10 stops in 17 mins – nonsense.
Is there a metro system in the world that would do that kind of time? Unless they’re using bullet trains that can accelerate quickly, I doubt it! I mean, it’d take a minimum of a minute at each stop for everybody to get on and off, so those figures are completely outlandish.
Actually an intersting point of reference was suggested to me.
The stockholm express to the airport hits 220KPH. ill just dig out the website.
I agree that the 10 stops in 17 minutes sounds seriously dodgy.
Another problem is that the announced capacity of the Metro is being puffed up by quoting the annual rather than daily figures. 34M per year means less than 95,000 per day. Has anyone analysed this? This is barely more than the capacity of the Luas lines, built for a fraction of even the lowest estimates of the cost.
The argument for more Luas lines and not a Metro is that Dublin has a very low population density, and lots of cheaper, lower-capacity lines make more sense. My understanding was that Metro lines cost about 10 times more than tram lines, and carry about 10 times more people. They are suitable for very high-density cities – London has 10 times the population of Dublin, but only occupies slightly more land.
Now we seem to be getting tram capacity for metro prices… Are we being sold another pup?
The Metro line does seem to make a rather strange bend in the line to take in Drumcondra, I wonder why?
We can call that “Bertie’s Bend”.
WIlliam your right, dublin bus carries 500,000 a day. However a link between the airport to the city centre is essential. For the first time an airport in this country will be linked to its main urban centre by rail. This in the year 2010 sometime. that is a travesty. I know we cant go back in the past but a truly appalling standard nonetheless.
The argument for more Luas lines and not a Metro is that Dublin has a very low population density, and lots of cheaper, lower-capacity lines make more sense.
the luas is constantly packed and could double in size and comfortably fill up. The arg for a luas is a low uptake in public transport. The areas due to get rail are the west and north, the more densely populated parts of the city. Its needed badly but I am still curious about hte passengers and the maths.