DART expansion plan to Drogheda
PROJECT Ireland 2040 sets out plans to extend the DART as far as Drogheda by 2027 at the latest.
The plan outlines proposals for a €2 billion DART Expansion Programme which will see the DART extended to Donabate, Rush and Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan and on to Drogheda by 2027.
This will provide a ‘fast, high-frequency electrified service to Drogheda’ according to the plan.
However, the government’s proposed Drogheda Dart Plan has been described as ‘a farcical stunt’ by a local rail user group.
The Commuter North Eail Users Group (CNRUG) said the proposal ‘flies in the face of the National Planning Framework and ignores rip-off fares’.
The group criticised the recent statement made by Deputy Fergus O’Dowd who said a DART extension ‘would be transformational for Drogheda, East Meath and South Louth’.
‘Instead of prioritising initiatives which would assist much needed jobs growth in the Greater Drogheda area, the main thrust of Deputy O’Dowd’s statement is focussed on moving even more people away from their local communities to work and study in Dublin,’ said a spokesman for the group.
‘While Deputy O’Dowd claims that ‘1,200 people travel by rail from Drogheda and 400 from Laytown daily,’ he conveniently fails to mention just how few travel northwards from the city and intermediate stops to these stations – indicative of the failure of successive Governments to create jobs in sufficient numbers for the 83,000 people now living in the Greater Drogheda area.’
The spokesperson said this flies directly in the face of the National Planning Framework which sets out to disperse economic development away from Dublin.
‘So, it can only be described as a hollow, political stunt that completely lacks substance and offers no comfort to rail commuters who face the long and expensive daily commute – and is a ‘cop-out’ as far as job creation in the Greater Drogheda area is concerned.’
CNRUG state Drogheda needs more direct Inter- City services to and from Dublin and Belfast, since in a future post-Brexit scenario, Drogheda will be the closest EU city to the EU:UK land border. Already, it is the largest urban centre on the line between Dublin and Belfast. Along with that, it they claim it needs ‘semi-direct’ trains, picking up or dropping off passengers at Howth Junction; Malahide; Skerries and Balbriggan – and those services could connect to an extension of the slower DART services to serve other intermediate stations as well as connecting with the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service at Drogheda. The Group has called on Minister Shane Ross and local Independent Alliance Councillor, Kevin Callan, to get involved in delivering a more appropriate local rail strategy.
They criticised the government’s failure to prioritise Drogheda as the key Growth Centre for the North East in the National Development Plan, and called the DART plan ‘pie in the sky’ at a time when the trains that return from Dublin each morning are almost empty.
‘Give us local jobs in Drogheda and the North East, not DART carriages,’ the spokesman said.