Will the old Harcourt Street railway line reopen as a busway or a light rail transit route?
Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications Séamus Brennan is being urged to sanction the reopening of the former Harcourt Street railway line to ease Dublin City's traffic congestion.
The minister is awaiting a report from the working party established to study proposals for the future use of the old train line closed in 1958 as a cost-saving measure. The main debate for the future use of the old line centres on whether to turn it into a busway or a light rail transit (LRT) route.
Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) is one of the groups championing the LRT proposal. Dublin Bus wants a busway. Donal Keating of Dublin Bus believes that if buses have the appropriate right of way,
Then buses can perform as well as DART.
As the former owner of the track, Iarnróid Éireann has already surveyed it by air. Replacing the bridges is easy. The main engineering issue is at the Dundrum junction,
To build a bridge, there would be a major problem, a major cost there, but it would be physically possible to do the job.
According to Dublin Bus that bridge will cost £1.5 million to build. The Dublin Bus proposal for the old railway line is in two stages. These cost £12.5 million and £6 million respectively. Some parts of the line are privately owned and will have to be compulsorily purchased if the route is reopened. This has an estimated cost of £6 million for the full line. The LRT proposal has a total of £75 million, roughly three times the price of the bus route.
The Dublin Bus submission involves a guided busway, but in mainland Europe, LRT is the preferred option. The minister also wants to see proposals for a transport link to Tallaght. For this, the Iarnróid Éireann estimate is 45 million. For Dublin Bus, it is £18 million.
The working party recommendations are expected in April 1991, and the minister is adopting a wait-and-see policy until then.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 April 1991. The reporter is Alasdair Jackson.
