“The people of North Dublin have been told about these plans for the past 50 years.”
The Dublin Commuter Coalition (DCC) has called on Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to answer questions surrounding the delays with the MetroLink and DART+ projects.
The plan was first announced in the ‘Transport 2021’ plan back in 2005, however, the Metro North and DART + projects have since faced delays of a number of years with commencement now not set to begin until 2027.
The sustainable mobility advocacy group expressed disappointment over Ryan’s recent comments suggesting that the proects won’t be finished until 2034 and called on the Minister to answer questions about the source of the delays and to outline plans to reduce them.
The group is also calling for clarity on the status of similar large rail projects like Luas Finglas and Cork Luas.
DCC Chairperson, Kevin Carter, said: “We’ve been hearing of delays to MetroLink and DART+ since the 19 of September and we still haven’t received an explanation from the Minister for Transport about why these delays are occurring or a firm estimate of when the projects are expected to finish.
“In the case of MetroLink, four years into a ten-year project, we were hoping for something more concrete than the Minister saying he’s hopeful about it opening under seven years late.”
The group added that “the people of North Dublin have been told about these plans for the past 50 years” with one proposal for a metro already designed and cancelled in recent years.
“They deserve a lot more from the government than the confusion and rumours that have surrounded these projects for the past 10 days,” they added.
Dublin Commuter Coalition committee member, Janis Morrissey, said that the delay “seriously calls into question the government’s commitment to adequately resource development of public transport.”
“There is no sense of priority or urgency. It also makes a mockery of the government’s climate plans,” she continued.
It comes as Fine Gael Senator, Regina Doherty said earlier this month that the delays are “not acceptable”.
She told Newstalk that there is “absolutely no reason” the delays would be acceptable.
“It’s 30 years ago, there are people who are living in Swords, all along the tracks right up to Dublin North in Balbriggan, who bought their houses or apartments with Metro North as part of their sales brochure,” she added.
Main Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie.
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