Taking the Luas to Bride's Glen and beyond

It was a good day, and there’s not too many of them around at the moment.

The Luas extension from Sandyford to Cherrywood was opening. I was saying a few words wearing my hat as Minister of State with responsibility for Smarter Travel and I took the opportunity to reflect as well as look forward.

Back in the 1980s decision makers seemed to feel that new roads could overcome any transportation problem. It was a mad time. In Dublin City, Dublin Corporation (renamed Dublin City Council in the late 1990s) was buying up old buildings left right and centre, knocking them and building roads. Thriving pubs, shops and homes were acquired, de-tenanted and then demolished. I was a student architect back then in UCD and we campaigned against these crazy policies. Meanwhile, in contrast to Dublin, cities elsewhere in Europe were building new tram systems and protecting older neighbourhoods. Cities like Grenoble and Nantes in France had put in place new light rail systems and they were working well. A friend of mine Jerome O’Drisceoil made up button badges with the simple slogan “Trams not Jams” and we gradually made our voices heard. The late Simon Perry in Trinity College exposed the folly of new road building in urban areas, and was an eloquent voice calling for rail investment. Finally the then Government commissioned the Dublin Transportation Initiative Study that led to a study advocating the construction of three light rail lines in Dublin. Two were built and we’re now proposing a Metro and Dart inter-connector that will provide further North-South and East-West links for the Capital.

The Luas Green Line which runs from Stephen’s Green in the City Centre South to Sandyford doubled in length last week. It now runs as far as Cherrywood in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Around 26,000 additional residents live within one kilometre of the new stretch of line. Although some of the line runs through open countryside, most of the land is scheduled for development. At Cherrywood a Strategic Development Zone has been approved by Government under the 2000 Planning Act, and this allows for the fast-tracking of new development. Unlike the development of much of West Dublin where the housing was put in before the public transport, here we’ve put in place a high quality public transport link before many of the new communities are built. I pointed out in my speech at the opening that this was one of the rare examples in Irish planning where we’ve actually put the horse before the cart rather than the other way around. There was criticism at the opening at the lack of Park and Ride facilities being ready, but a large parking facility is due to open early next year at Carrickmines. There’s also a car park planned at Cherrywood, but it has been delayed due to the NAMA taking over loans relating to certain properties there. The lands at Cherrywood are scheduled for development as a new town in future years, so we have to be careful that we don’t take over key sites there on a permanent basis for surface car parking. The Bus/ Luas connections aren’t as good as I would like, and maybe there’s a role for the National Transport Authority to review this and suggest changes. However the 63 bus route now links up with the Luas which should work well. There’s also a role for the Council and the other agencies to improve walking and cycling access to the stops, as well putting in place some decent signage pointing out where the stops are.

The opening of this Luas extension was a good day for Smarter Travel, and for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The extension came in at €293 million, under the €324 million approved budget. The project has created and is sustaining ‘Green Collar” jobs at every skill level from cleaners to line managers. A journey on the Luas requires one tenth the energy of a car, and that all helps tackle climate change.

Looking ahead, I’m working on the next step of extending the line as far as Shankill and Bray. Bride’s Glen is the last stop on the line, and Loughlinstown Hospital lies just across the old stone rail viaduct that spans the Shanganagh River that runs through the glen after which the stop is named. The alignment of the old Harcourt Street Railway line is still there, and although one or two buildings were allowed to straddle the line it would be comparatively easy to acquire the lands and put the line back in place. Ideally the Metro Project would eventually run between Swords and Bray, creating a backbone along which the city could develop over the next hundred years. I finished up my few words at the opening by quoting from Daniel Burnham –the American planner who produced the Chicago Plan in the nineteenth century. He stated:

“Make no little plans, they have no courage to stir men’s blood and probably will not be realised. Aim high in life and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram, once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.

Remember that our sons and grandsons will do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty, think big.”

If you remove Burham’s gender bias, I think you’ve a decent enough quote that can guide the proposals for the Metro and the Dart Interconnector . In tandem with the right planning and development decisions they have the capacity to change the face of Dublin for the better over the next hundred years.

Ups and downs on the campaign trail

"Hey Mister"
-"Just a second"
I'm at the top of a ladder, half-way up a pole trying to feed one plastic poster-tie into another on Deirdre de Burca's poster. Finally it catches and I pull it tight.
"Mister"
-"I'll be with you in a second!"
I thread the plastic tie through the lower part of the poster. Once you've locked the poster-tie in, it can resist gale force winds, if done correctly. I clamp the end of plastic tie between my teeth and pull hard. Not exactly ideal from a health and safety perspective, but it does the job. Finally, I finish securing the poster, and climb down the ladder.
-"Mister"
"Yes?
-"Mister, your poster is upside-down.
"@#*%~!"
I walk back to the car, and take out a kitchen knife reserved for these occasions. It's started to rain again, the kind of rain we've had for the last two weeks - first one or two drops, then a downpour. Back up the ladder, knife in my mouth doing a fair impersonation of Captain Jack Sparrow getting ready to repel boarders. I'm at the top of the ladder, and spend a few minutes trying to ease the poster ties apart with the tip of the knife so that I can re-use the ties. Eventually I give up and attempt to sever the tie to release the poster. As I cut through the plastic there's a loud bang and a bright yellow flash. The knife falls and I slide down the ladder faster than a sailor in one of those World War Two films just after the torpedo hits the ship. Unlike our candidate Martin Hogan a few weeks ago, I'm still in one piece. I look back up the lamp post and as I do there's another flash and a puff of smoke from the electrical junction box half-way up the pole.
"Hey Mister"
-"Yeh"
"That's deadly, it is, can you do it again?"
It's time to move on, and find a safer lamppost for Deirdre de Burca's poster.

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That photo shows Cllr. Gene Feighery and Cllr. Ruairí Holohan on the stump on the Blackrock Bypass last Friday. They're giving out Hazel tree nuts and saplings as part of Ruairí's 'Brown Envelope' campaign. It's brought a smile to people's faces, and is the kind of soft sell that works well as part of wider campaign. Ruairí also has a good pitch at the doors:

"Look, I'm not going to talk about the recession, I can talk to you about Home Energy Grants, or the Gardening course that we're running in Blackrock.

It seems to be working well, by all accounts. He also told our monthly Green Party meeting in Dún Laoghaire that he's been dropping apple pies in to every convent in his ward with 'Green Party' written on the plate, and then drops by to collect the plate a few days later, and tries to persuade them to use their land for allotments.

Cllr. Gene Feighery, represents Dún Laoghaire, and has been pointing out that the Greens are good on planning. Gene was a founder member of CRSOS (the Combined Residents to Save Open Space) an NGO that campaigned to prevent the rezoning of the Dún Laoghaire Golf Club lands. It may well be that this green lung within Dún Laoghaire won't be developed in the short term, but it is important that a Local Area Plan is drawn up to guide development in the town. She's often seen in her electric car around the town.

Tom Kivlehan is our councillor for Shankill and Ballybrack. He dragged me up to Sandyford Luas stop a few weeks ago to take a photo beside a Luas so that we could photoshop 'Sandyford' out of the sign and substitute 'Shankill'. When the Luas gets to Cherrywood early next year, Tom will be clearing the scrub off the old Harcourt Street line to make sure it gets to Shankill and Bray a few years later. On a more practical note, he succeeded in getting the Council to shift their electricity supply to a renewable supplier.

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It may be a European and Local Election, but it is clear that many are thinking about national issues as they consider how to cast their vote in two weeks time. Few people disagree that John Gormley and Eamon Ryan are doing good work in their respective ministries. Tough decisions are being taken to ensure Ireland weathers the worldwide economic storm. Already it seems clear that the recovery is green. New jobs are being created in energy, in construction, in transport and in agriculture. Many of these are in areas of the sustainability sector that didn't exist a few years ago, or have a green hue to their complexion. One thing is sure though, the economy that was too dependent on laissez-faire construction and SUV car sales has changed, and the new green collar jobs will shape Ireland's future.

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Thanks to all you new media people for dropping in to the Oireachtas last week. My relatively tidy office that some of you saw last week has again disintegrated into squalor. I think both John Gormley, Deirdre de Burca and Damian Connon enjoyed the opportunity to talk candidly about their work. Thanks Dharragh Boyle, Mark Coughlan, Damian Mulley, Gav Reilly, Thaedydal and others for coming along. You all seem to have enjoyed your experience of the madness that constitutes the Houses of the Oireachtas.