Expansion of Light Rail in Dublin and its suburbs
Whist Dublin Bus does a fantastic job at providing most of the city’s public transport. Light rail has been proven to have a greater uptake from the public than busses and provides a far more reliable, more consistent service. To significantly increase passenger updates, there must be the necessary expansion of Luas lines into the suburbs of Dublin City.
The current plan proposed a disappointing four new Luas lines in the draft Transport Plan. This is frankly underwhelming and risks failing to meet the emission reduction targets outlined in the Carbon Budgets that run in parallel over the plan’s lifetime.
The solution to this issue is mentioned in the current draft plan under Measure LRT6 – Post-2042 Luas Lines). It outlines additional Luas lines post 2042, five new lines and the reconfiguration of the current Red and Green lines. Bringing forward the timeline of these proposals into the draft plan and looking to finish construction of as many of these lines by the draft plans lifetime would guarantee that carbon emission would drop to the necessary levels to meet carbon emission levels.
Tyrrlestown, a suburb of Dublin City located in Dublin West, currently will not be well serviced by the current BusConnects proposal but would significantly benefit from expediting one of the proposed Post 2042 Luas lines (Green Line Extension to Tyrrelstown). Failing to deliver such a crucial connection to Dublin City and communities located along the green line would guarantee a very heavy reliance on private cars.