Motorists commuting from Co Kildare to Dublin are calling for a dedicated incident response unit to be set up on the M7/N7, one of the country’s busiest roads.
The call comes following multiple crashes on the main thoroughfare that connects Dublin and Limerick that have led to severe delays in recent weeks.
Motorists have complained about journey times lasting as long as 3½ hours from Parkwest on the southwestern outskirts of Dublin to not far from Kilcullen, Co Kildare – a distance of just 35km – as emergency services grapple to deal with multiple crashes in evening rush hour traffic.
The congestion has been so bad that motorists who have spoken to The Irish Times have witnessed other drivers eating breakfast from bowls or applying make-up while stuck in traffic during the morning rush.
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They have also seen drivers watching videos on mobile phones and texting.
Now locals travelling from Naas and Newbridge in Kildare are calling for increased Garda patrols and a dedicated incident response unit to clear breakdowns more efficiently.
Data from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the State agency that manages the country’s road network, shows eastbound traffic begins to build from about 4am at Kill as traffic feeds on to the N7 from Newbridge, Kildare and Kilcullen.
The data shows a rapid build-up of traffic as the morning reaches rush hour. The average hourly traffic eastbound at Kill rises from about 500 vehicles per hour at 4am to some 1,859 per hour at 5am and peaks at just under 5,000 vehicles per hour at about 6.30am.
A similar picture of earlier peak times is visible at Citywest in west Dublin where eastbound traffic peaks at 5,182 vehicles between 6am and 7am.
While traffic builds earlier, volumes remain high for the rest of the traditional morning commute, at 4,819 between 8am and 9am, dropping only slightly to 4,466 between 9am and 10am.
Dee O’Malley from Newbridge starts her commute at 6.45am. She drives to Citywest to her child’s creche and on to Tallaght for 8.15am.
“Traffic is at a standstill from Kill to Tallaght most days” she says. “If I leave the house after 6.45am I get caught in the worst of it and can be up to two hours late to work. I spend all the time in the car, about 80 to 90 hours a month.”
Annabel Biddulph drives from “between Naas and Newbridge” to Parkwest in south Dublin for 8.30am. It is a distance of some 35km and it has, due to crashes on the route, taken up to 3½ hours.
Biddulph has tried leaving the main M7/N7 road but “at Kill everyone is on the back roads and there are roadworks”.
The N7 from Kill eastbound “is a nightmare slowly getting worse over time”, she says.
Barry McCormack travels from Mountmellick, Co Laois, to Dublin three days a week.
He recalls a collision a few months ago between junction 12 on the M7, at Newbridge/The Curragh in Co Kildare, and the junction where the road merges with the M9 motorway that runs between near Kilcullen and Waterford. It took three hours to get from Mountmellick in Co Laois to Fonthill on the western outskirts of Dublin.
“It is just so tough to deal with the commute on top of a full work day,” he says.
Trish Sully, a qualified instructor who provides mental health and other classes for professional drivers as part of the Road Safety Authority’s approved training systems, says she “would rather drive to Killarney” in Co Kerry.
“What I have seen is people eating from bowls, make-up being put on, drivers watching series or movies while driving, driving too slow or too fast, but the biggest one is texting,” she says.
More gardaí are needed on the M7/N7 as well as a rescue service, “possibly emergency response”, she says.
Megan Byrne commutes from Kildare town to Tallaght. She recently left a role “in a job I absolutely loved” to secure a promotion and a job that allowed her to work from home more, minimising her N7 commute from five to “hopefully” three days, she says.
Byrne says public transport should be an option but “trains from Kildare to Dublin at most peak times are only three carriages, absolutely jam packed”.
“The way home on trains leaving Heuston around 4pm is even worse,” she says.
“Buses are stuck in the same traffic as the cars due to no bus lanes on our motorways/dual carriageways, so why bother with the bus at all.”
Kieran Dillane, who is originally from Kerry, moved to Newbridge from Dublin four years ago. He says “the commute has got truly awful”.
A preferred route of Newbridge to Heuston by train and then a 145 bus to Donnybrook was eliminated when the reorganisation of the bus network meant he had to use two buses.
Thiago Barbosa takes the train between Newbridge and Hazelhatch in Co Dublin on the border with Kildare which he says is “completely full”.
“I have noticed that some trains have reduced their capacity recently by removing a car from them,” he says.
Andrew Foley, who commutes by train from Newbridge, says “to get a seat in the morning you have got to get the 6.36 train at the latest”.
“Otherwise you’ll find yourself sitting on the floor or standing shoulder to shoulder next to other commuters in a stuffed aisle. It is very uncomfortable. I have been doing this for years,” he says.
Some politicians in Kildare, who experience chaotic commutes, are backing calls for urgent response from the State authorities to ease the congestion.
James Stokes, a Sinn Féin representative from Newbridge, drives and uses public transport on his commute. His travel is complicated by the need to get his four-month-old child to weekly medical appointments in Dublin.
“It means sitting in traffic going up and down and I might as well be sitting in a car park,” he says.
Mark Wall, the Labour TD for Kildare South, has called for an emergency response unit to be set up on the road.
A spokesman for TII noted the incident response units on the M50 operate 1km down arterial routes such as the N7, while private operators also offer a rescue service farther out, beyond the M50.
He said TII would not rule out extending its own motorway incident services on roads such as Dublin to Kill in Co Kildare on the M7.
However, he says that this would be subject to funding becoming available to the services.
