Planning appeals to hold up weekend Dart works

Dart and mainline rail users are to face further disruption and closure of weekend services, which could result in stoppages on the southside line over next Christmas and into next year, Iarnród Éireann has admitted.

Dart upgrade works, which have caused disruption to the service for the last 18 months, were due to be completed this September.

However, an Iarnród Éireann spokesman told The Irish Times yesterday it will not be able to complete work on three southside stations by then because it will not receive planning permission in time.

Weekend closures of the Dart line, to facilitate engineering works and an upgrade of the stations, began on the south side in October 2003 and lasted until the end of July 2004. The works then moved to the northside line, which has been closed at weekends since August 2004 and is due to reopen fully at the end of May.

The company had announced that it would be necessary to resume work on the southside, to complete accessibility works on 13 stations, and suspend the service between Pearse and Greystones on weekends from June 4th to September 11th.

However, it has emerged that the company will not be able to start work on three of the stations - Blackrock, Monkstown and Killiney - in time, because of delays in securing planning permission, and may have to postpone their upgrade until Christmas.

"We will do as much of the work as we can without impacting on the service, but for some of the work there will have to be on-track machinery, and there will be some impact, but we will do everything we can to minimise it," Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny said.

Iarnród Éireann was granted planning permission for the work at the three stations by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, but the decisions on Blackrock and Killiney have been appealed to An Bord Pleanála by An Taisce and an appeal on Monkstown, which was granted permission only this week, is likely.

An Bord Pleanála has said it will not give a decision on Killiney until August 2nd and on Blackrock until August 15th.

"We're quite disappointed with An Taisce's dismissive attitude to the need for the accessibility work," Mr Kenny said.

"We hoped the appeals would be withdrawn, but it's not likely at this stage, so the work will have to take place later. We don't anticipate going beyond Christmas/New Year, 2005 -2006."

An Taisce lodged its appeals on the basis that Iarnród Éireann had not conducted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the upgrade project.

"Any project which is likely to affect the environment must have an EIA. That's EU law and Ireland is bound by that," An Taisce planning committee member Steven Devaney said.

Business people along the line have asked Iarnród Éireann not to go ahead with the summer weekend closures because of the effect it will have on trade.

The Bray Seafront Traders' Association said it had appealed to the company to continue the works at night, or at a time that would cause less disruption, particularly for seasonal businesses.

Pat Ó Suilleabháin, a spokesman for the group and manager of National Sea Life in Bray, said they had only learned about the summer stoppages in March, and he accused Iarnród Éireann of complete planning failure.

Conducting work at night was not a possibility, Mr Kenny said, because the time taken to power down the lines would leave too little time for construction.