When the Government was formed, a unified Department of Transport was created with Mary O'Rourke's support to create a joined-up transport system for this country, writes Martin Mansergh
The Minister, Seamus Brennan, has won public recognition for his activism and commitment. He and his predecessor came from different wings of the party, and the occasional sparks do not indicate a mutual admiration society.
Journeys these days are apt to be something of an obstacle course. DARTS cancelled, bus transfers, roads up, long delays and diversions challenge the most stoical of us. There are an unprecedented number of works in progress and a high level of Exchequer investment in all forms of transport. The mess, including breakdowns in co-ordination, is evident. The improvement, when the work is finished, is still mostly a promise.
Yet, when joined up and operational, the progress can be spectacular. The best example is the M1 to the outskirts of Dundalk. Minister of State Jim McDaid says that the first time he reaches a town going back to Donegal is 70 miles up the road, using the Ardee link, at Carrickmacross, also soon to be by-passed. The M1 is matched by the best rail service in the country.
No wonder Dundalk is a boom town, though the commuter service requires a lot more capacity. The Boyne bridge is dramatic, especially at night. It is a missed opportunity that the toll-booths take no sterling, unlike trains, ships and aircraft which all manage to be dual currency. It is also an anomaly that dual carriageways in the North have a 70 m.p.h. speed limit, while ours are confined to 60 m.p.h. I welcome the changeover to metric speed limits to match the signposts. It is absurd that the narrowest country lane has the same speed limit as the Glanmire and Watergrasshill bypasses. In France and Germany, the standard motorway speed is 130 k.p.h. Maybe after gaining experience with the recommended 120 k.p.h limit, we will be responsible enough to gain the full return in time saved.
Ireland is compact, and will benefit from a motorway network, moving beyond the piecemeal bypasses, which is still the situation in Northern Ireland. If Northern Ireland were joined to the South, there would undoubtedly be a planned Belfast-Derry motorway, and the rail track would be renewed, instead of being threatened with closure.
The South-East, once the most prosperous part of the country, has lost ground. The Dublin-Waterford road is poor, and, with due deference to Kildare landowners, needs radical improvements for the benefit of the whole region. The east coast fares better with the Rathnew and Ashford bypasses nearing completion, and commuter rail being extended to Gorey. Ennis is an even worse blackspot, and apart from an urgently needed bypass, would benefit greatly from the proposed public-private Ennis-Shannon-Limerick commuter rail service.
If the National Spatial Strategy is to mean anything, then the other cities, as well as the north-west, should get the few crumbs from the table that would make all the difference to their commuting and congestion problems. The Midleton-Mallow project recommended in the Cork LUTS study 20 years ago still awaits the go-ahead.
To be fair, the rail safety programme, Mary O'Rourke's crowning ministerial achievement, enables great service improvements to take place. The collapse of the Cahir bridge shows its necessity on a line used mainly for freight. Popular demand for the western rail link from Limerick to Sligo shows that the people of this country want a joined up rail network, as well as a modern road one, and will not stand for the closures mooted a year ago. Good regional air services can shorten some of the longer journeys.
Most transport discussion focuses on Dublin. A lot of major projects in the Dublin area are bedevilled by exorbitant land acquisition costs. I lived for a period in Vienna, which has a brilliant on-street tram system, now supplemented by a metro. The trams do not run inside the Ring, and Mary O'Rourke was right not to run them down Dawson Street and College Green. A join will come in time with extensions.
The LUAS is irrelevant to the Red Cow roundabout, except to the extent that car commuters might park near a stop and take LUAS into town. The people of Tallaght should not have to suffer delay in opening their line, which would send the wrong signal about the priority for public transport. If the Government has a spare €300 million to spend, buying out the tolls at the West Link to allow free flow might have as much beneficial impact as anything else. If not, electronic tolling cannot come too fast.
The QBCs, especially along the Stillorgan Road, provide an excellent and well-used service, but track provides better speed.
The Minister should stick to his determination to provide an airport link by 2007. If not a metro, an alternative heavy rail link can be provided at much lower cost, but we must have one or the other, and in the long term, both. Since the extensions to Malahide and Greystones, the DART has become less reliable with delays, long gaps and cancellations. The promised better service must attend to that.
As a constant user of all forms of public transport, I disapprove of the anti-CIÉ prejudice amongst those who rarely, if ever, use its services, and who dislike public service unions. I am grateful to the bus and train drivers who look after my safety and save me time and fuel (there is a lot of time wasted sitting in a car where there is any alternative). The well-managed investment now being made, if sustained, will overcome many service shortcomings and inadequacies. In a social partnership context, change has to be negotiated. Private enterprise can supplement public service, but, if it too has to be subsidised, it is no great substitute for it.
Finally, as an escape, three cheers for the new EU infrastructure proposal for a seabridge between Ireland and Spain. Roll on Cork to Santander.