Sir, A number of prominent correspondents appear to favour an "underground option for the city centre sections of the proposed Dublin Light Rail System"
(Irish Times, August 3rd). One can validly ask where have they been for the past twenty years?
An underground rail based solution for Dublin's transport problems was recommended in the 1975 report entitled Dublin Rail Rapid Transit Study, prepared by a consultant of international repute for CIE. Subsequently, the first phase of the DRRTS system was approved by Government (in 1979) and commissioned in 1984, as DART. The second and following phases were not implemented, because to my knowledge, the Government(s) could not afford them.
Over a period of six years, from 1988 to 1994, a government appointed group undertook an extensive review and study of the overall transportation needs of the Greater Dublin Area, which culminated in the Dublin Transport Initiative Phase 2, Final Report, May 1994. The so called DTI was regarded as an "integrated" (i.e. it included all transport modes, but also land use, environment, employment, etc.) and "open" process (i.e. it included genuine and extensive public consultation). All the local authorities in the area and the political parties were represented on the DTI (see Annexe 2 of the May 1994 report for the list of 29 members) none advocated an underground option.
Eight themes were analysed by the DTI, one of which was "a fully segregated public transport system with an underground section in the city centre" (see page 49 of the May 1994 report). This theme was "judged to be contrary to then existing government policy and could not be financed within envisaged projected budget levels" (page 56 op. cit.). The LRT system, which is the subject of recent legislation and which Minister Lowry tells us will be "the subject of discussion at a public inquiry at the end of the year", is a derivative of the DTI process.
Anybody with concerns that the streets of Dublin are too narrow to permit both LRT trains and reasonable traffic flow" would do well to visit Karlsruhe, Germany. In the main shopping street of Karlsruhe, a street of roughly the same width as Dawson Street, six LRT routes run on the twin tracks. But, uniquely to my knowledge, these LRT routes serve surface corridors shared with the other road based modes former privately owned railways now converted to LRT use and the existing mainline railway network.
A Thommon railway gauge (the distance between the two running tracks) and large volumes of common sense have worked in Karlsruhe the result is an evolutionary public transport network which will stand the test of time. Grenoble, Strasbourg, Nantes, Manchester, Sheffield and a host of other cities have introduced LRT to their streets in recent years none have succeeded in integrating the tram and conventional train modes as successfully as Karlsruhe has. Yours etc., C.Stat., FCIT. Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
(Formerly vice chairman of the DTI Steering Group and vice chairman of the DTI Technical Committee.)