Madam, - I welcome the rapid response from Barry Kenny of Irish Rail (August 30th) to my questioning of the priority a Government should award the proposed CIE interconnector tunnel (Opinion & Analysis, August 26th). The debate will, I hope, force a rigorous assessment of the priorities for public transport investment rather than allow such decisions be made by the "loudest voice".
I do not question that the tunnel would provide a Rolls Royce service for commuters from the greater Dublin area, once they actually got to the city. The problem with the heavy-rail grand plan is that such a tunnel has the potential to absorb all available resources and leave the rest of Dublin - areas such as Swords, Lucan and Templeogue - bereft of any rail service. If it is judged that extra cross-city capacity is needed, over and above that provided by Luas and buses on the quays (shortly to be HGV-free), then why is the existing disused tunnel between Heuston and the Docklands area not being pressed into service? To give a clear view of where I stand on this issue, let me state what Fine Gael unequivocally supports as immediate priorities.
We support the immediate quadrupling of the Kildare line to allow for increased capacity and services as well as the electrification of the Drogheda line into Connolly or into a new Spencer Dock station. We see the construction of a new station in Spencer Dock, to ease the bottleneck at Connolly, as essential. We support the development of a new spur line from Dunboyne to the city centre, which the Connolly bypass will facilitate. We support the construction of the Luas network as promised by the Government, including the Metro/Luas to Dublin Airport and to Swords.
There are even aspects of the interconnector itself that we do support. For instance, the extension of the Maynooth line to Spencer Dock and on to Pearse could make sense, as would the suggested link from Heuston to Glasnevin junction.
If all of these investments were made, we would then have both the extra capacity and the integration between DART, Luas, commuter and intercity rail that we all want to see. after that, perhaps the taxpayer might consider coughing up for CIÉ's proposed underground city-centre circular tunnel.
I do appreciate the engineering appeal of the apparent simplicity of a tunnel from Connolly to Heuston. However, a tunnel with underground stations at Pearse Street, Stephen's Green, High Street (the centre of Viking Dublin) and Heuston is fraught with construction, planning and traffic disruption difficulties. Such difficulties are not the reason for my reservations, but I mention them because they make the normally reasonable Mr Kenny's assertion of a €1.3 billion price tag impossible to credit. Equally lacking in credibility to anyone who has ever witnessed the on-street construction environment of an underground station in a populated area is the assertion that because the tunnel is underground there would be no traffic disruption.
Commuters from the ever-expanding towns of the greater Dublin area as well as those living within the metropolitan area need urgent access to rail services. The job of Government is to identify and prioritise those projects which can give maximum early benefit to consumers and the best value to the taxpayer.
My contention is simply that the interconnector is not first on the critical path of meeting those objectives. Consequently I believe it is not the first hole we should dig. - Yours, etc,
OLIVIA MITCHELL TD, Fine Gael Spokesperson for Transport, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.