Madam, - How on earth are we to take our politicians seriously when they come up with ridiculous ideas such as putting Luas on stilts? (Mr Brennan is, of course, the man who said that the monstrous Luas bridge in Dundrum would become known as be known as the "Golden Gate of the Southside"!)
Before another cent is spent on Luas, may I, as a humble taxpayer and commuter, make a few suggestions to the "experts" who are tossing my hard-earned taxes about like snuff in a non-smoking pub?
Regarding the doomsday predictions for the Mad Cow roundabout when the trams finally arrive there, they have all got it wrong - even Kevin Myers. I navigate my way through this junction twice a day, so I have had a considerable amount of time to study what is happening there. The Luas tracks are laid parallel to the road layout, effectively creating a fourth lane, so if the planners match the Luas signals with the traffic signals, the trams will not add to the congestion at all. So Luas, as currently designed, will not make a bad situation worse.
However, if the stilts proposal is carried, it will have a number of very serious consequences - substantial additional costs and a delay of perhaps two years in getting the system running are the most obvious ones. Integrating the stilts arrangement with the Luas depot to one side of the roundabout, with the station on the other - and a park-and-Ride facility somewhere close by - would be an engineering and construction nightmare.
More significant, however, would be the long-term problems the stilts would cause, because ultimately a flyover or cloverleaf arrangement would have to be created over this heavily congested junction, and Luas on stilts would make this very difficult indeed. So, hold your nerve, lads, and stick with the Mad Cow plan.
With regard to the ludicrous situation whereby the two Luas lines fail to meet in the city (thank you, Mary Eircom O'Rourke), please, please do not spend any more vast amounts of my money on tunnelling under Grafton Street and the Liffey. Instead, start work immediately on designing an extension from St Stephen's Green to terminate at the ramp in Connolly Station, which would mean that the millions wasted on the ramp might be put to some use.
This extension could run east along Merrion Square, and head north across the Liffey on a modified Macken Street bridge, from where it would link into the planned Luas extension from Connolly Station to the Point Theatre. Such a route would provide a valuable widening of the public transport loop to the east of the city, and would also take account of the future development of the old gasworks lands. It would also create a direct link from Sandyford to mainline rail, DART and Busaras.
By the way, does anyone recall why they decided, all those years ago, to call the new tram system Luas? Because "luas" is the Irish for "speed". - Yours, etc.,
PAUL WALDRON, The Close, Ballinteer, Dublin 16.
Madam, - "The Luas system in Dublin is on time and on budget." Thus you quote Mr Ahern in Monday's edition. It is an echo of Mr Brennan a few days earlier.
What budget? What target time? Has allowance been included for possibly having to put the system on stilts at the Red Cow roundabout?
Previous budgets and targets were wrong. Can we have the straight facts on which the present assurance is based? How much, and when? - Yours, etc.,
GEORGE FERGUSON, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.