So sad that the nation just cannot build enough infrastructure, on time, at reasonable cost. The railway system, except for the Luas, has not been added to since independence. Any lone crank with an objection, can stop any progress. Mad, really.
Hello and welcome to everyone who recently subscribed! If you haven’t subscribed yet, I’d really appreciate it if you would. My goal is to keep growing this channel and uncover more fascinating stories-both local and international. Your support makes it all possible.
Thanks very much. Brian was an excellent guest. I aim to put in as much production value as possible, even if I am a one man team! However, comments like this make it all worth it.
Hi Ronan, thanks for watching and commenting. These types of comments are what gets me up motivated each day. Keep your eye out for more videos from this channel in the future! 👍
Don't worry everybody! "the line from the city centre to the airport is a government priority and will be open by 2007" (Séamus Brennan, 2002) sigh............
DART was to be all part of a subway system and linked in with rapid transit buses. The present plan is misguided and planned for the wrong corridor from the airport. It should go through the Drumcondra corridor and should have been built in conjunction with the Dublin Port tunnel.
The metro is another FF FG disaster, over 30 years waiting 300 million spent on consultants, it will take another ten years and will be 10 times overpriced, The better option would be a Luas to the airport and swords, could be built within a year at a fraction of the price, crazy the Luas never was considered to the airport.
They will make a balls of it. Can’t do anything right in this country. Eamon Ryan invested in bike lanes and Bus Connects which is a joke instead of concentrating on a Metro or extending out the Luas to other suburbs in Dublin.
All rail projects go up in price, because all countries have inflation and take ages between asking for a quote and getting the thing finished. The sooner the Irish government get the Dublin metro started, the sooner it will be open and taking traffic off of the roads. One way that the Republic of Ireland can make it's transport systems cheaper is to ask each city in the Republic to come up with a hundred year plan for expansion, identify the transport corridors and then buy the land for those corridors now. That way if Cork, Limerick and Galway are going to get economic development and new suburbs, to build up the profitability of those cities the construction of houses can be done in such a way that works in tandem with new metro systems, instead of being done in a way that blocks the corridors of new metro systems.
We also need to start doing a lot more transit oriented development, especially in cuties other than Dublin Almost all new suburbs in Ireland outside Dublin with a few exceptions in Limerick are entirely car dependent
Metro will never see the light of day .....Unless we can line the pockets of greedy politicians. The children's hospital that now costs more than the Burgh Caliph, the tallest building in the world. If this sees the light of day it will be the biggest cost per mile of any other construction job in the world. On the bright side it will get a security headquarters that cost's 1.2 billion to build and will probably be based in Leitrim. There is no other country in the world outside of Africa that can waste money on the level of the Irish government. Ah well at least we always vote them back in..
The actual Fare from Dublin Airport to the City Centre is about €25......and if there are 4 Passengers it would be about €28.00 ......LESS than a Bus from the Airport. A METRO would probably carry about 500 passengers at about €5.00 per trip......A Taxi could not compete with that......
Thanks for the comment. My source for this was based on different testimonies online and a fare calculator. 35 would be on the upper end of scale indeed.
Great video Tom! Is there any feasibility of getting a private company in to get this constructed, due to the slowness of centralized bureaucracy we have seen during the so called ‘planning phase’. 30 years is a long time 😂
Cheers Robert! I read a paper recently from a new Irish ThinkTank that proposes a few ideas that touch on what you are talking about. Here is the link: progressireland.org/to-save-up-to-e15-2bn-on-metrolink-the-state-needs-to-upgrade-tii/
The fact that DART underground (which should have been built first) and DART+ (which will connect with the Underground) are not mentioned are serious omissions from this video.
Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. There was a lot of information to uncover, so my focus was on the failed MetroNorth project, comparisons with other European cities, and then the new MetroLink. But thanks for offering more context to this whole saga.
@@michaeloreilly657 the DART underground has zero chance of ever happening and was effectively superseded by the bungled and tortoise like Luas cross city line 🤡
Was does Irelands gdp and income not come through in it’s infrastructure. I found it so Povo and struggling when I was there. Housing is so expensive, food and alcohol was expensive yet it has such income
We should try get Spanish or Italian engineering companies to build it. Keep the stations simple. No opulence like the childrens hospital or T2 Dublin airport.
Considering Ireland's climate, the LUAS should have been underground from the getgo. And why stop at one line. If costs keep escalating as in the past, it makes more sense to do as much of a real network now. And why keep using Irish builders. etc after the coup of the children 's hospital. If we keep using the same methods we'e going to get the same results. Subcontract the whole project to either a Chinese or Spanish company. Have a bonus clause if they complete ahead of schedule and heft fines if they don't. Then get the Irish element out of the picture and let them get on with it. In the meantime plans for metros in Cork and Galway should be planned now and can be contracted with the Dublin system is complete. With all this constriction and experience check with Belfast and maybe they should also join the metro club. If the population continues to increase can Limerick, Waterford and Derry be far behind.
Loved your comment about centralized vs. decentralized decision making. My fear is that funding will require a quid pro quo with the Healy-Rae's of this world. You can have your metro if Kilgarvan gets a new [fill-in-the-blank]. Hope I'm wrong.
The original LUAS project (which, we must remember, was two single, unconnected and ultimately pointless rail lines), according to the Irish Times, rose in cost from €288 million to €675 million between 1997 and 2003, so I'm not sure where your "coming in under budget and ahead of time" comes from.
@@thomasblade1 He was indeed. Which came after the original LUAS project that was over budget and over time, and which put many small businesses out of business because of the chaos it caused in the city centre.
Is the traffic that bad?? Dublin has a population of 500k... 500k.. Yes thats right, five hundred thousand. Metros are for cities with terrible traffic and with huge populations. What fits Dublin best ( AT MOST ) is a light rail tram system. Similair to that of Porto in Portugal. The metro is completely overkill. Just my opinion
The population in the area between the Royal and Grand Canals was 630K in 2024. The population of Dublin itself was 1.56M in 2024. The Dublin metro area has a population of 2.4M. The city has to cope with a huge number of commuters from surrounding counties who more or less converge on Dublin via 4 motorways and 3 rail lines.
Very well put together and presented, Keep up the good work.
Much appreciated!
I genuinely think as long as people keep on voting in FF/FG, there will be absolutely no reason for them to make any positive change for this country.
Did you ever think the Healy Rays would be running the country and making decisions for Dublin
So sad that the nation just cannot build enough infrastructure, on time, at reasonable cost. The railway system, except for the Luas, has not been added to since independence. Any lone crank with an objection, can stop any progress. Mad, really.
Hello and welcome to everyone who recently subscribed! If you haven’t subscribed yet, I’d really appreciate it if you would. My goal is to keep growing this channel and uncover more fascinating stories-both local and international. Your support makes it all possible.
Did you fly in and out of Dublin just for the intro shot? 😂 Good vid!
Great work man, loved the video!
Thanks very much. Brian was an excellent guest. I aim to put in as much production value as possible, even if I am a one man team! However, comments like this make it all worth it.
Really good and balanced video. Well done
Hi Ronan, thanks for watching and commenting. These types of comments are what gets me up motivated each day. Keep your eye out for more videos from this channel in the future! 👍
they built a port tunnel that doesn't go from the port to not outside the m50 .. and it closed everytime it rains...
Why should it go outside the M50?
When did it last close due to rain?
Don't worry everybody! "the line from the city centre to the airport is a government priority and will be open by 2007" (Séamus Brennan, 2002) sigh............
Great video and very informative 👏👏
Cheers Dom!
DART was to be all part of a subway system and linked in with rapid transit buses. The present plan is misguided and planned for the wrong corridor from the airport. It should go through the Drumcondra corridor and should have been built in conjunction with the Dublin Port tunnel.
The metro is another FF FG disaster, over 30 years waiting 300 million spent on consultants, it will take another ten years and will be 10 times overpriced, The better option would be a Luas to the airport and swords, could be built within a year at a fraction of the price, crazy the Luas never was considered to the airport.
And where would this luas run? There's no road or greenway suitable, it would only make traffic even worse.
The Liverpool Merseyrail seems to be missing from the map you used. This has all the aspects of an RER - style metro, including underground stations.
Thanks for pointing that out!
Yep, as someone from Manchester I'm rather jealous of Liverpool's system. A few of their Victorian pubs also
They will make a balls of it. Can’t do anything right in this country. Eamon Ryan invested in bike lanes and Bus Connects which is a joke instead of concentrating on a Metro or extending out the Luas to other suburbs in Dublin.
Let's see. They are bringing in top people to run this project. Hopefully, it won't end up being another construction nightmare !
@@thomasblade1 had top people on the children's hospital....
All rail projects go up in price, because all countries have inflation and take ages between asking for a quote and getting the thing finished. The sooner the Irish government get the Dublin metro started, the sooner it will be open and taking traffic off of the roads.
One way that the Republic of Ireland can make it's transport systems cheaper is to ask each city in the Republic to come up with a hundred year plan for expansion, identify the transport corridors and then buy the land for those corridors now. That way if Cork, Limerick and Galway are going to get economic development and new suburbs, to build up the profitability of those cities the construction of houses can be done in such a way that works in tandem with new metro systems, instead of being done in a way that blocks the corridors of new metro systems.
We also need to start doing a lot more transit oriented development, especially in cuties other than Dublin
Almost all new suburbs in Ireland outside Dublin with a few exceptions in Limerick are entirely car dependent
Great video man
Cheers Fintan. Thanks for all your support.
Denmark didn't have a bailout, their public finances were good. Good points on the planning system.
Metro will never see the light of day .....Unless we can line the pockets of greedy politicians. The children's hospital that now costs more than the Burgh Caliph, the tallest building in the world. If this sees the light of day it will be the biggest cost per mile of any other construction job in the world. On the bright side it will get a security headquarters that cost's 1.2 billion to build and will probably be based in Leitrim. There is no other country in the world outside of Africa that can waste money on the level of the Irish government. Ah well at least we always vote them back in..
The green line luas was at capacity the day it opened. A metro line should have been what was built from the very beginning.
The actual Fare from Dublin Airport to the City Centre is about €25......and if there are 4 Passengers it would be about €28.00 ......LESS than a Bus from the Airport. A METRO would probably carry about 500 passengers at about €5.00 per trip......A Taxi could not compete with that......
Thanks for the comment. My source for this was based on different testimonies online and a fare calculator. 35 would be on the upper end of scale indeed.
Great video Tom! Is there any feasibility of getting a private company in to get this constructed, due to the slowness of centralized bureaucracy we have seen during the so called ‘planning phase’. 30 years is a long time 😂
Cheers Robert! I read a paper recently from a new Irish ThinkTank that proposes a few ideas that touch on what you are talking about. Here is the link: progressireland.org/to-save-up-to-e15-2bn-on-metrolink-the-state-needs-to-upgrade-tii/
Taxi from T1 into town cost €50-60 nowadays
Yes, it was hard to get an official figure as the fares could fluctuate, so 35 was at the upper end of an average.
It'll never happen too much archaeological sites under Dublin and not enough money in public transport
The fact that DART underground (which should have been built first) and DART+ (which will connect with the Underground) are not mentioned are serious omissions from this video.
Cuz the DART underground is never gonna happen 👺
Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. There was a lot of information to uncover, so my focus was on the failed MetroNorth project, comparisons with other European cities, and then the new MetroLink. But thanks for offering more context to this whole saga.
@@michaeloreilly657 the DART underground has zero chance of ever happening and was effectively superseded by the bungled and tortoise like Luas cross city line 🤡
They can't even build a hospital so I don't have any hope they will build a Metro any time soon.
Hopefully, they can learn from the mistakes from Children's Hospital fiasco!
Was does Irelands gdp and income not come through in it’s infrastructure. I found it so Povo and struggling when I was there. Housing is so expensive, food and alcohol was expensive yet it has such income
We should try get Spanish or Italian engineering companies to build it. Keep the stations simple. No opulence like the childrens hospital or T2 Dublin airport.
We have a New Zealander running the whole project. He is meant to be one of the best in the world.
Will Dublin have a Metro by 2030? Does Dublin even need a metro? Let me know your thoughts below...
No I imagine it well be 2028/2029 before building starts
Considering Ireland's climate, the LUAS should have been underground from the getgo. And why stop at one line. If costs keep escalating as in the past, it makes more sense to do as much of a real network now. And why keep using Irish builders. etc after the coup of the children 's hospital. If we keep using the same methods we'e going to get the same results. Subcontract the whole project to either a Chinese or Spanish company. Have a bonus clause if they complete ahead of schedule and heft fines if they don't. Then get the Irish element out of the picture and let them get on with it. In the meantime plans for metros in Cork and Galway should be planned now and can be contracted with the Dublin system is complete. With all this constriction and experience check with Belfast and maybe they should also join the metro club. If the population continues to increase can Limerick, Waterford and Derry be far behind.
Loved your comment about centralized vs. decentralized decision making. My fear is that funding will require a quid pro quo with the Healy-Rae's of this world. You can have your metro if Kilgarvan gets a new [fill-in-the-blank]. Hope I'm wrong.
Indeed, Gerry. Limerick's recent move for more autonomy with a directly elected mayor will be quite interesting. Let's see how it works out for them.
I said this 20 years ago
The original LUAS project (which, we must remember, was two single, unconnected and ultimately pointless rail lines), according to the Irish Times, rose in cost from €288 million to €675 million between 1997 and 2003, so I'm not sure where your "coming in under budget and ahead of time" comes from.
Hi, thanks for your comment. From what I understand, Brian was referencing the LUAS Cross City Project, which opened in 2017.
@@thomasblade1 He was indeed. Which came after the original LUAS project that was over budget and over time, and which put many small businesses out of business because of the chaos it caused in the city centre.
No and large chunks of the north inner city should be flattened and have modern buildings. It's a disaster of a city.
Dublin is a mess.
😂 sure
Is the traffic that bad?? Dublin has a population of 500k... 500k..
Yes thats right, five hundred thousand.
Metros are for cities with terrible traffic and with huge populations.
What fits Dublin best ( AT MOST ) is a light rail tram system. Similair to that of Porto in Portugal.
The metro is completely overkill.
Just my opinion
The population in the area between the Royal and Grand Canals was 630K in 2024. The population of Dublin itself was 1.56M in 2024. The Dublin metro area has a population of 2.4M. The city has to cope with a huge number of commuters from surrounding counties who more or less converge on Dublin via 4 motorways and 3 rail lines.
A great video which explains very well the delay in Dublin getting a metro 🚇
Thanks Nigel!