This video was made earlier this year *before* the DART+ trains were unveiled, so I recommend checking out Geoff's video on those for an in-depth look! ruclips.net/video/W-EGaW26pqA/видео.html
Rail system is a joke in Ireland if you're based outside of Dublin. I get the train from a surrounding county to Dublin. Train takes 60 mins to arrive in the City and if i drive its only 30 mins in rush hour traffic. There is to many stops in Dublin and not enough Line capacity. They need to increase the train lines to 4 and the commuter trains should skip all the stops in Dublin. They need to expand the DART West asap. Its an absolute Joke at the moment.
As an Irishman I just want to give a specific shout-out to you Reece for absolutely nailing the pronunciation of literally every placename mentioned in the video. It's not lost on me (or any Irish person watching this) that you almost certainly would have had to put in extra time and effort to do your research and make sure you were getting them right - it makes such a difference and is very much appreciated. A hat tip to you sir!
I've been in Ireland this summer and moved around just by train. I really enjoyed it but found a quite limited railway system and thought of eventual improvement.
So delighted to finally see Dublin covered. I live between the two tram lines (luas) in Smithfield. I just hope everything that’s promised is 75% delivered in the next 20 years or so 🤣 it’s so bizarre, everyone in Ireland (whether based in Dublin or not) agrees/wants the metro to/from the airport. So odd that it’s always delayed
The thing about the metro north is that you can get an airport express bus from the area near the east link to the airport in something like 10 minutes. The speed in the city though is absolutely terrible. The metro north isn't going to really improve on that time. It's only going to service a south to north and vice versa service, where these areas are already served by the dart or luas already! The city and surrounding area is in direct need of improved rail services coming in to Dublin from the west and to relieve much of the traffic reliant on the M50.
@@Ligerpride "The metro north isn't going to really improve on that time. It's only going to service a south to north and vice versa service, where these areas are already served by the dart or luas already!" Have you actually looked at the Metro North map? Phibsborough, Glasnevin, Ballymun and Swords are definitely not served by the DART or Luas! On the time to the airport, you're looking at it from a very narrow perspective. The metro's primary purpose is not just to take people from the city centre to the airport. It will be a massive improvement for people living along the route, particularly in Swords. These are areas which have been completely neglected with regards to rail/trams.
@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina The Connolly spur is closed in the evenings; at other times of day it serves as a terminus for trams to Heuston, with trams to Tallaght or Saggart going to the Docklands.
Great video Reece! I’m really happy to have provided footage for this. A few other things to mention are: The buses are improving significantly at the moment under BusConnects, which is a massive network reorganisation. The diesel ‘Commuter’ trains which the DART will be replacing are quite extensive and well utilised.
Funny story, when I was in 7th grade, my english teacher wanted us to presentations about Ireland and give them in front of the class. My friend and I chose Dublin as the topic. This was really the first time we ever had to do an extensive presentation and really the first time we ever had to do something like this completely on our own. She didn’t even give us a structure to work with and it also didn’t help that she was really strict choleric. As we‘re working on this presentation I decided that we should definitely include public transportation, because it is really important for a city and because I have always been a train geek, I dedicated 6 slides to the public transportation in Dublin and explained the different modes, lines, history, future plans and vehicles to my class. When I think of that, I always feel super embarrassed, because none cared about that and the english teacher also did not like it. I talked about it for 20 minutes. and it was only supposed to be a subpoint. But again, it was the first time we had to make a proper presentation and she did in fact know that but strangely decided to not show us how to do it correctly, so I still think I wan‘t in the wrong there. We got a C- for it and she heavily criticized the public transportation part for being not at all important, which is really a shame because I think I did it very well.😭😂
@@Runboyrun89 Sorry to break it to you, but the DART only began operation in 1984, long after both were dead. There was one cultural figure who was famous for being regularly seen on it, the Musician Ronnie Drew. Many of my classmates reported seeing him, just riding the DART minding his own business. Dublin is nice that way.
As someone who lives outside of Dublin, it’s criminal how other cities in Ireland like Belfast and Cork have absolutely nothing in terms of transport, car reliance is completely killing Belfast at the moment with the amount of congestion.
Not much that can be done for Belfast for obvious reasons, but IIRC, Cork's rail system is expanding and I recall muttering of a tram system. However, if any city desperately needs a tram system, it's Galway.
@@s125ishit’s up to Northern Irish government and the British government to take care of Belfast. At least at present. That said the Irish & NI governments have worked together recently to improve the enterprise.
Cork isn't a very big city, it does have Commuter Rail that should be improving in frequency in the foreseeable future. The bus system could be a lot better though.
So what wasn't touched in the video is Dublin's sprawling bus network mainly operated by Dublin Bus. They operate 138 (current) routes (I think) with private operators like Go Ahead operating a few more orbital ones. The bus network is currently undergoing a massive overhaul called Bus Connects but things like driver recruitment, procurement delays, planning delays and NIMBYism are currently delaying it. The last few years have seen the introduction of 24 hour service (finally) on legacy routes 15 (Clongriffin Station - City Centre - Knocklyon), 39A (Ongar - Blanchardstown - City Centre - UCD) and 41 (City - Airport - Swords) and Bus Connects Routes C1 (Adamstown Station - Liffey Valley - Heuston - City Centre - Sandymount), C2 (Adamstown Station - Griffeen Avenue - Liffey Valley - Heuston - City Centre - Sandymount), C3 (Ringsend - City Centre - Heuston - Lucan - Leixlip - Maynooth), C4 (Ringsend - City Centre - Heuston - Lucan - Celbridge - Maynooth), G1 (Docklands - City Centre - Inchicore - Ballyfermot - Parkwest Station - Red Cow Luas), G2 (Docklands - City Centre - Inchicore - Ballyfermot - Liffey Valley) and N4 (Docklands - Clontarf Road Station - Killester - Finglas - Blanchardstown). There are problems with capacity on the 24 hour routes, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The next phase of Bus Connects was sadly delayed due to politicians bowing down to NIMBY constituents that don't seem to like that their bus route number will change and become more frequent. Unfortunately Ireland's archaic planning laws are the biggest obstacles to the construction of public transport infrastructure. A recent traffic plan by Dublin City Council was challenged by car park operators in the City Centre. Metrolink, Bus Connects, Dart+ and Luas Finglas are all stuck in the judicial - political quagmire that is Ireland's planning laws that encourage NIMBYism and stifle progress. The Fingal area to the north of Dublin is seeing enormous growth. Metrolink will serve Swords while Dart+ Coastal North will serve the ever expanding towns of Malahide, Donabate, Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan. Biggest problem for Dart+ is capacity between Howth Junction and Connolly. Without triple or quad tracking that section of line there won't be much improvement in service.
@@Dubliner-un9lw has the E spine (145, 46a etc.) been scrapped ? It's hard to tell online because I get emails from uni (UCD) saying the E spine is going ahead then I see people say it's cancelled
@@eyan4329 it was supposed to launch mid December but due to NIMBYism around radial route 19 replacing the northern half of the current 13 the whole phase was pushed back until January at least
@@Dubliner-un9lw also due in part to people complaining we won't have a direct bus (the 145) to Heuston* anymore, which is a joke the whole point of this system is so they can get a separate bus that is equally dependable and on time. NIMBYISM is a joke
Dublin Airport Authority makes a very large portion of its profits from car parking charges. Having a metro link to the airport will eat into this hugely which is why it has been successfully resisted by them so far.
Great stuff Reece. The Dart service covers a little bit of transit history, a section of what was in 1834 the world's first suburban railway. The Dublin to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire/leary) railway. A subsequent extension to the village of Dalkey saw one of the earliest atmospheric railway systems in the world, much praised by the likes of Brunel.
Delightful surprise to see a video about my home city! Always interesting to hear an outsider's perspective. It's funny to see someone speak so positively about the Metrolink plans, I'm hugely in favour of it, but like most Dubliners, have nearly given up hope of it ever happening. I remember us getting information leaflets about the route when I was a child, I'm 30 now and they STILL haven't started tunneling. Very much feels like a "I'll believe it when I see it" type of thing to most here! It's badly badly needed, as are the DART+ upgrades. All the rail services (trams included) are PACKED at peak times, and most are very busy for much of the off peak services as well. Improvements in frequency are much needed but lack of track space (as well as remaining level crossings in some areas) really limits options there, particularly on the north-south line. Just too many services fighting for space on the same track. The bus system has to work very hard to fill in the gaps in service provision, both in frequency and in service area (as you noted, the south side is MUCH better served by rail services) and driver recruitment is turning out to be a major obstacle to attempts to reorganise and improve the bus network and timetables. Even if Metrolink HAD been built on the original schedule, we'd likely still be seeing the need for even more underground rail in the city centre and inner suburbs by now, there's just so little space at surface level to work with, but I fear Metrolink has put everyone off even THINKING about more underground rail, with its ever extending timeline and ever increasing budget.
The 70 kph hard limit is most likely to avoid being classified as a railway, with higher speed limits requiring the installation of a train control system. With speed limits of 70 kph or less, rail equipment is allowed to be driven using only standard traffic lights and operator's sight.
@@RMTransit As a semi frequent luas passenger, not really. Between station density on the lines, and the traffic on city centre roads, there isn't many points on the route where a LUAS really needs to reach a higher speed. installing signalling and training drivers on it would realistically cost a lot more than is worth it in terms of the comparatively small reduction in journey time.
In spite of all this - Dublin relies on buses for a lot - probably too much - of its transit right now. They are however doing a pretty awesome redesign, where dozens of bus lines are being grouped into "spines", providing high-frequency segments in the core of the network, without compromising on direct connections from parts further away from the city. Implementation apparently has been rough (when isn't it), but the idea is pretty great if you ask me.
I’ll be honest, in my experience they’re not great. Most of it is just slightly tweaking existing routes and changing the name. The 75 turning into the S6 is a good example. They somehow made it less reliable while also making the route way less convenient.
@@MANTHELEXUSThat tweaking isn't for nothing: it's part of the route rationalisation. But a lot of the more dramatic changes are being held up by NIMBYs. The plan itself is solid and much needed.
Moved here from Tampa, and I must say it has been life changing being able to have so many options for transit, these rail services included. Every now and then I need a vehicle but that's what carshare apps are for!
We were in Dublin 10 years ago when the Green line extension north was seemingly under construction (it only got as far as the northwest corner of St. Stephen’s Green). There have been several proposals to connect the airport to the city by rail, hopefully this Metrolink one finally sticks the landing.
Reece, great that you're excited about the transit plans for Dublin ... but no need to rush your visit ... Ireland has a history of public project delays to rival the best in the world !
I invite you to visit Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. There have been proposals and studies to build a metro since the 1970s, but as of 2024 approval and funds have not been granted yet.
When I visited Ireland last summer I was shocked to learnthat the Dart line is the only electrified train service in the entire country! Ireland seems really far behing the rest of Europe on railway electrification. But it's good to see that at least in the Dublin area there should be more electrified rail services soon.
We were the poorest country in Europe until the 90s. Infrastructure is only starting to be built here, all other European countries had a huge head start on building rail.
As a dubliner the LUAS was a great addition to the city which delivered a quick and frequent service, but if you did not live near the LUAS or DART it’s a nightmare by bus. Average rush hour journey to go around 5-8km used to take 90 min from areas of south Dublin. The bus network is improving but over half the city will not see the benefits of the expansion of the rail network. The bus network has to many stops. My bus sometimes has stops 100 meters apart and goes around in circles in some residential areas which adds time to routes. A orbital rail link is needed as the main problem of the transport in Dublin was always traveling from one suburb to another. Anyway the transport is heading in the right direction which is good but with the city’s population to grow a lot over the next few years I fell the city is barely keeping up with demand instead of planning 50 years ahead with possible more metro and LUAS lines.
It's probably the main problem with buses in the UK and Ireland: lots of congestion and delays, causing long travel times, not helped by longer dwelling times at stops (due to the double decker, single entry buses) and short distance between stops. I don't want to say they've got it all wrong and continental Europe has got it all right, but many things do need to be changed. The bus stop spacing, though, is a big one. Mind you as a Scot I can tell you Scotland is dragging its feet too. It took politicians 24 years from first proposals of a tramway in Edinburgh to completion, with many many blunders along the way. But now, it seems like it'll take a further 15 years until line 2 finally gets built. This is despite the fact, that Edinburgh is desperately crying out for a mass-rapid transit system. It should be a no-brainer. Edinburgh should have 3,4, or 5 tram lines by now. Don't get me started on the rest of Scotland. The only good thing is, Clyde Metro in Glasgow. See Glasgow actually has one of the most extensive suburban rail networks in the world, given its size, but it's vastly under-utilised. Most lines are disjointed, low frequency and not integrated with buses or the circular subway line. You can blame Thatcher for this, things were very much moving in the right direction in the 80s with Transclyde. Buses, the subway and trains, all integrated in one system. That was before Thatcher took a wrecking ball to all forms of integrated and publicly run transport. Still, with a little tweaking in the medium-term (timetable and pricing integration) and investments in the long-term, such as conversion of rail lines to heavy metro, extending existing rail network or building new light rail lines, Glasgow could, with a bit of luck, perhaps develop the British Isles' best transport network outside London. Currently, I would say it's a neck and neck race between Manchester, Nottingham and Dublin, with Dublin set to take the lead very soon, if they actually build out Metrolink and extend the Luas and dart, as is planned.
Bus priority lanes (QBCs) are really good in a lot of areas though. Bus Connects is an even bigger leap forward on it. Actually the big issue is that the time to transit through the city centre. The Luas is only okay and doesn’t provide the kind of rapid transit that Metrolink will North to South and DART+ will to a degree East to West.
I don’t know what you mean by ‘Glasgow has one of the most extensive suburban rail network in the world, given its size’. But it seems a big exaggeration to me. Glasgow has 626,000 inhabitants and Rotterdam has about 600,000. Rotterdam has 5 metro rail lines to the suburbs, the beach and to The Hague. It also has a metro station where the ferries from the British Isles dock, so you have a smooth transfer from the ferry to the metro. It has also about 15 tram lines. And of course commuter trains, intercity trains and high speed trains (to Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, London, Brussels, Paris and Antwerp). So it seems to me it is a smaller city with more (suburban) rail network. As so do other European cities of similar size or even smaller.
Good review - as a Dubliner i would briefly add - the Luas on the south side serves Dundrum which is one of the largest shopping malls in Ireland - the Dart Northside as you mentioned doesn’t have a very scenic route but the stop at Howth Harbour is a must see for any visitor - Howth is a fantastic place to visit inclduing scenic hill walks , lighthouse , castle , seaside restaurants , coffee shops and promenade walk - especially great in the summer i think you should put on your list of places to go by train if you do visit Dublin.
As an Irish civil engineer living in Dublin, thank you so much for making this! Love to hear you talking about the Luas and DART, they are quite under-appreciated transport services but definitely need an upgrade! Only thing I'll mention is that while the plans are great and should definitely be implemented (particularly the MetroLink), I would hardly call our transport network 'fast-growing'. A lot of the proposals have been in the pipeline for decades now and have suffered from setbacks and cancellations over recent years. It is only now that these plans seem to be progressing, however only slightly, as we continue to go through seemingly endless public consultation regarding the MetroLink, mainly to appease concerned local residents about the impact of the construction of the Metro on their property (apologies to concerned residents but this needs to happen) Other than that, great video! Keep up the good work! (Also, we don't call our language 'Irish Gaelic', just Irish will do)
I think it is to differentiate from the Irish dialect of English, which is still the majority language in Ireland; considering the worldwide audience that Reece has, I think it is a fair way to describe it, even if Irish people may have a small problem with it.
Nobody in Ireland uses "Irish gaelic". Irish is clear and unambiguous and tracks with how most languages are named in English (French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc. etc.) The dialect of English we speak is Hiberno-English (never "Irish").
Great video! Dublin has an enviable transit network in the making, and what's already there impresses. I gotta say, though, that as much as I appreciate modern passenger train styling, the older, more rectilinear styles really jazz me. That DART - now there's a looker!
The original DART trains were made in Japan.That's why they have that flat face look as in the photos.The new ones @ 8:40 in the video are ALSTOM and have the pointed nose like the bullet train.
I live in Dublin and the transport system works really well for me because I happen to live right beside a red line Luas stop so my commute to work is 30 minutes. But most people are not that lucky and they depend on the Dublin bus system which is incredibly slow during rush hour. Some of my friends have a shorter commute than me distance wise but it can take them over an hour. Public transport in Dublin is not quite as bad as Dubliners like to say it is but it needs a lot of improvement.
Wow, the nostalgia from that Dublin airport aerial pic hit hard. I wanted to add that the demand for the Luas green line soutb section is actually at a level where conversion to metro would be preferable. Howeber, this process has been massively delayed by NIMBYs who don't want certain at-grade level crossing sections removed in order to facilitate the change from tram to metro. The southern suburbs on the green line (particularly Sandyford and Cherrywood) are growing at rapid rates and soon the trams will probably be rammed full of peop,e about 3 stations into the 20+ station journey to the city centre (at rush hour anyway).
Yikes, reddit lingo much? The YIMBY catchphrase is tired, cringe and a political Trojan horse for cowboy developers to skirt regulations for profit, rather than advocate for more accessible, democratic public planning; certainly nobody's a fan Dublin City Council and the current method of object, block and bribe with a pull. How about consider that the issue Dublin (and the rest of Ireland) faces is a lack of serviced hinterland by rail not seen since the 1940s, upping the green Luas to a Metro won't extend that hinterland, it will service new apartment complexes like Cherrywood which were initially public housing turned cash grabbing rentals. Having experienced the Luas everyday to school I used to see pre-morning rush of 1 tram every 7 mins each way, by 8:15am the frequency of trams into the city centre increases at the expense of Southbound trams, by the time it was 8:30am I used to see 3 or 4 north bound Luases full and sweaty waiting before the platform while southbound frequency was +12 mins waiting oftentimes as bad as 22mins; the issue is capacity by the limited trams and staff available to provide a timetable which have improved comfortably since the GreenRed CrossCity and COVID. At least these Luases can safely bunch up as the street level vehicles they are unlike a heavy rail metro. *Not enough people like to have more than a 10 minute walk from a Luas station, especially when carrying a handful like their groceries/shopping or mad kids.* Why take out the green line out of service for 3-5 years? That would be absolute murder when much of the whole M50 motorway area between Sandyford and Tallaght either side red and green line are reliant on roads having knock on effects across all of South and west Dublin and traffic in and out the city centre, the numerous "low density" towns and communities inside and outside the M50 that get clogged by the suburb school runs and the rat race commuter traffic forced to commute in +45mins by car or Bus, having a light rail or underground metro to alleviate the M50 traffic is key. Less road congestion the better for all, that means more Luases through SW Dublin, NW and NE, more Luases to Blanchardstown, Bray, Ballinteer, Ballymun and Lucan; but Ireland couldn't begin to deliver any of them before 2042 when Spain and France can deliver similar citidas tram lines in a 6th of the time. But NIMBYISM huh right
Really cool video! Your pronunciation of the placenames (which can be tough even when anglicised) was admirable. I would however say it might be worth mentioning Dublin Bus, which is the main method of public transport most Dubliners use on a daily basis, and if I remember correctly has a higher ridership than all but 5 bus systems in the US
Do a video on Glasgow please. Nearly 2 million metropolitan area with some 200 suburban/urban rail stations (second in Britain after London) with some lines having potential to be more metro like. It has only one subway line , which you briefly mentioned in one of your videos, third oldest in the world, iconic, never expanded, there's no tram, and no train to the main airport. Used to be an industrial powerhouse, now it's lagging behind, but it still has so much heritage. The Victorians were something else. Great video on Dublin 💖lovely place, and happy to see them invest in transit!!
I visited Glasgow around 2009, it was an intense experience. The huge disparity between the glorious industrial past and the decaying, nearly dystopian present was unlike anywhere else I've seen. I must admit that visiting Edinburgh afterwards felt like a breath of fresh air, you can hate me for that haha. I sincerely hope things have improved since then, it really felt like a city with soo much wasted potential..
Yes, please do Glasgow. It has suburban trains to almost every suburb and nearby town, but connectivity is poor and little is radial. Despite a few reopenings there's a lot of talk about expansion and modernisation but nothing ever seems to come to fruition.
@@osasunaitor No hate, I'm from neither Glasgow nor Edinburgh, but I have lived for a long time in both and I am fond of both, but I do prefer Glasgow. Edinburgh is very pretty but feels more like a town overcrowded by tourists and it's a bit Disney-fied, while Glasgow feels more like a normal big city, a bit more chaotic and definitely more vibrant and fun, it has more personality and its people are more real (and has a more diverse food scene which is important to me). Also better for train nerds. I guess it's a matter of personal taste as well and how much urban decay one can tolerate. I do like the Gotham vibes. Glasgow was really hit by the end of the British Empire, de-industrialisation, Margaret Thatcher, and it's been devastated by poor car-centric urban planning and depressing 60s-70s housing. Some areas of greater Glasgow still have decades of recovery ahead of them, but they exist in parallel with normal places and very prosperous areas with great housing and some of the best schools in Scotland. Overall the city has been changing and is constantly improving but there's a lot to be done and it's frustratingly slow for many.
Lovely to see you cover Dublin! It was a fun video, and I agree with the conclusion: it's a pretty good plan. The execution of the plan, however... we'll put it this way: I'm still a student, and if any of the plan actually happens before I retire, I'll be shocked. In a good way, but shocked
This video is incredibly kind to Dublin's pathetic public transport. The DART was the electrification of a coastal commuter line built in the 1830s...and the eclecrification was completed 40 years ago. The two Luas lines were built 20 years ago and the main extensions completed 15 years ago. Since then almost nothing added, and the proposed additions are scheduled for construction a decade from now - likely to join numerous Luas, DART and metro projects planned 20 years ago and abandoned.
@@brendanfitzsimons1282 That's because he's not insular like yourself and can compare cities internationally. I wonder what big event happened in the late 00s that crippled infrastructure investment for a decade...
Unfortunately, Ireland's economy left the chat in 2008 for a decade or so. They have only recently recovered, so it's natural that projects are being resumed now.
@@osasunaitor Ireland's economy has been booming for the last 10 years. Why plans for Metro West been brought back. Why cut the metro connect to the south. Why isn't there plans for Cork and Galway Luas'. The ambition is very limited, which is understandable when you realise how wasteful we are with spending on capital projects (see the Children's Hospital). We need to fix how we fund and develop infrastructure and prioritise public transport over cars with much greater ambition.
@@lgigsirlPlanning for Cork Luas is currently underway and there is fantastic upgrades currently happening to the Cork commuter rail network. Metrolink isn’t going to directly connect to the Luas Green line because when they did detailed investigation of the area, they discovered that the primary trunk sewage pipe for the whole of Dublin was in the way. They still plan on connecting them in future, but it will just be more difficult and expensive so they didn’t want to delay the rest of Metrolink.
I wouldn't say the DART is little known. It used to be the gateway to Ireland when the Ferries and HSS (High Speed Ship) used to come into Dun Laoghaire a through ticket from any British Railway station included the DART to Connelly station (Pearce and Tara Street) I used to visit friends in Dublin on long weekends on the rail and sail from Manchester as you finished work went home changed out of working clothes had food then got the last train to Caergybi [Holyhead] and took the 0330 boat to Dun Laoghaire getting into Dublin for breakfast. Dublin Connelly is NOT exclusively a commuter station. It's actually the main station for InterCity Enterprise Cross Border services to Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry (NIR), Lisburn (NIR), Portadown (NIR) and Belfast (NIR) Pearce is a lovely station a legacy of when Ireland had separate railways before CIE got everything and closed a lot down... see the missing link between Roeslare, Waterford and Cork. The Irish Green Party, Plaid Cymru and Gwer Cymru all want to reinstate better boat train service but the ferry companies only really want lorries and tourist traffic in cars. I also want to play the pedant card. You said "DART has Victorian gauge tracks" when in fact Melbourne uses Irish gauge!
Nailed it. But there's a whole new way of thinking which has everyone saying the thing they are talking about is "under-rated" or a "hidden gem". Its tiresome. Its not little known just because *you* just found out about it.
On top of all the rail improvements, Dublin's bus network is gradually being re-organised into high frequency radial and orbital routes. New bus lanes are also being built which will hopefully result in faster, more reliable journeys
I’m actively working on this project - As a heads up, the construction phase will cause some pain - but it’ll definitely be worth it in the long run 🚌 💨
@andrewoakeshott7759 It’s happening right now! It’s called BusConnects, and it started a few years ago with the H-Spine (to Howth and Malahide) coming into effect. I think the next one is the E-Spine which goes from Bray-Ballymun.
The bus service is not what people want, plus I wonder how much of the bus Connects idea is a green party project to remove existing roads used by private vehicles
@@Ligerpride if you knew anything about Dublin transit you would know Bus Connects is a Jarret Walker project that long predates the Green party being in government
I think the leap card system is actually very good (As much as some may complain about it) Not only can it be used across the entire city but the entire country aswell including most private operators (with the exception intercity trains). Very reasonable fares, €1.30 single bus ride in cities, €2 for a 90 minute fare in dublin. 50% off if your under 26 or a student
One caviat with the Luas going to connoly is that they arent very frequent as its a one stop detour. There is a big sign that telsl you to walk to the next stop for more frequent service
It's about one in every three trams that terminates at Connolly. Mostly it's a relic from when it was the original terminus, before the Docklands section of the network was even built.
Theoretically, the Connolly terminus could be axed and instead become a northeastern branch of the red line. Not something that is under discussion rn, but it is possible and I hope considered one day
@@SilentEire Connolly to Clongriffin Station stopping at the Five Lamps, North Strand Fire Station, Fairview Footbridge, Griffith Avenue, Donnycarney Church, Kilmore Road, Coolock Village, Coolock Industrial Estate, Northern Cross, Belmayne and Father Collins Park. Buses on the Malahide Road are bedlam at rush hour. A tram line there is needed
@@wicker1446 Ireland’s public transport North and South is very lacking, I’m hoping it gets some major investment in the future Problem is, half of the shite promised by the Rail Commission is never delivered
Hey man love your videos as always! Please do another video about the Santiago Metro, with its 7th new line, line 8 and 9 that are already in planning, plus the 2 suburban railway extension and possible new lines. Valparaiso metro is also expanding with a new extension already in construction! much love from a Southamerican fan!
Currently, the DART+ project is being held up by a few things, but the most annoying is right near me in Ashtown. The Maynooth line runs along the Royal Canal and there's a (manual) level crossing at Ashtown station. So that level crossing can go away, they need to put a tunnel in under the canal, but the least worst option was rejected locally because there are stables on the proposed route. Plan B isn't great either as it shifts the new road and tunnel west a bit into a business park with some warehouses that are going to have to go away, but that's not the big problem: the big problem is that it's going to mean that the gate, gatehouse, and much of the walls of an estate (not the housing kind, the 💰 kind), are going to need to be demolished. The whole thing is a hot mess, really.
The level crossings on the Maynooth Line are a minor inconvenience - the big issue is the lack of a depot (thanks An Bord Pleanala) without which, there will be no DART+WEST.
Dubliner here. I miss the train to UK ferry interchange at Dun Laoghaire that ended in the 1980s. It had been possible to get a train to the ferry terminal at Dun Laoghaire. Hop on a ferry and disembark at Holyhead. There the walk from ferry to train was also short. This gave access to the then British Rail Network. As the train arrived in central London, (Euston Station) the door to door journey times were good when trains waited for late connections was around 8 hours versus 5 1/2 for flying. A single ticket was also available. Integrated service indeed.
Dublin to London takes about 8 hours. You can knock an hour off that by going with Swift. Of course Holyhead is out of action at the moment. Probably March or April by the time the pier gets fixed. Holyhead Port seems to have been built on the cheap.
I was in Dublin without a car two years ago. I could reach all the places I wanted to go (including both main stations) with DART or Luas, it was pretty convenient & comfortable. I think the DART station in a culvert you show is Killester, near which I stayed. That said, I could also see that the expansion plays you outline, as well as the additional downtown connecting tunnel you propose, would be sorely needed in the car-dominated suburbs and busy downtown. In addition, they should pursue mainline electrification - the diesel long-distance trains were a bit sub-par, and they don't have that many mainlines any way.
I lived in Dublin in the past and I honestly was really happy with the public transport there, great bus coverage, the trains were good and cheaper than the ones in Milan (I'm Italian) and yeah, I miss Ireland a lot
In Milan's defence, its public transport system, particularly the metro is waaaay ahead of Dublin, though in future that may change of course. To be honest, most cities on the continent, whether in Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany etc. all have better public transport than most places in the British Isles outside of London.
A few comments on this. Generally OK, but I would dispute that LUAS is the backbone of the transit system - that would be the heavy rail (both DART and diesel services). The LUAS spur to Connolly Station was the original terminus of the line, which ran initially from Connolly to Tallaght. There was a subsequent extension of the line to The Point, which left Connolly on a spur. The LUAS Green line was originally planned to be in a cut and cover tunnel through the city centre but business interests objected and the Irish Government caved into their objections. Co-incidentally, the politician who did this (Mary O'Rourke) passed away recently. Originally, the heavy rail Harcourt Street line did connect to the coastal line to Bray, however, south of Cherrywood, the local authority has permitted housing to be built on the original alignment, cutting off the possibility of a return. The genesis of DART goes back to the combination of north/south commuter services post 1958 when trains started to run from Howth to Bray. This became the original electrified section. The reason for the northside DART stations being in a cutting with ramp access is twofold. The Dublin & Drogheda Railway (original company) built their line without level crossings (hence the cutting) and they had a pathological also hatred of footbridges. Most stations on their line used an adjacent road bridge to connect the platforms rather than provide an internal footbridge. The conversion of the Green Line LUAS south of Charlemont to Metro is required due to capacity constraints, however, when the LUAS was being planned, the designers stupidly removed the 1850s grade separated embankment south of Ranelagh, which introduced a level crossing at the modern day Beechwood station. Recent proposals to close off this crossing were dropped due to voter objections. I am interested in your source for the planned 4th through track at Connolly Station, not being sure where the space for this is (a look at Googlemaps would confirm this). The main problem with the line from Connolly Station to Pearse Station is that it was built on the wrong side of Connolly Station - 19th Century laissez faire British politics. That Pearse Station faces south and not north is another problem.
There’s a study somewhere on the DART+ website about the 4th through platform at Connolly. I doubt they’ll actually do it though. A DART tunnel would come first. As for the problem at Pearse Stn, there are two reversing sidings to the south which are quite effective for terminating trains, and much better than the third bay platform at Grand Canal Dock one stop south.
The Genesis or Predecessor of the DART was the 1930s DRUMM Battery EMUs with 80km range and recharged quickly between Bray and Pearse street where the old south bay platform used to be. They ran mostly on hydro invested since the start of the Irish state's formation. That's considered ahead of our time for 2024 with the new Alstom DART BMUs! And they proved invaluable during WW2 coal shortages. The Drumm battery patents originated in the partitioned Northern Ireland at the time and we're bought up by a regional oil company using post war Marshall plan funding, ending the cells' production line rendering the EMUs worn out and converted into unpowered coaches by the mid 50s.
Agree on your Luas comments - Broombridge to Broadstone and Charlemont to Sandyford are effectively at pre-metro grade, just the entire city centre segment goes at walking pace around ridiculously tight corners. A tunnelled segment would make just a few degrees short of a metro line - and hardly would’ve resulted in any more disruption than Luas Cross City
Hi Reece, nice video! Wonder when you'll cover the Budapest metro & tram systems on your channel, it has not only the first metro system in continental Europe, but it also has decent newer metro lines and tram lines too!
As someone from Los Angeles, I was pretty shocked how car centric Dublin is when I went earlier this year. This city desperately needs an underground and should ban cars from the city center.
I live in Swords, north of Dublin. I used to take the bicycle to the Dart station going to Leixlip regularly, to then continue my ride to Weston Airport. This year, Dart forbade full-sized bicycles during rush hour. It forced me to get a motorcycle, since riding such long distances on a foldable bicycle that would be allowed in the trains is not practical. Dublin has a good public transit system, but it is centralised, often requires transfers, and doesn't serve suburban areas very well. Having the ability to carry a bicycle inside trains (and possibly even trams) at all times, would be very helpful for many of us who are not doing regular trips between well-served locations.
Thanks for making this. As a Brit, I am ashamed to say I've never been to Ireland, and I hadn't even heard of the Luas system. It's much more impressive than I realised. I'm beginning to think I should go to Ireland some time :)
Little things to note; Luas is pronounced the same as 'Lewis' and the language is just conventionally just called 'Irish' rather than 'Irish Gaelic'. Great video though, it's rare to hear someone speak positively about our public transport system. Our bus network reaches very wide but is often unreliable due to contention with private car traffic. It is often faster to simply cycle than take the bus, even in the suburbs. If you come to Dublin, I'd recommend renting a Dublin Bike and cycling around the city, particularly visiting the Clontarf cycle route.
im so happy you said howth correctly. lovely video. wouldve loved to see the old docklands tramlines highlighted which were stopeed being used in the 1920s due to the advent of busses
@@freddyh2213 I agree! As an Irish transport nerd I’m very offended 😂 Railways in Victoria use 1600mm because it was an Irish engineer who worked on the first railways there I believe!
I live at the far south of the green line and work in Dublin city centre. While it would be disruptive, i think expansion of the metro along the green line will definitely be needed, it'll just take forever to do and hopefully can be done in a way that isn't too disruptive (but thats unlikely). There is a lot of transport oriented development happening along the green line, which is great, but results in a rapidly increasing user base for the luas. It is already packed with people after a few stops some mornings, by the time you reach ranelagh, it's like images you see of the tokyo subways. This will only increase over time with booming developments, or perhaps there will be underutilisation due to the discomfort of travel at rush hour. It is also very slow, which a metro system would alleviate. 50 mins travel time from far south to dawson street in the city centre, the eventual full length of the green line will likley be a total travel time of 1.5 - 2 hours, which isn't a reasonable travel time in my opinion, 4 hours round trip to get somewhere and back in he same city. (This is not comsidering delays, which happen very frequently under the current operator transdev. But i believe transdev have lost their contract due to operations issues so hopefully the next operator will be an improvement)
We did a couple of organised Railtours of Ireland trips when visiiting from Australia over a decade ago. They were brilliant with good scheduling and good accommodation for overnight stays. Highly recommended.
Excellent video. Ireland's services in Dublin are, to my mind, actually pretty good. What is needed is more services in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, etc. So not sure how much will be spent further on the capital with out cities crying out for better public transport and links to other cities. City or city by train is hugely expensive, although the bus fairs are, well, fair. As you said, I feel it is well planned and future plans look good, but other areas around the country feel left to one side. It hurts their development and harms the drive to get people away from cars. Outside of Dublin, it is nearly impossible to live and work in Ireland without a car.
An interesting an very accurate State of the Union for Dublin rail services. The Metrofication of the southern Luas Green section is now not happening, at least for the foreseeable, but a strong lobby is growing to continue Metro south of the Grand Canal, in a southwesterly direction, underground to serve the Edwardian suburbs of Rathmines, Terenure, Templeogue, Firhouse and Oldbawn; ultimately linking up with the Luas Red branch terminus at Tallaght, the Square.
It will be amazing to see the MetroLink. We're stopping over in Dublin next summer and was surprised to find that there was no easy easy rail link to get into the city, just south of the airport.
I always like to complain about Irish rail and Dublin's transport network but you can get most places on public transport here. One problem they have is with signalling though, trains into Connolly almost always have to wait for a platform to become available and have to leave four minutes between trains arriving. Also I'd take the plans like dart + and the link to the airport with a grain of salt, they've been promising those projects for years.. Thank you for making this video I'm so happy someone is talking about Dublin!
1. The new metro project will never happen cus aunt Aisling doesn't want construction down the street. 2. The luas is so packed in the city centre at most times of day that people try to avoid it if they can. The worst part of the service is between the hospital - Houston - Connoly. This should be an individual line on its own. 3. I use the intercity trains daily and morning and evening is again packed. They are not managing. Not to comment on the dirt in the bathooms. 4. Crime. I got slapped by a junkie on the luas and was forced to watch people do crack in the trains.
I live in Finglas and just before the election they announced the go ahead for the LUAS extension from cabra ,it is 4 stops first talked about in 2017 and expected to be finished in 2032 ,so 15 years to build 4 stop extension.
What I find interesting is that Dublin, which is a similar population size to the Boston area, has a minuscule fraction of Boston’s total rail transit. It’s a rare example of an American city that does more transit than a European city pair…
Not really. Anglophone countries really don't have that good of Transit Networks. I'm sure Boston would beat out any English City outside of London, as well as any City in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand etc
The MBTA area covered by rail is much much larger than Dublin City with lines over 100km in some cases. That would fall under Inter City travel in Ireland and would be well outside Dublin. The whole Boston MBTA does about 240m passengers per year across all forms of public transport. For a large network the size of Boston those numbers are poor. Dublin Bus carries 150m, Go-Ahead Ireland buses another 20m in Dublin. LUAS 50m, DART 20m and suburban commuter services in the Dublin area another 11m to 12m (basically the area covered by existing DART and future DART of circa 150km). If Boston commuter rail is carrying only 26m passengers per year on 634km of track then something is being done badly. I suspect the frequency must be terrible on many lines.
these public transit expansion plans are great for Dublin and we are doing the right stuff with them. The main issues are the bus network really, we have a huge driver shortage, buses often aren't reliable, we dont have contactless tap to pay, and most buses are beyond capacity so many people are left at the stop. Some of the highly used bus lines could easily be converted to LUAS, such as Lucan, or the 15, 46a buses etc. But there is no plans to do this other than for Lucan. If we could sort out the bus issues I think transport in Dublin would actually become amazing!!
Ireland's economy "booming" is in the same way that Canada's is stagnant: it stems from problems in calculating economic activity biasing claiming things are better then they actually are.
The economy is booming and public finances are flush with cash. We just take so long to get anything built or implemented here, that we don’t see the effects of the wealth we have.
@ZontarDow The economy is unquestionably booming. The problem of using GDP as a measure of economic output is a different issue. The cash is very real and it's being collected by the government in the billions
One important detail about the Red line here is it's kind of been a victim of its own success. Particularly the segment from Heuston to Busaras (and reverse in the evening) is massively massively overcrowded during rush hour (M-F 8-10 and 4-6). We don't have Japan style train pushers to cram more people in, but it honestly feels pretty close. They're kind of stuck for relief for that line too, the trams are already junction to junction at some of the inner city stops (e.g. abbey street, smithfield, busaras) and plenty of roads which are not stops too. More frequency would also be challenging as the overcrowding leads to long dwell times as people try to squeeze a couple more in which causes issues closing the doors, which in turn means at rush hour it pretty much is "one tram pulls off, another tram pulls in". Another option might be to have a shuttle type service from Heuston to Connolly to take the traffic off the Luas altogether. There's a huge flow of people from outside the city to Heuston, then on the luas towards the docklands. There is actually the Phoenix Park Tunnel and they do sometimes run an exceptional service from Heuston to Connolly on days of major sporting events, but I think there are concerns with the route not being up to high traffic volumes. There was a couple of years relief from 2020 to 2022 as COVID and WFH reduced demand, but it's really blown up again since 2023 with the push to RTO from the (mostly tech) companies down by the docklands. It feels like the only solution would be a parallel line on a parallel street and alternate some of the stops, but I'm curious if others have other suggestions.
It's severely constrained by the street layout, which is why the red line trams aren't longer. TBH, the Luas's layout is better suited to a metro system than a tram system.
Really that DART tunnel is what’s needed to fix that. As for the Phoenix park tunnel, that’s used quite regularly on weekdays for trains into Grand Canal Dock in the centre. The problem with that is it doesn’t stop at Heuston and there’s not enough capacity in Connolly for more of them.
@@talideonexactly. The luas red line in the city area is essentially a poor structure and an underground was the only way to go in my opinion. The 150 or 151 bus, I can't remember the number, is a much faster option going almost exactly parallel to the Luas.
DART+ to Heuston will take some heat off it given it will use the Phoenix Park tunnel. I think 6 services per hour. Lucan Luas will probably help more as it provides another E-W alignment through the city centre. Clearly DART Underground is what is needed though.
Luas Red Line has a shuttle service between Connolly and Heuston on weekends. It wouldn't be popular taking away limited capacity from further afield to form a peak time shuttle.
The Dart and most buses don’t run past 23:30 which is a big stinker. Also Its a real pain to cross horizontally the suburbs without having to go into town first. What I really want to see is rail links from dart across to luas with stops in between coz buses are so slow and unreliable
Pro tip -- do NOT attempt to board a Dublin bus unless you have either exact fare (coins, NOT notes), a leap card or a prepaid ticket, which are available at almost all shops and convenience stores. Credit and debit cards are not acceptable at present, although that's set to change in the next few years.
I was under the impression that the contactless integration would take around ten years, at least that's what Eamon Ryan (I think) said. I hope it comes sooner, because ten years seems to be an absurdly long time for it to roll out.
Irish people complain about this system a lot, in my experience. It's not bad, but it's not as good as it should be, especially for a rapidly growing and quite rich city.
It's a great system for getting people in and out of the city centre if they happen to live along the 3 transit lines. But not great for getting around once your in the city or commuting from other areas.
So cool to see another perspective on our (relatively) little town! A note from a West Dubliner, a lot of conversation surrounding rail in Dublin is definitely… not full of praise. The Metrolink is spoken about in the same terms as the rapture, nobody really believes it’ll ever happen! And in parts of West Dublin, especially Lucan, the Luas is *nice* but generally the bus network is faster (if they show at all). Over recent years the bus network in particular has been gutted and reshaped in so many ways that haven’t left commuters happy (I still miss getting the 40, I’ve even gone as far as Charlestown just to revisit the old haunt) . A lot of that is to do with English + American private consultancy on the bus system, which is definitely a touchy subject . I’m definitely a daydreamer about what public transport could’ve been in Dublin, my grandfather is a Transport Historian and has told me many a tale of the potential rail infrastructure we could’ve developed at the start of the 20th century! Much of my memories as a young fella are hopping on the red line Luas to go to Chapters on Parnell Street and going out to Howth to see my grandad tour and restore the collection of historical Trams and buses out in the museum! So I definitely have a softer spot for Buses, Trams and Trains than most in the County, but I still have my massive gripes (Luas should’ve gone through Ballyfermot, only area with its own postcode, mup D10! So we’d have to deal with less of the rat run on the main road). The fact we’ve no connecting line straight to Dublin Airport is a travesty! I know my dad would’ve been grateful to not have to commute all the way Northside every morning by car! Anywes, great video! Would be great to see you look at our national rail, we’re only wee so there’s not too much to it! Or even the proposed “Cluas” for Cork City, which would be a godsend for me, I can’t deal with Bus Éireann anymore!
I worked on the Luas, it was a nightmare, one foot under the ground is nothing but History that can only be dug by archeologist's. trust me you don't need to go much under Dublin and the site comes to a hault because of a coin, a bone, or a case of what the hell is this doing here? Two feet under the ground and the Viking's come back to haunt you....🤣
Good video! The one thing i disagree with you on is how well the luas interacts with the road network. The red line stops and starts at nearly every intersection with a road, often for minutes at a time, and often without any cars even crossing in front of it. I wish the luas was further prioritised so that instead of waiting a minute for a single car to cross in front, the car would have to wait instead. I imagine dublin isnt the only place with this issue though.
btw, I'm pretty sure the Metro plan where it was to take over the Green Line Luas did include stations in the city centre. The big issue on conversion to Metro was it would require the line to close off several roads that currently cross over the Luas tracks so that it could become a Metro. If Metro North gets built (it feels like they've been talking about it for 30 years!), something will have to be done about the Luas Green line from the south as with a direct line to the Airport, it will become incredibly popular. And the Green Luas is already in high demand.
There is a direct intercity/suburban rail connection between Heuston and Connolly that goes under Phoenix Park in a short tunnel. Mostly used by commuter trains and reopened about 2010 after being shuttered decades before
I live right by Bray Dart Station, and my brother worked there for years, along with his friends. I remember one night his friend was driving a Dart that had just gone out of service, and he picked us up in the driver's compartment for a spin to Greystones and back. They got out of the seat and tried to get me to take over driving, but I was a child and felt too awkward 😅
Its interesting seeing trains that go through places like that, I can't imagine seeing something like that in person , being from the midwest US where there is no room from a train system like that
I found the Red Line to being lacking in capacity at rush hour when I was in Dublin for a few days earlier this year. I always had to wait on multiple trams before one would arrive that I could comfortably squeeze onto.
A great summary of Dublin's current and planned transport system. I totally agree with you that converting the Green line to Metro would be a mistake. There are two huge problems with this proposal in my opinion. The southern part of the Green line was built on the trackbed of the old Harcourt line. However, the original line ran on an embankment. South of Ranelagh the embankment was removed to avoid having to put lifts in stations. This means that to turn it into Metro, all the road crossings would have to be closed, splitting communities in two. The second problem is that when the line was extended, it deviated off the Harcourt line, and the extension is not suitable for metro. So we would end up with two sections of Green line, and for certain journeys passengers would need to get on one end of the (former) Green line, change to a Metro, then change to a different Green line tram. It would also mean we'd end up with two bits of tram line that aren't nearly as useful as one connected one. But I think it would be really good to plan a southern extension of the metro line. The southwestern quadrant of the city is not well served by public transport. I think it would make sense to extend the line through Rathmines, Rathfarnham, Terenure, Tempelogue, Firhouse, and meet the Red line at Tallaght. A lot of that could run as an elevated line through the Dodder valley, reducing costs. It would be a much faster connection from Tallaght to the city, and would encourage "densification" of the areas along the route.
I visited Dublin in November 2024. Didn’t get to ride Luas, but i did ride DART, the Drogheda/Dundalk ”Commuter” train, and Dublin Bus routes 4, 7, 7A, 33, 77A and 123. Also my favorite station on DART is Killiney, because of the views around the station. A very long beach and views out on the open sea, and the train comes out on a tunnel and runds along the mountainside, a bit higher up from the beach. Looks really cool. At present, some trains out of M3 Parkway run to Connolly, instead of going to Docklands. My solution would be to close the Docklands branch and run all services to Connolly via Drumcondra, instead.
I lived in Dublin, I am glad I had a bicycle and a light motorcycle to be honest (although be be fair both got stolen - normal in Dublin). You can't hop on a DART like you might imagine, sometimes you wait 10 to 15 minutes, it's raised urban section is the slowest speed I've ever experienced on a train like vehicle. I clocked it at 30kmph top speed for more than 3 stations. It's useful as a connection for the suburbs it ends up at if you live there, but not useful for getting around closer to the city centre. The Luas is slow but ok if you happen to live on it, but it is just 2 lines spearing into a pretty sprawling city and it's not like you can be too fussy about where you live so you probably won't end up nearby. Dublin city has a phobia about building up, because many want to preserve the beautiful lowrise red brick facades, former council houses, Apache pizza take away places and old man pubs. As a consequence many of the new developments end up being an hour or more on the Luas. A long way to travel to get into a pretty uninspiring overpriced city centre if you live there and a long way home. As mentioned, its not like it starts to pick up too much speed as you get further out. The buses go everywhere as somebody mentioned, but if you think the DART and LUAS are slow, try taking a bus up the Liffy at rush hour. I was beaten for time, no joke, by a man on crutches (quite a common site along the Liffy) one time. You might also get a mob of teenagers dressed in the North Face getting on and raising hell if you are unlucky. My journey time through the city centre when I lived in D8 and worked in D1 was 28 minutes by bus, 35 minutes walking, 12 minute bicycle. So pretty much no good reason to take a bus with those stats. And that is typical. At night time you can wait 20 to 30 minutes for them. Often had to go get a tea in a McDonalds (and brave more the North Face jacket teenagers there too) at night time, trying to get home. Oh and of course some of the buses disappear. They are very famous for that in Dublin.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
This video was made earlier this year *before* the DART+ trains were unveiled, so I recommend checking out Geoff's video on those for an in-depth look!
ruclips.net/video/W-EGaW26pqA/видео.html
Any moment to give a shout out to the Drumm Battery commuter trains predating the DART by 50 years?
@@RMTransit No
Rail system is a joke in Ireland if you're based outside of Dublin. I get the train from a surrounding county to Dublin. Train takes 60 mins to arrive in the City and if i drive its only 30 mins in rush hour traffic.
There is to many stops in Dublin and not enough Line capacity. They need to increase the train lines to 4 and the commuter trains should skip all the stops in Dublin. They need to expand the DART West asap. Its an absolute Joke at the moment.
As an Irishman I just want to give a specific shout-out to you Reece for absolutely nailing the pronunciation of literally every placename mentioned in the video. It's not lost on me (or any Irish person watching this) that you almost certainly would have had to put in extra time and effort to do your research and make sure you were getting them right - it makes such a difference and is very much appreciated. A hat tip to you sir!
Absolutely! I did notice there were a couple Reece avoided saying, but those he did were spot-on.
Howth especially, North Americans almost always get it wrong - so that was nice to hear!
He Mispronounced Gem though ,it should have been pronounced "a cacophony of half baked plans that will be delivered over budget and long overdue "
As a Transport Planner who works in Dublin, words can’t express how happy I am to watch this Canadian critique tf out of my hometown ☘️ 🚂 🇮🇪
can you make the 33 bus 24 hours and add an extra line to the dublin to dundalk commuter line? please and thank you!
@@SilentEire make the e1/2 come quicker
Extend the Green line to Monbreif
@@SilentEire Dublin has a transport planner? 😂😂😂
I've been in Ireland this summer and moved around just by train. I really enjoyed it but found a quite limited railway system and thought of eventual improvement.
Dublin also has a really heavily used bus system that goes pretty much everywhere - 145 million passengers a year
Yeah as someone who was assigned there for 3 months, their bus system was reliable and incredibly useful
Which is a also a rubbish and slow moving system.
@@Ligerpride Infuriating? True. But useful? Yup
Just not _when_ you need it to, albeit reliability (and bus network infrastructure) has come leaps and bounds since covid
@@Ligerpridedefinitely before 2020
So delighted to finally see Dublin covered. I live between the two tram lines (luas) in Smithfield. I just hope everything that’s promised is 75% delivered in the next 20 years or so 🤣 it’s so bizarre, everyone in Ireland (whether based in Dublin or not) agrees/wants the metro to/from the airport. So odd that it’s always delayed
The thing about the metro north is that you can get an airport express bus from the area near the east link to the airport in something like 10 minutes. The speed in the city though is absolutely terrible.
The metro north isn't going to really improve on that time. It's only going to service a south to north and vice versa service, where these areas are already served by the dart or luas already!
The city and surrounding area is in direct need of improved rail services coming in to Dublin from the west and to relieve much of the traffic reliant on the M50.
@@Ligerpride "The metro north isn't going to really improve on that time. It's only going to service a south to north and vice versa service, where these areas are already served by the dart or luas already!"
Have you actually looked at the Metro North map? Phibsborough, Glasnevin, Ballymun and Swords are definitely not served by the DART or Luas!
On the time to the airport, you're looking at it from a very narrow perspective. The metro's primary purpose is not just to take people from the city centre to the airport. It will be a massive improvement for people living along the route, particularly in Swords. These are areas which have been completely neglected with regards to rail/trams.
Hard to laugh. Waited at the connolly tram spur nothing came so kept walking
@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina The Connolly spur is closed in the evenings; at other times of day it serves as a terminus for trams to Heuston, with trams to Tallaght or Saggart going to the Docklands.
You haven't seen any horses riding the tram between Smithfield and Jobstown?
Great video Reece! I’m really happy to have provided footage for this.
A few other things to mention are:
The buses are improving significantly at the moment under BusConnects, which is a massive network reorganisation.
The diesel ‘Commuter’ trains which the DART will be replacing are quite extensive and well utilised.
Thanks for the help! Hopefully we see even more rail electrification in the future!
Funny story, when I was in 7th grade, my english teacher wanted us to presentations about Ireland and give them in front of the class. My friend and I chose Dublin as the topic. This was really the first time we ever had to do an extensive presentation and really the first time we ever had to do something like this completely on our own. She didn’t even give us a structure to work with and it also didn’t help that she was really strict choleric. As we‘re working on this presentation I decided that we should definitely include public transportation, because it is really important for a city and because I have always been a train geek, I dedicated 6 slides to the public transportation in Dublin and explained the different modes, lines, history, future plans and vehicles to my class. When I think of that, I always feel super embarrassed, because none cared about that and the english teacher also did not like it. I talked about it for 20 minutes. and it was only supposed to be a subpoint. But again, it was the first time we had to make a proper presentation and she did in fact know that but strangely decided to not show us how to do it correctly, so I still think I wan‘t in the wrong there. We got a C- for it and she heavily criticized the public transportation part for being not at all important, which is really a shame because I think I did it very well.😭😂
You should have made the DART into a literary line given Joyce, Wilde and others would have used the line so much!
Sounds like you got stiffed.
Sounds like you did really well, but most people just don’t get trains or understand why public transportation is important.
@@Runboyrun89 Sorry to break it to you, but the DART only began operation in 1984, long after both were dead.
There was one cultural figure who was famous for being regularly seen on it, the Musician Ronnie Drew. Many of my classmates reported seeing him, just riding the DART minding his own business. Dublin is nice that way.
As someone who lives outside of Dublin, it’s criminal how other cities in Ireland like Belfast and Cork have absolutely nothing in terms of transport, car reliance is completely killing Belfast at the moment with the amount of congestion.
Not much that can be done for Belfast for obvious reasons, but IIRC, Cork's rail system is expanding and I recall muttering of a tram system. However, if any city desperately needs a tram system, it's Galway.
True. The video says the main transport is the Luas, meanwhile it's the M50. And it's bad.
@@talideonwhy can’t Belfast do anything?
@@s125ishit’s up to Northern Irish government and the British government to take care of Belfast. At least at present. That said the Irish & NI governments have worked together recently to improve the enterprise.
Cork isn't a very big city, it does have Commuter Rail that should be improving in frequency in the foreseeable future. The bus system could be a lot better though.
So what wasn't touched in the video is Dublin's sprawling bus network mainly operated by Dublin Bus. They operate 138 (current) routes (I think) with private operators like Go Ahead operating a few more orbital ones. The bus network is currently undergoing a massive overhaul called Bus Connects but things like driver recruitment, procurement delays, planning delays and NIMBYism are currently delaying it. The last few years have seen the introduction of 24 hour service (finally) on legacy routes 15 (Clongriffin Station - City Centre - Knocklyon), 39A (Ongar - Blanchardstown - City Centre - UCD) and 41 (City - Airport - Swords) and Bus Connects Routes C1 (Adamstown Station - Liffey Valley - Heuston - City Centre - Sandymount), C2 (Adamstown Station - Griffeen Avenue - Liffey Valley - Heuston - City Centre - Sandymount), C3 (Ringsend - City Centre - Heuston - Lucan - Leixlip - Maynooth), C4 (Ringsend - City Centre - Heuston - Lucan - Celbridge - Maynooth), G1 (Docklands - City Centre - Inchicore - Ballyfermot - Parkwest Station - Red Cow Luas), G2 (Docklands - City Centre - Inchicore - Ballyfermot - Liffey Valley) and N4 (Docklands - Clontarf Road Station - Killester - Finglas - Blanchardstown).
There are problems with capacity on the 24 hour routes, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The next phase of Bus Connects was sadly delayed due to politicians bowing down to NIMBY constituents that don't seem to like that their bus route number will change and become more frequent.
Unfortunately Ireland's archaic planning laws are the biggest obstacles to the construction of public transport infrastructure. A recent traffic plan by Dublin City Council was challenged by car park operators in the City Centre. Metrolink, Bus Connects, Dart+ and Luas Finglas are all stuck in the judicial - political quagmire that is Ireland's planning laws that encourage NIMBYism and stifle progress.
The Fingal area to the north of Dublin is seeing enormous growth. Metrolink will serve Swords while Dart+ Coastal North will serve the ever expanding towns of Malahide, Donabate, Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan. Biggest problem for Dart+ is capacity between Howth Junction and Connolly. Without triple or quad tracking that section of line there won't be much improvement in service.
Spot on analysis of the issues and state of play. Here's hoping for progress in the next few years before the economy crashes.
24 Hour service is something I'm quite passionate about, great to hear Dublin is going to have it!
@@Dubliner-un9lw has the E spine (145, 46a etc.) been scrapped ? It's hard to tell online because I get emails from uni (UCD) saying the E spine is going ahead then I see people say it's cancelled
@@eyan4329 it was supposed to launch mid December but due to NIMBYism around radial route 19 replacing the northern half of the current 13 the whole phase was pushed back until January at least
@@Dubliner-un9lw also due in part to people complaining we won't have a direct bus (the 145) to Heuston* anymore, which is a joke the whole point of this system is so they can get a separate bus that is equally dependable and on time. NIMBYISM is a joke
Theink to Dublin Airport cannot come quickly enough. Not having any decent transit to/from it was ridiculous 30 years ago. *Bring it on*
It is surprising given its such a major airport!
Dublin Airport Authority makes a very large portion of its profits from car parking charges. Having a metro link to the airport will eat into this hugely which is why it has been successfully resisted by them so far.
I was so excited to see this video! Thanks so much for taking our suggestion!
Great stuff Reece. The Dart service covers a little bit of transit history, a section of what was in 1834 the world's first suburban railway. The Dublin to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire/leary) railway. A subsequent extension to the village of Dalkey saw one of the earliest atmospheric railway systems in the world, much praised by the likes of Brunel.
Delightful surprise to see a video about my home city! Always interesting to hear an outsider's perspective. It's funny to see someone speak so positively about the Metrolink plans, I'm hugely in favour of it, but like most Dubliners, have nearly given up hope of it ever happening. I remember us getting information leaflets about the route when I was a child, I'm 30 now and they STILL haven't started tunneling. Very much feels like a "I'll believe it when I see it" type of thing to most here! It's badly badly needed, as are the DART+ upgrades. All the rail services (trams included) are PACKED at peak times, and most are very busy for much of the off peak services as well. Improvements in frequency are much needed but lack of track space (as well as remaining level crossings in some areas) really limits options there, particularly on the north-south line. Just too many services fighting for space on the same track. The bus system has to work very hard to fill in the gaps in service provision, both in frequency and in service area (as you noted, the south side is MUCH better served by rail services) and driver recruitment is turning out to be a major obstacle to attempts to reorganise and improve the bus network and timetables. Even if Metrolink HAD been built on the original schedule, we'd likely still be seeing the need for even more underground rail in the city centre and inner suburbs by now, there's just so little space at surface level to work with, but I fear Metrolink has put everyone off even THINKING about more underground rail, with its ever extending timeline and ever increasing budget.
The 70 kph hard limit is most likely to avoid being classified as a railway, with higher speed limits requiring the installation of a train control system. With speed limits of 70 kph or less, rail equipment is allowed to be driven using only standard traffic lights and operator's sight.
That makes sense, though maybe installing a signalling system is worth it to enable some higher speeds.
@@RMTransit As a semi frequent luas passenger, not really. Between station density on the lines, and the traffic on city centre roads, there isn't many points on the route where a LUAS really needs to reach a higher speed. installing signalling and training drivers on it would realistically cost a lot more than is worth it in terms of the comparatively small reduction in journey time.
@@RMTransit There's few enough sections where above 70km/h would be worth it unless tha line was being upgraded and a rationalisation of stops
In spite of all this - Dublin relies on buses for a lot - probably too much - of its transit right now. They are however doing a pretty awesome redesign, where dozens of bus lines are being grouped into "spines", providing high-frequency segments in the core of the network, without compromising on direct connections from parts further away from the city. Implementation apparently has been rough (when isn't it), but the idea is pretty great if you ask me.
I’ll be honest, in my experience they’re not great. Most of it is just slightly tweaking existing routes and changing the name. The 75 turning into the S6 is a good example. They somehow made it less reliable while also making the route way less convenient.
@@MANTHELEXUSThat tweaking isn't for nothing: it's part of the route rationalisation. But a lot of the more dramatic changes are being held up by NIMBYs. The plan itself is solid and much needed.
People who don't live somewhere and review their system are usually wrong
It is good of course, frequency is critical to PT actually being useful!
I love how the buses just sometimes disappear. Shows it on the board, you're waiting 16m; it's due; then it disappears. Ghost buses.
Moved here from Tampa, and I must say it has been life changing being able to have so many options for transit, these rail services included. Every now and then I need a vehicle but that's what carshare apps are for!
We were in Dublin 10 years ago when the Green line extension north was seemingly under construction (it only got as far as the northwest corner of St. Stephen’s Green). There have been several proposals to connect the airport to the city by rail, hopefully this Metrolink one finally sticks the landing.
It's just baffling and actually kind of embarrassing that we have no rail connection to the airport at this stage.
Reece, great that you're excited about the transit plans for Dublin ... but no need to rush your visit ... Ireland has a history of public project delays to rival the best in the world !
Agree, I’m 34 and have lived through 4 metro proposals!
I invite you to visit Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. There have been proposals and studies to build a metro since the 1970s, but as of 2024 approval and funds have not been granted yet.
Amazing video Reece, hope you’re doing well, thank you for using my photos! ❤
When I visited Ireland last summer I was shocked to learnthat the Dart line is the only electrified train service in the entire country! Ireland seems really far behing the rest of Europe on railway electrification. But it's good to see that at least in the Dublin area there should be more electrified rail services soon.
In the 1930s Dublin pioneered the DRUMM Battery Electric EMUs with 80km range that rapid charged at Pearse and Bray.
@@toyotaprius79Fat lot of good it did us as ilmariantanen has pointed out.
We were the poorest country in Europe until the 90s. Infrastructure is only starting to be built here, all other European countries had a huge head start on building rail.
Yeah, we're very far behind the rest of Europe in many ways.
As a dubliner the LUAS was a great addition to the city which delivered a quick and frequent service, but if you did not live near the LUAS or DART it’s a nightmare by bus. Average rush hour journey to go around 5-8km used to take 90 min from areas of south Dublin. The bus network is improving but over half the city will not see the benefits of the expansion of the rail network. The bus network has to many stops. My bus sometimes has stops 100 meters apart and goes around in circles in some residential areas which adds time to routes. A orbital rail link is needed as the main problem of the transport in Dublin was always traveling from one suburb to another. Anyway the transport is heading in the right direction which is good but with the city’s population to grow a lot over the next few years I fell the city is barely keeping up with demand instead of planning 50 years ahead with possible more metro and LUAS lines.
That's what BusConnects is meant to resolve. I just wish it were rolled out faster.
It's probably the main problem with buses in the UK and Ireland: lots of congestion and delays, causing long travel times, not helped by longer dwelling times at stops (due to the double decker, single entry buses) and short distance between stops. I don't want to say they've got it all wrong and continental Europe has got it all right, but many things do need to be changed. The bus stop spacing, though, is a big one.
Mind you as a Scot I can tell you Scotland is dragging its feet too. It took politicians 24 years from first proposals of a tramway in Edinburgh to completion, with many many blunders along the way. But now, it seems like it'll take a further 15 years until line 2 finally gets built. This is despite the fact, that Edinburgh is desperately crying out for a mass-rapid transit system. It should be a no-brainer. Edinburgh should have 3,4, or 5 tram lines by now. Don't get me started on the rest of Scotland. The only good thing is, Clyde Metro in Glasgow. See Glasgow actually has one of the most extensive suburban rail networks in the world, given its size, but it's vastly under-utilised. Most lines are disjointed, low frequency and not integrated with buses or the circular subway line. You can blame Thatcher for this, things were very much moving in the right direction in the 80s with Transclyde. Buses, the subway and trains, all integrated in one system. That was before Thatcher took a wrecking ball to all forms of integrated and publicly run transport. Still, with a little tweaking in the medium-term (timetable and pricing integration) and investments in the long-term, such as conversion of rail lines to heavy metro, extending existing rail network or building new light rail lines, Glasgow could, with a bit of luck, perhaps develop the British Isles' best transport network outside London. Currently, I would say it's a neck and neck race between Manchester, Nottingham and Dublin, with Dublin set to take the lead very soon, if they actually build out Metrolink and extend the Luas and dart, as is planned.
Agreed
Bus priority lanes (QBCs) are really good in a lot of areas though. Bus Connects is an even bigger leap forward on it.
Actually the big issue is that the time to transit through the city centre. The Luas is only okay and doesn’t provide the kind of rapid transit that Metrolink will North to South and DART+ will to a degree East to West.
I don’t know what you mean by ‘Glasgow has one of the most extensive suburban rail network in the world, given its size’. But it seems a big exaggeration to me. Glasgow has 626,000 inhabitants and Rotterdam has about 600,000. Rotterdam has 5 metro rail lines to the suburbs, the beach and to The Hague. It also has a metro station where the ferries from the British Isles dock, so you have a smooth transfer from the ferry to the metro. It has also about 15 tram lines. And of course commuter trains, intercity trains and high speed trains (to Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, London, Brussels, Paris and Antwerp). So it seems to me it is a smaller city with more (suburban) rail network. As so do other European cities of similar size or even smaller.
Good review - as a Dubliner i would briefly add - the Luas on the south side serves Dundrum which is one of the largest shopping malls in Ireland - the Dart Northside as you mentioned doesn’t have a very scenic route but the stop at Howth Harbour is a must see for any visitor - Howth is a fantastic place to visit inclduing scenic hill walks , lighthouse , castle , seaside restaurants , coffee shops and promenade walk - especially great in the summer i think you should put on your list of places to go by train if you do visit Dublin.
As an Irish civil engineer living in Dublin, thank you so much for making this! Love to hear you talking about the Luas and DART, they are quite under-appreciated transport services but definitely need an upgrade!
Only thing I'll mention is that while the plans are great and should definitely be implemented (particularly the MetroLink), I would hardly call our transport network 'fast-growing'. A lot of the proposals have been in the pipeline for decades now and have suffered from setbacks and cancellations over recent years. It is only now that these plans seem to be progressing, however only slightly, as we continue to go through seemingly endless public consultation regarding the MetroLink, mainly to appease concerned local residents about the impact of the construction of the Metro on their property (apologies to concerned residents but this needs to happen)
Other than that, great video! Keep up the good work!
(Also, we don't call our language 'Irish Gaelic', just Irish will do)
I think it is to differentiate from the Irish dialect of English, which is still the majority language in Ireland; considering the worldwide audience that Reece has, I think it is a fair way to describe it, even if Irish people may have a small problem with it.
Nobody in Ireland uses "Irish gaelic". Irish is clear and unambiguous and tracks with how most languages are named in English (French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc. etc.)
The dialect of English we speak is Hiberno-English (never "Irish").
Great video! Dublin has an enviable transit network in the making, and what's already there impresses. I gotta say, though, that as much as I appreciate modern passenger train styling, the older, more rectilinear styles really jazz me. That DART - now there's a looker!
The original DART trains were made in Japan.That's why they have that flat face look as in the photos.The new ones @ 8:40 in the video are ALSTOM and have the pointed nose like the bullet train.
I live in Dublin and the transport system works really well for me because I happen to live right beside a red line Luas stop so my commute to work is 30 minutes. But most people are not that lucky and they depend on the Dublin bus system which is incredibly slow during rush hour. Some of my friends have a shorter commute than me distance wise but it can take them over an hour. Public transport in Dublin is not quite as bad as Dubliners like to say it is but it needs a lot of improvement.
Wow, the nostalgia from that Dublin airport aerial pic hit hard. I wanted to add that the demand for the Luas green line soutb section is actually at a level where conversion to metro would be preferable. Howeber, this process has been massively delayed by NIMBYs who don't want certain at-grade level crossing sections removed in order to facilitate the change from tram to metro. The southern suburbs on the green line (particularly Sandyford and Cherrywood) are growing at rapid rates and soon the trams will probably be rammed full of peop,e about 3 stations into the 20+ station journey to the city centre (at rush hour anyway).
Yikes, reddit lingo much? The YIMBY catchphrase is tired, cringe and a political Trojan horse for cowboy developers to skirt regulations for profit, rather than advocate for more accessible, democratic public planning; certainly nobody's a fan Dublin City Council and the current method of object, block and bribe with a pull.
How about consider that the issue Dublin (and the rest of Ireland) faces is a lack of serviced hinterland by rail not seen since the 1940s, upping the green Luas to a Metro won't extend that hinterland, it will service new apartment complexes like Cherrywood which were initially public housing turned cash grabbing rentals. Having experienced the Luas everyday to school I used to see pre-morning rush of 1 tram every 7 mins each way, by 8:15am the frequency of trams into the city centre increases at the expense of Southbound trams, by the time it was 8:30am I used to see 3 or 4 north bound Luases full and sweaty waiting before the platform while southbound frequency was +12 mins waiting oftentimes as bad as 22mins; the issue is capacity by the limited trams and staff available to provide a timetable which have improved comfortably since the GreenRed CrossCity and COVID. At least these Luases can safely bunch up as the street level vehicles they are unlike a heavy rail metro.
*Not enough people like to have more than a 10 minute walk from a Luas station, especially when carrying a handful like their groceries/shopping or mad kids.*
Why take out the green line out of service for 3-5 years? That would be absolute murder when much of the whole M50 motorway area between Sandyford and Tallaght either side red and green line are reliant on roads having knock on effects across all of South and west Dublin and traffic in and out the city centre, the numerous "low density" towns and communities inside and outside the M50 that get clogged by the suburb school runs and the rat race commuter traffic forced to commute in +45mins by car or Bus, having a light rail or underground metro to alleviate the M50 traffic is key. Less road congestion the better for all, that means more Luases through SW Dublin, NW and NE, more Luases to Blanchardstown, Bray, Ballinteer, Ballymun and Lucan; but Ireland couldn't begin to deliver any of them before 2042 when Spain and France can deliver similar citidas tram lines in a 6th of the time.
But NIMBYISM huh right
Excellent video as a Dubliner you really captured it well
Really cool video! Your pronunciation of the placenames (which can be tough even when anglicised) was admirable. I would however say it might be worth mentioning Dublin Bus, which is the main method of public transport most Dubliners use on a daily basis, and if I remember correctly has a higher ridership than all but 5 bus systems in the US
Do a video on Glasgow please. Nearly 2 million metropolitan area with some 200 suburban/urban rail stations (second in Britain after London) with some lines having potential to be more metro like. It has only one subway line , which you briefly mentioned in one of your videos, third oldest in the world, iconic, never expanded, there's no tram, and no train to the main airport. Used to be an industrial powerhouse, now it's lagging behind, but it still has so much heritage. The Victorians were something else.
Great video on Dublin 💖lovely place, and happy to see them invest in transit!!
I visited Glasgow around 2009, it was an intense experience. The huge disparity between the glorious industrial past and the decaying, nearly dystopian present was unlike anywhere else I've seen. I must admit that visiting Edinburgh afterwards felt like a breath of fresh air, you can hate me for that haha.
I sincerely hope things have improved since then, it really felt like a city with soo much wasted potential..
Yes, please do Glasgow. It has suburban trains to almost every suburb and nearby town, but connectivity is poor and little is radial. Despite a few reopenings there's a lot of talk about expansion and modernisation but nothing ever seems to come to fruition.
@@osasunaitor No hate, I'm from neither Glasgow nor Edinburgh, but I have lived for a long time in both and I am fond of both, but I do prefer Glasgow. Edinburgh is very pretty but feels more like a town overcrowded by tourists and it's a bit Disney-fied, while Glasgow feels more like a normal big city, a bit more chaotic and definitely more vibrant and fun, it has more personality and its people are more real (and has a more diverse food scene which is important to me). Also better for train nerds.
I guess it's a matter of personal taste as well and how much urban decay one can tolerate. I do like the Gotham vibes.
Glasgow was really hit by the end of the British Empire, de-industrialisation, Margaret Thatcher, and it's been devastated by poor car-centric urban planning and depressing 60s-70s housing. Some areas of greater Glasgow still have decades of recovery ahead of them, but they exist in parallel with normal places and very prosperous areas with great housing and some of the best schools in Scotland.
Overall the city has been changing and is constantly improving but there's a lot to be done and it's frustratingly slow for many.
Lovely to see you cover Dublin! It was a fun video, and I agree with the conclusion: it's a pretty good plan. The execution of the plan, however... we'll put it this way: I'm still a student, and if any of the plan actually happens before I retire, I'll be shocked. In a good way, but shocked
This video is incredibly kind to Dublin's pathetic public transport.
The DART was the electrification of a coastal commuter line built in the 1830s...and the eclecrification was completed 40 years ago.
The two Luas lines were built 20 years ago and the main extensions completed 15 years ago.
Since then almost nothing added, and the proposed additions are scheduled for construction a decade from now - likely to join numerous Luas, DART and metro projects planned 20 years ago and abandoned.
@@brendanfitzsimons1282 That's because he's not insular like yourself and can compare cities internationally.
I wonder what big event happened in the late 00s that crippled infrastructure investment for a decade...
Unfortunately, Ireland's economy left the chat in 2008 for a decade or so. They have only recently recovered, so it's natural that projects are being resumed now.
The cross city luas link was not completed 15 years ago, it finished in 2017, and came in on time and under budget.
@@osasunaitor Ireland's economy has been booming for the last 10 years. Why plans for Metro West been brought back. Why cut the metro connect to the south. Why isn't there plans for Cork and Galway Luas'. The ambition is very limited, which is understandable when you realise how wasteful we are with spending on capital projects (see the Children's Hospital). We need to fix how we fund and develop infrastructure and prioritise public transport over cars with much greater ambition.
@@lgigsirlPlanning for Cork Luas is currently underway and there is fantastic upgrades currently happening to the Cork commuter rail network. Metrolink isn’t going to directly connect to the Luas Green line because when they did detailed investigation of the area, they discovered that the primary trunk sewage pipe for the whole of Dublin was in the way. They still plan on connecting them in future, but it will just be more difficult and expensive so they didn’t want to delay the rest of Metrolink.
I wouldn't say the DART is little known. It used to be the gateway to Ireland when the Ferries and HSS (High Speed Ship) used to come into Dun Laoghaire a through ticket from any British Railway station included the DART to Connelly station (Pearce and Tara Street) I used to visit friends in Dublin on long weekends on the rail and sail from Manchester as you finished work went home changed out of working clothes had food then got the last train to Caergybi [Holyhead] and took the 0330 boat to Dun Laoghaire getting into Dublin for breakfast.
Dublin Connelly is NOT exclusively a commuter station. It's actually the main station for InterCity Enterprise Cross Border services to Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry (NIR), Lisburn (NIR), Portadown (NIR) and Belfast (NIR)
Pearce is a lovely station a legacy of when Ireland had separate railways before CIE got everything and closed a lot down... see the missing link between Roeslare, Waterford and Cork.
The Irish Green Party, Plaid Cymru and Gwer Cymru all want to reinstate better boat train service but the ferry companies only really want lorries and tourist traffic in cars.
I also want to play the pedant card. You said "DART has Victorian gauge tracks" when in fact Melbourne uses Irish gauge!
Haha as a Melburnian, I will call them Irish track guages in solidarity
Nailed it. But there's a whole new way of thinking which has everyone saying the thing they are talking about is "under-rated" or a "hidden gem". Its tiresome. Its not little known just because *you* just found out about it.
On top of all the rail improvements, Dublin's bus network is gradually being re-organised into high frequency radial and orbital routes. New bus lanes are also being built which will hopefully result in faster, more reliable journeys
I’m actively working on this project - As a heads up, the construction phase will cause some pain - but it’ll definitely be worth it in the long run 🚌 💨
@@SilentEire When is this reorganisation of bus lines planned (as in, when will the routes or timetables change), or is it in several phases?
@andrewoakeshott7759
It’s happening right now! It’s called BusConnects, and it started a few years ago with the H-Spine (to Howth and Malahide) coming into effect. I think the next one is the E-Spine which goes from Bray-Ballymun.
The bus service is not what people want, plus I wonder how much of the bus Connects idea is a green party project to remove existing roads used by private vehicles
@@Ligerpride if you knew anything about Dublin transit you would know Bus Connects is a Jarret Walker project that long predates the Green party being in government
I think the leap card system is actually very good (As much as some may complain about it) Not only can it be used across the entire city but the entire country aswell including most private operators (with the exception intercity trains). Very reasonable fares, €1.30 single bus ride in cities, €2 for a 90 minute fare in dublin. 50% off if your under 26 or a student
Incredibly reasonable, I pay 1 euro to travel over an hour changing modes of transport twice. I don't know why people are looking to use card payment
One caviat with the Luas going to connoly is that they arent very frequent as its a one stop detour. There is a big sign that telsl you to walk to the next stop for more frequent service
It's about one in every three trams that terminates at Connolly. Mostly it's a relic from when it was the original terminus, before the Docklands section of the network was even built.
@@TheChrisD They should just remove it. Busaras is right beside it
@@TheChrisD Depends on the time of day. In the evening, it's completely closed.
Theoretically, the Connolly terminus could be axed and instead become a northeastern branch of the red line. Not something that is under discussion rn, but it is possible and I hope considered one day
@@SilentEire Connolly to Clongriffin Station stopping at the Five Lamps, North Strand Fire Station, Fairview Footbridge, Griffith Avenue, Donnycarney Church, Kilmore Road, Coolock Village, Coolock Industrial Estate, Northern Cross, Belmayne and Father Collins Park.
Buses on the Malahide Road are bedlam at rush hour. A tram line there is needed
Rooting for Dublin's (and Ireland as a whole) public transportation!
Its getting a lot better!
@@wicker1446 Ireland’s public transport North and South is very lacking, I’m hoping it gets some major investment in the future
Problem is, half of the shite promised by the Rail Commission is never delivered
Hey man love your videos as always! Please do another video about the Santiago Metro, with its 7th new line, line 8 and 9 that are already in planning, plus the 2 suburban railway extension and possible new lines. Valparaiso metro is also expanding with a new extension already in construction! much love from a Southamerican fan!
Currently, the DART+ project is being held up by a few things, but the most annoying is right near me in Ashtown. The Maynooth line runs along the Royal Canal and there's a (manual) level crossing at Ashtown station. So that level crossing can go away, they need to put a tunnel in under the canal, but the least worst option was rejected locally because there are stables on the proposed route. Plan B isn't great either as it shifts the new road and tunnel west a bit into a business park with some warehouses that are going to have to go away, but that's not the big problem: the big problem is that it's going to mean that the gate, gatehouse, and much of the walls of an estate (not the housing kind, the 💰 kind), are going to need to be demolished. The whole thing is a hot mess, really.
The level crossings on the Maynooth Line are a minor inconvenience - the big issue is the lack of a depot (thanks An Bord Pleanala) without which, there will be no DART+WEST.
@@ewanduffyi feel like the entire purpose of an Bord Pheanala is to just say no to things that’d be improve infrastructure
@@ewanduffy By the time the issues with the crossings have been sorted, An Bord Pleanála might've actually seen sense. Doubtful.
Dubliner here. I miss the train to UK ferry interchange at Dun Laoghaire that ended in the 1980s. It had been possible to get a train to the ferry terminal at Dun Laoghaire. Hop on a ferry and disembark at Holyhead. There the walk from ferry to train was also short. This gave access to the then British Rail Network. As the train arrived in central London, (Euston Station) the door to door journey times were good when trains waited for late connections was around 8 hours versus 5 1/2 for flying. A single ticket was also available. Integrated service indeed.
Dublin to London takes about 8 hours. You can knock an hour off that by going with Swift.
Of course Holyhead is out of action at the moment. Probably March or April by the time the pier gets fixed. Holyhead Port seems to have been built on the cheap.
I was in Dublin without a car two years ago. I could reach all the places I wanted to go (including both main stations) with DART or Luas, it was pretty convenient & comfortable. I think the DART station in a culvert you show is Killester, near which I stayed.
That said, I could also see that the expansion plays you outline, as well as the additional downtown connecting tunnel you propose, would be sorely needed in the car-dominated suburbs and busy downtown. In addition, they should pursue mainline electrification - the diesel long-distance trains were a bit sub-par, and they don't have that many mainlines any way.
I lived in Dublin in the past and I honestly was really happy with the public transport there, great bus coverage, the trains were good and cheaper than the ones in Milan (I'm Italian) and yeah, I miss Ireland a lot
In Milan's defence, its public transport system, particularly the metro is waaaay ahead of Dublin, though in future that may change of course. To be honest, most cities on the continent, whether in Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany etc. all have better public transport than most places in the British Isles outside of London.
Christ alive what year was it when the transport was cheaper than other European cities?
@@andrewoakeshott7759the what "Isles"?
@andrewoakeshott7759 I dunno about Italy, Rome is commonly considered quite bad, Palermo doesn't look great either.
@@toyotaprius79the €2 travel 90 and fare caps today are fairly good. Relative to salaries at least.
Historically can’t see it but maybe.
Appreciate you making this!
A few comments on this. Generally OK, but I would dispute that LUAS is the backbone of the transit system - that would be the heavy rail (both DART and diesel services).
The LUAS spur to Connolly Station was the original terminus of the line, which ran initially from Connolly to Tallaght. There was a subsequent extension of the line to The Point, which left Connolly on a spur.
The LUAS Green line was originally planned to be in a cut and cover tunnel through the city centre but business interests objected and the Irish Government caved into their objections. Co-incidentally, the politician who did this (Mary O'Rourke) passed away recently.
Originally, the heavy rail Harcourt Street line did connect to the coastal line to Bray, however, south of Cherrywood, the local authority has permitted housing to be built on the original alignment, cutting off the possibility of a return.
The genesis of DART goes back to the combination of north/south commuter services post 1958 when trains started to run from Howth to Bray. This became the original electrified section.
The reason for the northside DART stations being in a cutting with ramp access is twofold. The Dublin & Drogheda Railway (original company) built their line without level crossings (hence the cutting) and they had a pathological also hatred of footbridges. Most stations on their line used an adjacent road bridge to connect the platforms rather than provide an internal footbridge.
The conversion of the Green Line LUAS south of Charlemont to Metro is required due to capacity constraints, however, when the LUAS was being planned, the designers stupidly removed the 1850s grade separated embankment south of Ranelagh, which introduced a level crossing at the modern day Beechwood station. Recent proposals to close off this crossing were dropped due to voter objections.
I am interested in your source for the planned 4th through track at Connolly Station, not being sure where the space for this is (a look at Googlemaps would confirm this). The main problem with the line from Connolly Station to Pearse Station is that it was built on the wrong side of Connolly Station - 19th Century laissez faire British politics. That Pearse Station faces south and not north is another problem.
I think Luas could reasonably be called the backbone, it carries almost double the amount of passengers that Dart and train do
There’s a study somewhere on the DART+ website about the 4th through platform at Connolly. I doubt they’ll actually do it though. A DART tunnel would come first.
As for the problem at Pearse Stn, there are two reversing sidings to the south which are quite effective for terminating trains, and much better than the third bay platform at Grand Canal Dock one stop south.
The Genesis or Predecessor of the DART was the 1930s DRUMM Battery EMUs with 80km range and recharged quickly between Bray and Pearse street where the old south bay platform used to be. They ran mostly on hydro invested since the start of the Irish state's formation. That's considered ahead of our time for 2024 with the new Alstom DART BMUs! And they proved invaluable during WW2 coal shortages.
The Drumm battery patents originated in the partitioned Northern Ireland at the time and we're bought up by a regional oil company using post war Marshall plan funding, ending the cells' production line rendering the EMUs worn out and converted into unpowered coaches by the mid 50s.
@anoniaino There used to be a bay platform terminus in Pearse station
Agree on your Luas comments - Broombridge to Broadstone and Charlemont to Sandyford are effectively at pre-metro grade, just the entire city centre segment goes at walking pace around ridiculously tight corners. A tunnelled segment would make just a few degrees short of a metro line - and hardly would’ve resulted in any more disruption than Luas Cross City
first time seen a dublin video, these look really nice
0:20 more than Dublin it in size
I have never read a RUclips title make me feel so surprised and happy☘️
Hi Reece, nice video! Wonder when you'll cover the Budapest metro & tram systems on your channel, it has not only the first metro system in continental Europe, but it also has decent newer metro lines and tram lines too!
As someone from Los Angeles, I was pretty shocked how car centric Dublin is when I went earlier this year. This city desperately needs an underground and should ban cars from the city center.
I live in Swords, north of Dublin. I used to take the bicycle to the Dart station going to Leixlip regularly, to then continue my ride to Weston Airport. This year, Dart forbade full-sized bicycles during rush hour. It forced me to get a motorcycle, since riding such long distances on a foldable bicycle that would be allowed in the trains is not practical.
Dublin has a good public transit system, but it is centralised, often requires transfers, and doesn't serve suburban areas very well. Having the ability to carry a bicycle inside trains (and possibly even trams) at all times, would be very helpful for many of us who are not doing regular trips between well-served locations.
Thanks for making this. As a Brit, I am ashamed to say I've never been to Ireland, and I hadn't even heard of the Luas system. It's much more impressive than I realised. I'm beginning to think I should go to Ireland some time :)
You're grand. All you have to know that it wasn't just a "potato famine" it was systemic mass murder by law, market and politics of the UK.
Little things to note; Luas is pronounced the same as 'Lewis' and the language is just conventionally just called 'Irish' rather than 'Irish Gaelic'. Great video though, it's rare to hear someone speak positively about our public transport system.
Our bus network reaches very wide but is often unreliable due to contention with private car traffic. It is often faster to simply cycle than take the bus, even in the suburbs. If you come to Dublin, I'd recommend renting a Dublin Bike and cycling around the city, particularly visiting the Clontarf cycle route.
If anything it's Lew-es.
I know re. the pronounciation, its really more of an accent thing I would say!
im so happy you said howth correctly. lovely video. wouldve loved to see the old docklands tramlines highlighted which were stopeed being used in the 1920s due to the advent of busses
It's ironic that you called the 1600mm broad gauge "Victorian" whereas here in Victoria we'd much more likely call it "Irish".
The length of Brian Boru's sword
Why did the Brits pick that?
@@freddyh2213 I agree! As an Irish transport nerd I’m very offended 😂 Railways in Victoria use 1600mm because it was an Irish engineer who worked on the first railways there I believe!
I live at the far south of the green line and work in Dublin city centre. While it would be disruptive, i think expansion of the metro along the green line will definitely be needed, it'll just take forever to do and hopefully can be done in a way that isn't too disruptive (but thats unlikely). There is a lot of transport oriented development happening along the green line, which is great, but results in a rapidly increasing user base for the luas. It is already packed with people after a few stops some mornings, by the time you reach ranelagh, it's like images you see of the tokyo subways. This will only increase over time with booming developments, or perhaps there will be underutilisation due to the discomfort of travel at rush hour.
It is also very slow, which a metro system would alleviate. 50 mins travel time from far south to dawson street in the city centre, the eventual full length of the green line will likley be a total travel time of 1.5 - 2 hours, which isn't a reasonable travel time in my opinion, 4 hours round trip to get somewhere and back in he same city. (This is not comsidering delays, which happen very frequently under the current operator transdev. But i believe transdev have lost their contract due to operations issues so hopefully the next operator will be an improvement)
We did a couple of organised Railtours of Ireland trips when visiiting from Australia over a decade ago. They were brilliant with good scheduling and good accommodation for overnight stays. Highly recommended.
Excellent video. Ireland's services in Dublin are, to my mind, actually pretty good. What is needed is more services in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, etc. So not sure how much will be spent further on the capital with out cities crying out for better public transport and links to other cities. City or city by train is hugely expensive, although the bus fairs are, well, fair. As you said, I feel it is well planned and future plans look good, but other areas around the country feel left to one side. It hurts their development and harms the drive to get people away from cars. Outside of Dublin, it is nearly impossible to live and work in Ireland without a car.
Ireland used to have a lot larger train network, but a lot of it was tore up in the 1950s and hasn't had much back
Like most countries. Pretty much every old heavy rail alignment in Dublin is back in use by now.
Ulster is the worse affected, it went from 12 cross border railways to just a single one today
An interesting an very accurate State of the Union for Dublin rail services. The Metrofication of the southern Luas Green section is now not happening, at least for the foreseeable, but a strong lobby is growing to continue Metro south of the Grand Canal, in a southwesterly direction, underground to serve the Edwardian suburbs of Rathmines, Terenure, Templeogue, Firhouse and Oldbawn; ultimately linking up with the Luas Red branch terminus at Tallaght, the Square.
For any tourists the red line can be rough, especially when the courts are in session.
It will be amazing to see the MetroLink. We're stopping over in Dublin next summer and was surprised to find that there was no easy easy rail link to get into the city, just south of the airport.
I always like to complain about Irish rail and Dublin's transport network but you can get most places on public transport here. One problem they have is with signalling though, trains into Connolly almost always have to wait for a platform to become available and have to leave four minutes between trains arriving. Also I'd take the plans like dart + and the link to the airport with a grain of salt, they've been promising those projects for years..
Thank you for making this video I'm so happy someone is talking about Dublin!
1. The new metro project will never happen cus aunt Aisling doesn't want construction down the street.
2. The luas is so packed in the city centre at most times of day that people try to avoid it if they can. The worst part of the service is between the hospital - Houston - Connoly. This should be an individual line on its own.
3. I use the intercity trains daily and morning and evening is again packed. They are not managing. Not to comment on the dirt in the bathooms.
4. Crime. I got slapped by a junkie on the luas and was forced to watch people do crack in the trains.
The LUAS is great... we just need more of them
@@thegaelicgladiator665 it is slow, Cherrywood to Stephen's Green takes an hour
I live in Finglas and just before the election they announced the go ahead for the LUAS extension from cabra ,it is 4 stops first talked about in 2017 and expected to be finished in 2032 ,so 15 years to build 4 stop extension.
What I find interesting is that Dublin, which is a similar population size to the Boston area, has a minuscule fraction of Boston’s total rail transit. It’s a rare example of an American city that does more transit than a European city pair…
Not really. Anglophone countries really don't have that good of Transit Networks. I'm sure Boston would beat out any English City outside of London, as well as any City in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand etc
The MBTA area covered by rail is much much larger than Dublin City with lines over 100km in some cases. That would fall under Inter City travel in Ireland and would be well outside Dublin.
The whole Boston MBTA does about 240m passengers per year across all forms of public transport. For a large network the size of Boston those numbers are poor.
Dublin Bus carries 150m, Go-Ahead Ireland buses another 20m in Dublin. LUAS 50m, DART 20m and suburban commuter services in the Dublin area another 11m to 12m (basically the area covered by existing DART and future DART of circa 150km).
If Boston commuter rail is carrying only 26m passengers per year on 634km of track then something is being done badly. I suspect the frequency must be terrible on many lines.
these public transit expansion plans are great for Dublin and we are doing the right stuff with them. The main issues are the bus network really, we have a huge driver shortage, buses often aren't reliable, we dont have contactless tap to pay, and most buses are beyond capacity so many people are left at the stop. Some of the highly used bus lines could easily be converted to LUAS, such as Lucan, or the 15, 46a buses etc. But there is no plans to do this other than for Lucan. If we could sort out the bus issues I think transport in Dublin would actually become amazing!!
Ireland's economy "booming" is in the same way that Canada's is stagnant: it stems from problems in calculating economic activity biasing claiming things are better then they actually are.
The economy is booming and public finances are flush with cash. We just take so long to get anything built or implemented here, that we don’t see the effects of the wealth we have.
@@fricatus Blame the NIMBYs who file judicial reviews at every planned infrastructure project.
The economy is absolutely in great shape, especially when compared to our neighbours in Europe
The economy is increasing in size, just use an indicator other than gdp to ascertain that increase
@ZontarDow The economy is unquestionably booming. The problem of using GDP as a measure of economic output is a different issue. The cash is very real and it's being collected by the government in the billions
Great to see a video from you on Dublin!
One important detail about the Red line here is it's kind of been a victim of its own success. Particularly the segment from Heuston to Busaras (and reverse in the evening) is massively massively overcrowded during rush hour (M-F 8-10 and 4-6). We don't have Japan style train pushers to cram more people in, but it honestly feels pretty close.
They're kind of stuck for relief for that line too, the trams are already junction to junction at some of the inner city stops (e.g. abbey street, smithfield, busaras) and plenty of roads which are not stops too. More frequency would also be challenging as the overcrowding leads to long dwell times as people try to squeeze a couple more in which causes issues closing the doors, which in turn means at rush hour it pretty much is "one tram pulls off, another tram pulls in".
Another option might be to have a shuttle type service from Heuston to Connolly to take the traffic off the Luas altogether. There's a huge flow of people from outside the city to Heuston, then on the luas towards the docklands. There is actually the Phoenix Park Tunnel and they do sometimes run an exceptional service from Heuston to Connolly on days of major sporting events, but I think there are concerns with the route not being up to high traffic volumes.
There was a couple of years relief from 2020 to 2022 as COVID and WFH reduced demand, but it's really blown up again since 2023 with the push to RTO from the (mostly tech) companies down by the docklands.
It feels like the only solution would be a parallel line on a parallel street and alternate some of the stops, but I'm curious if others have other suggestions.
It's severely constrained by the street layout, which is why the red line trams aren't longer. TBH, the Luas's layout is better suited to a metro system than a tram system.
Really that DART tunnel is what’s needed to fix that.
As for the Phoenix park tunnel, that’s used quite regularly on weekdays for trains into Grand Canal Dock in the centre. The problem with that is it doesn’t stop at Heuston and there’s not enough capacity in Connolly for more of them.
@@talideonexactly. The luas red line in the city area is essentially a poor structure and an underground was the only way to go in my opinion.
The 150 or 151 bus, I can't remember the number, is a much faster option going almost exactly parallel to the Luas.
DART+ to Heuston will take some heat off it given it will use the Phoenix Park tunnel. I think 6 services per hour.
Lucan Luas will probably help more as it provides another E-W alignment through the city centre.
Clearly DART Underground is what is needed though.
Luas Red Line has a shuttle service between Connolly and Heuston on weekends. It wouldn't be popular taking away limited capacity from further afield to form a peak time shuttle.
DUBLIN-MALAHIDE! I went there this year to my grandmothers hometown, I went on the train there many times too. - Nathan
Merry Xmas, Reece and all best wishes for the New Year.
first video ive ever seen that has something good to say about our public transport
The Dart and most buses don’t run past 23:30 which is a big stinker. Also Its a real pain to cross horizontally the suburbs without having to go into town first. What I really want to see is rail links from dart across to luas with stops in between coz buses are so slow and unreliable
BUS CONNECTS,is doing that, I live in Finglas and the J4 bus travels east-west. ,it goes from Blanch to the 3 Areana past DCU .
Pro tip -- do NOT attempt to board a Dublin bus unless you have either exact fare (coins, NOT notes), a leap card or a prepaid ticket, which are available at almost all shops and convenience stores. Credit and debit cards are not acceptable at present, although that's set to change in the next few years.
I was utterly astonished that you can't use contactless on Dublin buses. Even Transhitlink up North has finally fully migrated to contactless payment.
@@ballyhigh11 It's coming...
I was under the impression that the contactless integration would take around ten years, at least that's what Eamon Ryan (I think) said. I hope it comes sooner, because ten years seems to be an absurdly long time for it to roll out.
@RhysoTV It won't take anything like that long. It's supposed to come in in 2025, 2026 latest.
I’d like to compliment you on pronouncing Irish place names correctly. Well done 😊
The livery of the older DART trains looks very fairytale-ish!
True, I see what you mean
I still would like to go to Dublin and the rest of the Republic of Ireland. Their trains are so nice and the Luca trams in Dublin are also very nice.
DART! - Dublin Area Rapid Transit!
Great video, I really hope the metro project especially gets out of planning permission purgatory.
Irish people complain about this system a lot, in my experience. It's not bad, but it's not as good as it should be, especially for a rapidly growing and quite rich city.
It's a great system for getting people in and out of the city centre if they happen to live along the 3 transit lines. But not great for getting around once your in the city or commuting from other areas.
its good if you live in or close to Dublin, but the further away you get its stops being as good
@@jafrazerI think this is a fair summation, it does get people into the city centre quite quickly - though not across the city
So cool to see another perspective on our (relatively) little town! A note from a West Dubliner, a lot of conversation surrounding rail in Dublin is definitely… not full of praise. The Metrolink is spoken about in the same terms as the rapture, nobody really believes it’ll ever happen! And in parts of West Dublin, especially Lucan, the Luas is *nice* but generally the bus network is faster (if they show at all). Over recent years the bus network in particular has been gutted and reshaped in so many ways that haven’t left commuters happy (I still miss getting the 40, I’ve even gone as far as Charlestown just to revisit the old haunt) . A lot of that is to do with English + American private consultancy on the bus system, which is definitely a touchy subject . I’m definitely a daydreamer about what public transport could’ve been in Dublin, my grandfather is a Transport Historian and has told me many a tale of the potential rail infrastructure we could’ve developed at the start of the 20th century! Much of my memories as a young fella are hopping on the red line Luas to go to Chapters on Parnell Street and going out to Howth to see my grandad tour and restore the collection of historical Trams and buses out in the museum! So I definitely have a softer spot for Buses, Trams and Trains than most in the County, but I still have my massive gripes (Luas should’ve gone through Ballyfermot, only area with its own postcode, mup D10! So we’d have to deal with less of the rat run on the main road). The fact we’ve no connecting line straight to Dublin Airport is a travesty! I know my dad would’ve been grateful to not have to commute all the way Northside every morning by car! Anywes, great video! Would be great to see you look at our national rail, we’re only wee so there’s not too much to it! Or even the proposed “Cluas” for Cork City, which would be a godsend for me, I can’t deal with Bus Éireann anymore!
I worked on the Luas, it was a nightmare, one foot under the ground is nothing but History that can only be dug by archeologist's. trust me you don't need to go much under Dublin and the site comes to a hault because of a coin, a bone, or a case of what the hell is this doing here? Two feet under the ground and the Viking's come back to haunt you....🤣
We visited Dublin last year. An airport to downtown rail link is definitely needed, as the taxi ride took a long time due to traffic congestion
Very good presentation on a cool bundle of systems!
Good video! The one thing i disagree with you on is how well the luas interacts with the road network. The red line stops and starts at nearly every intersection with a road, often for minutes at a time, and often without any cars even crossing in front of it. I wish the luas was further prioritised so that instead of waiting a minute for a single car to cross in front, the car would have to wait instead. I imagine dublin isnt the only place with this issue though.
as a Dublin Native i RAN when I seen this video, perfect video mate.
Amazing documentary that, from experience, seems accurate and a massive kudos for pronouncing all the placenames better than some natives ; )
btw, I'm pretty sure the Metro plan where it was to take over the Green Line Luas did include stations in the city centre. The big issue on conversion to Metro was it would require the line to close off several roads that currently cross over the Luas tracks so that it could become a Metro.
If Metro North gets built (it feels like they've been talking about it for 30 years!), something will have to be done about the Luas Green line from the south as with a direct line to the Airport, it will become incredibly popular.
And the Green Luas is already in high demand.
There is a direct intercity/suburban rail connection between Heuston and Connolly that goes under Phoenix Park in a short tunnel. Mostly used by commuter trains and reopened about 2010 after being shuttered decades before
I live right by Bray Dart Station, and my brother worked there for years, along with his friends. I remember one night his friend was driving a Dart that had just gone out of service, and he picked us up in the driver's compartment for a spin to Greystones and back. They got out of the seat and tried to get me to take over driving, but I was a child and felt too awkward 😅
thanks for the shout out to pierce... i always stopped at it on my commute in college, way less confusing than conolly
Its interesting seeing trains that go through places like that, I can't imagine seeing something like that in person , being from the midwest US where there is no room from a train system like that
I found the Red Line to being lacking in capacity at rush hour when I was in Dublin for a few days earlier this year. I always had to wait on multiple trams before one would arrive that I could comfortably squeeze onto.
I've been waiting so long for Dublin :)
I freaking love the dart cause when i slap the seats a mysterious sand like powder comes out
Great video
A great summary of Dublin's current and planned transport system.
I totally agree with you that converting the Green line to Metro would be a mistake. There are two huge problems with this proposal in my opinion. The southern part of the Green line was built on the trackbed of the old Harcourt line. However, the original line ran on an embankment. South of Ranelagh the embankment was removed to avoid having to put lifts in stations. This means that to turn it into Metro, all the road crossings would have to be closed, splitting communities in two. The second problem is that when the line was extended, it deviated off the Harcourt line, and the extension is not suitable for metro. So we would end up with two sections of Green line, and for certain journeys passengers would need to get on one end of the (former) Green line, change to a Metro, then change to a different Green line tram. It would also mean we'd end up with two bits of tram line that aren't nearly as useful as one connected one.
But I think it would be really good to plan a southern extension of the metro line. The southwestern quadrant of the city is not well served by public transport. I think it would make sense to extend the line through Rathmines, Rathfarnham, Terenure, Tempelogue, Firhouse, and meet the Red line at Tallaght. A lot of that could run as an elevated line through the Dodder valley, reducing costs. It would be a much faster connection from Tallaght to the city, and would encourage "densification" of the areas along the route.
thx for your work!
One thing I will say (as a visitor who went there in 2019) the mixed use sections of the green routes are/were very crazy busy lol
Sitting on the dart heading to dalkey for a few pints watching this. 😂
I visited Dublin in November 2024. Didn’t get to ride Luas, but i did ride DART, the Drogheda/Dundalk ”Commuter” train, and Dublin Bus routes 4, 7, 7A, 33, 77A and 123.
Also my favorite station on DART is Killiney, because of the views around the station. A very long beach and views out on the open sea, and the train comes out on a tunnel and runds along the mountainside, a bit higher up from the beach. Looks really cool.
At present, some trains out of M3 Parkway run to Connolly, instead of going to Docklands. My solution would be to close the Docklands branch and run all services to Connolly via Drumcondra, instead.
I lived in Dublin, I am glad I had a bicycle and a light motorcycle to be honest (although be be fair both got stolen - normal in Dublin).
You can't hop on a DART like you might imagine, sometimes you wait 10 to 15 minutes, it's raised urban section is the slowest speed I've ever experienced on a train like vehicle. I clocked it at 30kmph top speed for more than 3 stations. It's useful as a connection for the suburbs it ends up at if you live there, but not useful for getting around closer to the city centre.
The Luas is slow but ok if you happen to live on it, but it is just 2 lines spearing into a pretty sprawling city and it's not like you can be too fussy about where you live so you probably won't end up nearby. Dublin city has a phobia about building up, because many want to preserve the beautiful lowrise red brick facades, former council houses, Apache pizza take away places and old man pubs. As a consequence many of the new developments end up being an hour or more on the Luas. A long way to travel to get into a pretty uninspiring overpriced city centre if you live there and a long way home. As mentioned, its not like it starts to pick up too much speed as you get further out.
The buses go everywhere as somebody mentioned, but if you think the DART and LUAS are slow, try taking a bus up the Liffy at rush hour. I was beaten for time, no joke, by a man on crutches (quite a common site along the Liffy) one time. You might also get a mob of teenagers dressed in the North Face getting on and raising hell if you are unlucky. My journey time through the city centre when I lived in D8 and worked in D1 was 28 minutes by bus, 35 minutes walking, 12 minute bicycle. So pretty much no good reason to take a bus with those stats. And that is typical. At night time you can wait 20 to 30 minutes for them. Often had to go get a tea in a McDonalds (and brave more the North Face jacket teenagers there too) at night time, trying to get home. Oh and of course some of the buses disappear. They are very famous for that in Dublin.