THE CASE for HEAVY RAIL Dublin Is in the Process of Finally Deciding the Structure of Its Public Transport System, in Particular
DECIDING ON DUBLIN'S INTEGRATED TRANSPORT POLICY THE CASE FOR HEAVY RAIL MARTIN ROGERS DUBLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 1. B A C K G R O U N D Dublin is in the process of finally deciding the structure of its public transport system, in particular the form of rail-based transport to be employed in the capital. This process has been ongoing since the early nineties when the Dublin Transport Initiative (DTI) was established to put together a transportation plan for the Greater Dublin Area to the year 2011, publishing its final report in 1995 (DTI, 1995). The problem of resolving the public transport needs for the capital city has its basis in the recommendations of this report. This paper examines the data used to formulate the initial Core Strategy of projects contained within the DTI Final Report which dealt with all surface transport (road, rail, bus, cycling and walking), and examined transport in an integrated sense, inter-relating it with policies such as economic development, employment and the environment. This paper discusses whether the judgements made by the decision-makere within DTI Phase 2 regarding the most appropriate transport strategy for the region were, in retrospect, the correct ones. In particular, this report, in the opinion of the author, did not pick the correct suburban rail option for Dublin as part of its chosen core strategy. It also asks whether any suitable corrective action has been taken in the intervening years as part of the DTI review process to adjust the strategy, where appropriate, and whether the proposed strategy update corrects, to any extent, the original errors committed.
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