Railway to Navan in 2008 not 2015

[Celbridger]

If the political will was there Navan could have a railway service next year and not in eight years time.

http://www.platform11.org/campaigns/...n_drogheda.php

Is the desire to maximise profits for the operator of the M3 Motorway the real reason why the Navan railway has been longfingered?

If that's the case it is one of the worst instances of Gombeenism from the Gombeen Mens' Government.

[Catalpa]

The traffic chaos going through Blanchardstown is a frigging disgrace!

We badly need a huge investment in transportation infrastructure by whoever form the next Government.

Rail, road and Underground link must be prioritised otherwise by teh time the next GE rolls around AA Roadwatch will be telling us on the radio that the area is 'once again Impassable'!

[The Analyser]

If the political will was there Navan could have a railway service next year and not in eight years time.

http://www.platform11.org/campaigns/...n_drogheda.php

Is the desire to maximise profits for the operator of the M3 Motorway the real reason why the Navan railway has been longfingered?

If that's the case it is one of the worst instances of Gombeenism from the Gombeen Mens' Government.

The truth is simple. Lands around the M3 route have all been bought by developers whose alleged corruption in the past has been the subject of tribunals. They are major donors to FF.

If the M3 was rerouted away from Tara they could lose money. The result: FF refuses appeals worldwide to reroute the roadway. Result number 2: money in the pockets of FF-supporting developers. Result No 3: big donations to FF and people in it.

If the railway was built and opened, a different sort of roadway would be needed, because of less traffic. That might mean a different route, so less profit for the developers and the party who they donate to, FF. Result: FF stalls on the railway, even though the ordinary people in Meath desparately need it. So the railway gets pushed back to 2015 when the roadway will be built. When the roadway is built, property developers will make their hundreds of millions. FF will then announce how with the railway is no longer needed. And all the grateful developers, having made their millions, will know who to thank and who to 'donate' to: FF.

It is an open secret that we will need a tribunal to investigate the money trail in what is going on in Meath right now. Three years ago a journalist taked me through the shananagans of what is going on, but which cannot be revealed under the defamation laws. If you think what was going on in North Dublin was bad, and that Burke was a crook, what is going on in the counties around Dublin right now will make ypur hair stand on end.

What happened in Dublin, with the crazy rezonings, gave us our traffic jams and poor quality of life. What is going on in places like Meath will not only give us bad planning, traffic jams and a poor quality of life. It involves doing so by destroying irreplaceable heritage.

FF's decision to require people in Meath to queue on the roads every morning for hours around Navan and Dunshaughlin, rather than open the railway, is politics at its most cynical. De Valera, McEntee, Routeledge and the founders of FF must be turning in their graves. :twisted:

[alonso]

Sadly the people of meath are also culpable. The M3 was the only issue in the by election. They all wanted it and opposed those who wanted to save Tara. The destruction of the outer counties around Dublin will backfire spectacularly. The Navan rail line is one of the most ridiculous failings of this government.

However policy should be redirected away from facilitating long distance commuting and towards providing jobs in places like Navan Town, Drogheda etc. Travel is a derived demand and it;s time to tackle it properly. Martin Cullen, Dick Roche and the entire FF/PD developer led government will never do this

[The Analyser]

Sadly the people of meath are also culpable. The M3 was the only issue in the by election. They all wanted it and opposed those who wanted to save Tara. The destruction of the outer counties around Dublin will backfire spectacularly. The Navan rail line is one of the most ridiculous failings of this government.

However policy should be redirected away from facilitating long distance commuting and towards providing jobs in places like Navan Town, Drogheda etc. Travel is a derived demand and it;s time to tackle it properly. Martin Cullen, Dick Roche and the entire FF/PD developer led government will never do this

The irony is that the Navan-Dublin railway is sitting there right now. I have travelled on it. Some years ago CIE ran a train on it bringing GAA supporters to a match in Dublin. So the friggin' thing is there. Even if they may need to change the route, they still have a route in situ that can be used practically straight away while working on an alternative for parts of it. All they have to do is

i. Lay new tracks, as the old ones probably could not withstand continuous use.
ii. Buy trains.
iii. Fit the trains into the train schedule of a Dublin station.

It isn't like the farcical M3 where they have to build the whole thing from scratch. It is sitting there right now. In theory they could have a train sitting at the old railway station on Railway Street in Navan in an hour's time. But they won't because of the corruption.

[alonso]

In fairness, the line should be used tomorrow, but it can only be a temporary measure. A dedicated rail service for NW Dublin and Meath along the proposed navan corridor will definitely be necessary. While Platform 11 and Meath on Track have illustrated that, in the current service scenario, Navan can be served with the old freight line, it cannot possibly be sufficient for the future.

The Dublin-Belfast line will be serving the expanding suburban population by the DART, a new suburb at Clongriffin/Baldoyle, expanding Portmarnock and Malahide, a huge population of 20,000 in Donabate, a population of 30,000 in East Meath (Bettystown/Donacarney/Mornington) and 60,000 in Drogheda. Not to mention Laytown, Skerries, Balbriggan et al.

What's really worrying is that phase 1 is currently in planning, Dublin-Pace Park and Ride, and this will probably be seen by whatever govt. as sufficient for Navan commuters. They can drive down, pay their tolls and then hop on a train. It's quite possible that Navan will not be served by rail for 25 years