Sean Ardagh T.D. - Fianna Fail

Transport

Transport 21-Connecting Dublin
A Greater Dublin Area Strategy, which involves the transformation and integration of the public transport system in the Greater Dublin Area and the substantial upgrade of the M50 Dublin c-ring motorway.

Luas extending to Serve the people of Dublin South Central

The Luas Line from Lucan to the City Centre scheduled for completion in 2013 will serve Ballyfermot, Liffey Valley and Lucan. This line will provide an alternative Luas access into the city centre. It will open up a new tram corridor on the south inner city serving areas with poor rail access. It will also provide a connection to Metro West.
St Stephen's Green to Liffey Junction will connect the existing Luas Tallaght and Sandyford Lines and continues on, via Grangegorman, to meet the Maynooth suburban rail line at Liffey Junction.
The new red line will extend the Luas Red Line from Tallaght to City West by 2010 and from Connolly station to the Dockland by 2009.
The Luas Green Line will extend from Sandyford to Cherrywood by 2010 and onto Bray by 2010.
A feasibility study (one of only three such studies in the Transport 21 Plan) of bringing a new Luas extension through Harold’s Cross and Terenure is underway with the publication expected within the next 12 months. This will be followed by local consultation.

More Buses

Since 2002 we have provided over 269 new buses for Dublin.
We will deliver 200 extra buses over the next two years. We have provided €30m immediately to enable Dublin Bus to buy 100 additional buses for delivery over the period 2006/07.
We have authorised the Dublin Transport Authority to provide 100 buses from the private sector on new routes.
These buses improve the quality and reliability of the fleet as well as providing for increased services.

Heuston Station Project (2004)
In 2004 the station was completely redesigned to increase platforms from 5 to 9 and re-track and re-signal the approaches to the station. This allows greater flexibility in train movements in and out of the station and reduces journey times at a cost of over €100 million.

Traffic Calming/Road Safety Measures
These schemes are designed to improve footpaths, roads and speed ramps and pedestrian lights improve road safety in addition to improving road safety.

Area	Works	Amount €
Inchicore	Installation of ramping at Vincent Street West	22,500
Bluebell	Provision of pedestrian barriers and additional signage.
Rialto	Provision of pedestrian crossings at Rialto and Fatima LUAS stations.
Rutland Grove Estate	Installation of a roundabout at the junction of numbers 38 and 42 as a measure to reduce the incidence of joyriding.
Aughavanagh	Ramps	33,000
Glenealy Road	Ramps
Rutland Grove	Repainting of box junction
Cornmarket, Dublin 8:	Extended stone paved public space at Cornmarket, opposite Nos 9-13 (part of complete project estimated at €500,000).	100,000
	Total	€155,500

City Wide Impacting Initiatives:
New City Centre (Docklands) Station

Project involves the provision of a new railway station in the Docklands area to provide a short-term solution to the need to provide increased capacity and frequency on Maynooth and Western services to cater for growing demand.
The station will be a prerequisite for the proposed Clonsilla/Dunboyne spur off the Maynooth line.
The station will be a temporary one until the Interconnector- including a larger, underground Docklands Station - is completed.
Iarnród Éireann has commenced construction of the station, which is due for completion in 2007.

Dublin Airport
We will deliver a new terminal for Dublin Airport. The new terminal is likely to become fully operational in 2009 when Dublin Airport’s forecast passenger numbers will be in excess of 22 million. We are also delivering Pier D by October 2007. This will mean an additional 14 boarding gates.

Upgrading the M50
Work has begun on upgrading the M50. This involves the widening of the motorway from 2 to 3 lanes in each direction (with a 4th auxiliary lane in places), from the M50/M1 interchange near Dublin Airport through to the Sandyford Interchange and the upgrade of the interchanges along this length. The upgrade work will take place in three phases. This scheme will provide a motorway standard road linking all of the major interurban routes serving Dublin and the Regions as well as removing through traffic from Dublin City centre and suburbs. It is expected to be complete by 2010.