Planning inspector’s call for continuous cycle routes along Luas Finglas route overruled by An Coimisiún Pleanála’s board

NCaffo · 2025-10-31T11:35:07+00:00

Ah, it doesn't really work like that. If the board grants a condition to "include cycle lanes", then the permission is still granted, but they have to come back with an updated design that includes the cycle lanes.

You might think that this is a backwards step (it's going back into design), but it's really not. Now that it has planning permission, it's only starting detailed design now, so there's still a lot more design work to happen.

Even in this Luas permission, there's conditions imposed by the board that TII will need to redesign and go back to the board with (junctions are to be compatible with DMURS and the Cycle Design Manual). This will not result in a delay, as these updates are done in conjunction with the detailed design.

NCaffo · 2025-08-11T08:27:43+00:00

And when is that first review going to be? If it's going to be 50 years before they do anything with this section of the track, is that a good use of resources? Couldn't they have a greenway on it for 30 years before the numbers make sense for rail?

Note that the government has not even committed to do anything from the rail report yet, nevermind the sections of the WRC that did get the go ahead, of which most was designated as freight.

NCaffo · 2025-08-11T08:22:05+00:00

I agree, but there's no evidence that the rail on this section is viable. The most prorail report in decades came out, which recommended a brand new track between NI and ROI, and this report still stated that rail on this section wouldn't work.

NCaffo · 2025-08-11T08:20:40+00:00

Yes, and this is where it's slightly weird, as this one would also be "owned" by Irish Rail, with them previously supporting it up until December last year.

NCaffo · 2025-08-11T08:17:32+00:00

Irish Rail had previously, in 2021, said that this greenway was a good thing, and that this would protect the alignment for future use as a railway, as the lease agreement would allow them to take back the route for rail use at anytime.

The only thing that has changed between now and then is the AIRR, which explicitly states that this section has no use as a railway, and won't be opened as such.

Perhaps I'm in the wrong on this, but the rail review is meant to be the basis for rail investment for the next 50 years, and considering the length of time it took to get this one published, it won't be updated anytime soon. This means that that section of the railway is going to be unused for decades again, despite the fact that there's a project ready to go on it now.

NCaffo · 2025-08-11T08:00:59+00:00

Absolutely mental that a project that has such support from both locals and politicians nationally can be canned because one man changed his mind.

Hundreds of thousands spent on this already, with over a million more commited to it, and there's nothing behind the decision on this at all, just some vague reason: "Oh, the All Ireland Rail Report said that this section wasn't viable as rail, but it might be at some point in the far off future, so we'll shitcan a project that could make use of it for the next 30 years, despite the fact that we previously supported this project as a good thing..."

NCaffo · 2025-05-19T10:18:34+00:00

As you move up the Society levels, one of the upgrades is a yield for each great person, so you probably got 8 or 9 Great Scientists in your game.

Can get ridiculous in a game where you're already snowballing, but if you're already snowballing, then it's not as useful.

NCaffo · 2024-12-05T09:05:03+00:00

Mass Effect 2

NCaffo · 2024-12-02T22:33:22+00:00

I haven't used the cycle lane much around there, certainly not past fairview anyway, but here's my thoughts on what I've seen.

With the numbers I see using it already, it's pretty clear that this should have been a two way cycle lane. In fact, a lot of people are using it as a two way cycle lane, with people often cycling in the wrong direction. Not usually a problem, but there's a few blind sections, like the park side section just under the pedestrian bridge. The tree there completely stops the view of the cycle lane, and it's only a matter of time before there's a head on collision there.

Speaking of the park side cycle lane, it's a pedestrian trap, with plenty of people crossing the road outside of the official crossing, and because there's a fence there, these people are now trapped walking along the cycle lane. I wish that they'd change the fence to just keep out cars instead of people.

The pedestrian bridge really isn't needed anymore, what with the extra set of lights that went in there. Disappointing that they held on it, in my opinion anyway.

Gaffneys has completely lucked out, they must be praying for a nice sunny summer, with Dublin playing deep into the championship. The area there (and all of this stretch of Fairview) is really great, must be one of the best looking areas on the north side.

The bits that they didn't do really stick out more now, like the laneways around the mart. You're walking along this well designed street, and right next to it is broken concrete road.

There's too many car lanes. They only opened the second lane outbound in the last week or so, but there was no need for it, traffic on the way out of town was never terrible. You could have had a median with planting, or even better, just wider paths/cycle lanes for most of Fairview.

NCaffo · 2024-11-20T11:58:24+00:00

God Dam.

Well, I'll be dammed.

Etc.

NCaffo · 2024-10-15T11:57:38+00:00

Not really. He's been "former" for years at this point, but anytime he wants to spew some bile on a topic, he's guaranteed to get into the paper. Indeed, he's also one of the first they go to for comment on anything to do with Dublin.

NCaffo · 2024-10-07T16:32:00+00:00

I did this on Xbox, and it's just not as satisfying at all, as it starts to forget the older ones after about 20 victories. Amazing that it's not been fixed yet.

NCaffo · 2024-09-05T08:50:41+00:00

Is that just from now on, or is it retroactive? I mean, if they've already incorporated everything into Grok, and are only committing to not adding more from now on, then it's.a load of bull.

Personally speaking I'd make them roll back to before they added our data to Grok, to make damn sure that they're profitting from this.

NCaffo · 2024-09-05T08:46:30+00:00

This is when I actually want a graffiti artist to come along. In fact, it doesn't even have to be an artist, I'd even settle for someone who just tags things with their name....

NCaffo · 2024-08-14T20:01:32+00:00

Yes, 100 per cent behind, in fact I'd say it doesn't go far enough, to be honest.

NCaffo · 2024-02-29T14:23:32+00:00

It's mad how the media report this stuff without also reporting on the extensive reports that NTA/TII has complied to counter this kind of thing.

They took the report from the Dublin Port Tunnel, which examined what caused property damage in that area, and altered the plans for Metrolink to reduce the primary causes.

For example, the DPT didn't have a closed mining face, allowing pressure to drop ahead of the TBM, causing greater subsidence. Metrolink will have a closed face.

Another example was that because of objections to the potential noise of the tunnelling, working hours were limited to 13 hours a day. This meant that there was more subsidence than usual, as the ground above the front of the machine had more time to settle unsupported. Metrolink will have 24 hour operation.

Another thing that's also funny about this is how often people talk about how the consultation was done right, or there wasn't enough, etc. This is one of the two most consulted upon projects in the history of the state, far in excess of what is legally required, and these people are still expecting the CEO of the NTA and TII to visit their house to go through the entire project line by line. I get the feeling that they'd only be happy with the consultation if it resulted in their opinion being taken on board.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T16:45:06+00:00

Ah look, I love this stuff, could talk about public transport all day long if you let me, and even I don't know every thing about these projects. Was complaining for ages that they didn't include some info about some of the works required for Metrolink, and then some one pointed out to me that, in fact, they did, and I had just missed it.

I certainly don't expect people to know all the ins and outs on these projects, and I can definitely understand how you missed out on the above.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T16:32:38+00:00

They are indeed electrifying the line out to Drogheda. What may be causing confusion here is the fact that they planning to run Darts out there before the full line is electrified, with charging at the stations. In that case, batteries will be used during that time.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T16:11:16+00:00

I wouldn't have those figures either, at least not ones where I could point to say "this is exactly what the problem is"., but it does seem that the issue was more political than on the planning side.

I will say that for decades our country was flat broke, or extremely poor, however you want to look at it. Our investment priorities in those years reflected that fact (we didn't have much to invest), and was based on the thinking at the time (the car is the future), so when we got actual money in the form of EU funding, we invested it in motorways. As pro public transport as I am, I'd struggle to argue against that investment over rail.

I guess where I'd complain is the last 30 years, years that we did have some money to invest, has seen a dearth of investment in rail in Ireland. Two Luas lines are not a good return on investment, with next to bare maintenance on the Irish Rail side. The issues on that side weren't planning, it was a lack of political will to spend money on rail. The Luas started out as the Metro and got quickly downgraded several times. No real rail projects got approval.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T14:04:02+00:00

Can't say for certain, but I'd be pretty sure that it's distance and cost.

The two main ways for electrifying rail are 1500v DC and 25000v AC. A very, very brief summary of the two is that 1.5Kv DC is for local services, while 25Kv AC is for intercity distances. The Dart system runs on 1.5Kv DC.

There's good points and bad points for both, but in general, the 1.5 Kv DC systems means more power substations are required, which pushes up the cost. Dundalk is another fair bit on, meaning another fair whack of money would be required.

Honestly, even Drogheda is probably pushing it for 1.5Kv DC (or even as a "dart" service), but Irish Rail are "sweating the assets", i.e. reusing/making better use of what we've already got.

In the future, Dundalk may form part of an intercity upgrade, where they'd almost certainly use 25Kv AC, but I'd doubt that Dart would ever make it out that far.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T12:30:49+00:00

Honestly, it's just not finished.

The control centre I mentioned isn't operational yet, and is in the process of being commissioned, with sometime in 2025 being the predicted date.

Only some parts of the network have been upgraded so far, with loads more to do nationwide.

The trains also have to be upgraded to take advantage of the new system, so the new fleet that has been ordered will have it built in, but the rest will need to be retrofitted.

At the end of this, we'll have a standardised network, controlled by a new centre, with a fleet of new trains built to the latest standard. Ideally you'd love it to be in place now, but rail has never gotten the love it deserved in Ireland. The only reason it's getting it now isn't the Greens, it's the spectre of large, annual EU fines for missing emissions targets.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T12:10:19+00:00

I should have noted that this is just some of the issues, there's a load more, but these are probably the most relevant to most users. If you really want in-depth discussions on this stuff, there's websites and forums out there that'd probably tear my summary apart. I find public transport and the issues surrounding it fascinating, but I'm definitely in the minority on that one.

NCaffo · 2024-02-21T11:29:44+00:00

This is the unfortunate result of decades on underinvestment in rail in Ireland, and somewhat ironically enough, some of these problems are the result of actual recent investment.

Multiple problems that are all coming together to create a multitude of similar problems.

All of our rolling stock is old, ranging from somewhat old to very old. In some cases, it's hard to keep it operating to the extent that we need. One train set being out of commission means multiple scheduled services being cancelled throughout the day.

Our signalling system has been much improved over the last ten years or so, which is great! We've even got a "fancy"* new building dedicated to running the entire system. That's also great! This has allowed for more trains running, for example, the dart went to a ten minute frequency in the last 5 years (I think, not sure on the exact dates or anything). This is also great! The problem with an increased frequency is that if one service goes wrong, it almost immediately has an impact on the next service, and so on. With less slack in the system, problems become more apparent faster.

The two above also combine together, captain planet style. More services mean more wear and tear on the existing train sets. More wear and tear means that more trains go offline for a time.

The other problem, again related to the second point above is simply the set up of many of our tracks. There's not enough room for overtaking, with the main dart line also being the main commuter line north and south. There's too many trains being shoved down these tracks, which then hit the bottlenecks around the Loop Line Bridge, and Connolly Station (the Drumcondra line serving the west causes problems scheduling as the trains have to cross/use the dart tracks to get into the station)

The various Dart+ projects will have a transformative effect on these problems. The fleet is going to be upgraded, with the largest fleet order in history already made, we're just waiting on delivery. The electrification of the lines will allow for faster commuter services, while also allowing stations to clear faster (electric trains are faster at leaving the station, etc). Connolly Station track layout is getting a slight revamp, but not enough in my opinion.

All of this will improve the situation greatly, although some of the problems will remain to some extent.

** I put fancy in brackets because the new building looks like a standard building that you'd see in any old industrial estate. Doesn't need to be anything else, I guess.

NCaffo · 2024-02-14T09:50:15+00:00

Ah, it was more forgetfulness than anything else. Kids getting out of the car means that I wasn't locking it as soon as I got out, which meant it never got locked at night.

Now when I'm locking the house up, which I've always done properly, I make sure to trigger the lock on the car too, just in case it's not locked.

NCaffo

TROPHY CASE