The Dublin Community Blog

Iarnród Eireann are starting an improvement project on the Kildare line out of Heuston station this weekend, with some cancellations and delays to and from Heuston on Saturday evening and Sunday morning as a result. Full details can be found here – the work is set to continue on selected weekends through to the end of March at least.

In case you are not already aware, but there are gonna be some serious disruptions to Dublin Bus services in the morning. I am copying the notice that was posted on Dublin Bus’s webpage earlier. So check and make sure if your bus service is affected that you have other means to get to work.

Due to industrial action by bus drivers in Harristown Bus Garage, services operating from this garage will be disrupted on Monday 12th November 2007.

Dublin Bus wish to apologise for this disruption.

Just back from Paris (and our ill fated rugby match!) and I have to say we were all VERY impressed with the bicycle rental scheme that’s going on there! I had heard something about it on the news here before we left, and we were really looking forward to seeing how it will take off in Dublin.

SO how will they stop the knick-knacks sending them to a watery grave I hear you ask!

The way it works in Paris is: you go to one of the many bicycle stations (situated within a 300 meter radius of each other) pop in your credit card to lay down a deposit of €150 and then you purchase your ticket. You can purchase all manner of subscriptions to suit the length of your visit. The locals use a ‘smart’ card that you just swipe and go! Each journey is free for the first 30 mins, so what they are encouraging you do to do is use the bike to get to your destination and pop it back in the station. It keeps a majority of the bicycles in circulation for people to use.

It made getting around Paris a doddle – from the top of Rue St Denis to the Rive Gauche in jig time!

The bicycles themselves are tamper-proof, un-deflatable tyres with three gears and the essential bell to warn pedestrians of your arrival! We couldn’t find that much information about the Dublin scheme, but it seems like the same company are behind it. JC Decaux are footing the bill in exchange for a number of adverting spots around the city.

It was confirmed today that the Green Luas line will be further extended from the still to be completed terminus in Cherrywood all the way out to Bray. It is hoped that the line will be completed by 2015.

The Bray Chamber are naturally delighted, but, being devils advocate, I have to ask if this is really the best way to extend the Luas? After all Bray is currently served by the Dart, which the Luas will interconnect with in Bray as well as at the new inter-connector to be built at St Stephens Green. I wonder would other parts of Dublin have been better served by a new rail/tram link than Bray? Does anyone feel their area is getting overlooked in the public transport plans?

Following yesterdays post about traffic congestion in Dublin I thought this article from ITV yesterday was interesting. Teams of researchers in cities around the world timed how long it took 35 men and women to walk 60 feet on a footpath.

The results place Dublin in the top 5 with an average time of 11.03 seconds.  Singapore takes the top spot with super fast 10.55 seconds. Couples in Paris can stroll arm in arm at a romantic 12.65 seconds, while those who like the quiet life should consider a move to Blantyre in Malawi where they can enjoy a laid back 31.60 seconds which I believe is only slightly faster that the M50.

People often wonder why Dublin’s traffic is so bad. Usually, and rightly so, it’s blamed on the city’s completely inadequate public transport network. As an illustration of this, Dublin today received it’s first new train station in 116 years!! Yep, you heard that one right, it’s one hundred and sixteen years since Tara Street Station opened its doors. Ok ok, there have been various DART stations opened up through the years, but, we’re talking main line stations here.

But enough history, today saw the opening of the new Docklands Station in the IFSC. The new station serves commuters from Clonsilla, Coolmine, Castleknock, Ashtown and Broombridge, and has allowed for an additional four trains each direction per day already. Amazingly, Iarnród Éireann claim that this gives them a service frequency of about 10 minutes from West Dublin to the city centre between the hours of 07:10 and 09:00. It will be interesting to hear tales of whether or not this becomes reality for people along this route.

Also, to tie in with this, Dublin Bus are offering a range of services to and from Docklands Station. The new 151 route and new feeder bus 93 route will be available for Docklands Station commuters.

More details on all services can be found on the Irish Rail Website and the Dublin Bus Website

Dublin Port Tunnel today opened its doors so to speak to all traffic. Up to now, it had been limited to HGV’s only, but from today, all vehicles are allowed to access. There is still no charge for HGV’s, however, cars etc will be tolled, with a toll fee ranging from EUR 3 – EUR 12 depending on the direction you are travelling and the time of day that it is. More details on the charges can be found here

Let us know if you’re planning on using the tunnel in your car via our poll over there >>>

Out with the old in with the new. It’s that time of the year when Irish public transport gets rewarded by the government and are allowed to squeeze a few more cent out of the traveling punters.

Dublin Bus have put most of their fares by 5c, some of the more expensive ones have gone up by 10c.

• 1-3 Stages: 0.95c -> 1.00
• 4-7 Stages: 1.35 -> 1.40
• 8-13 Stages: 1.55 -> 1.60
• 14-23 Stages: 1.80 -> 1.90
• Over 23 Stages: 1.90 -> 1.90
• Outer Suburban 1: 2.10 -> 2.20
• Outer Suburban 2: 3.10 -> 3.20
• Outer Suburban 3: 4.10 -> 4.20

More fares can be found at the Dublin Bus web site.

The Luas web site doesn’t currently have any details of price changes, but they did get approval from the Department of Transport to put up prices so I presume they have or will do so shortly.

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet for the last 3 months, thats because I was traveling around Australia. If anyone wants to see how public transport should be done they should travel to Sydney or Melbourne. Quick, easy, and reliable when compared to Dublin. How come they managed to take a penal colony and in 200 years turn it into a state of the art world capital while we managed to take the second city in the British Empire and turn it into a small outback town?

Update: Luas fares go up next week.

I’m a bit late but you may find this useful if you have to heave heavy shopping across the city like I did today, fair play to Clearwire for the Christmas shuttle:

The free Clearwire Christmas shuttle will be running between O’Connell Street and Grafton street on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week to save the weary shopping feet of the people of Dublin.

The shuttle will be running tomorrow from 10am till 4pm and you can hop on outside Topshop at the top of Grafton Street or outside Cleary’s. You can hop off outside Penny’s on O’Connell Street, at the bottom of Grafton Street outside Trinity or outside Topshop. So if you are in town be sure to check it out!

 

EDIT: November 15 @11.08am -  An official opening date has been announced, December 20. (Spotted on TCAL)
Daragh wrote back in September that the Dublin Port Tunnel was to open in mid-November. It now appears that it will open before Christmas with an official date being made before the end of the month. (You would have thought getting it open in time for the Christmas rush would have been important particularly considering the crazy traffic on the quays yesterday evening which was made up of WWW wrestling fans (apparently there was a do in the Point Depot) and trucks and lorries making their way to the port for the evening sailing.
Before then there will be a 10km charity race through the tunnel on December 10. More information on that here and here. Sounds like a cool thing to do.
And back to tunnel news did you know 5,000 people worked 7.5million people hours constructing the €752m project. At 4.5km long it is the longest urban tunnel in Europe and should transport traffic from the M50 to Dublin Port in six minutes. (The site actually contradicts itself on this fact, on one page it says six minutes while on the map at the front it says 10.)
Check out the Dublin Port Tunnel website which has lots of really cool photographs, some of which I am reproducing here. Who knew Star Wars was going on underneath our feet…

Above pic by Mark Marshall

No accreditation for the above pic.

Above pic by Jason Clarke