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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the stories you need to know as you start your day.
1. #POPULAR: The government is ending on a high as the latest Sunday Times/Behaviour & Attitudes poll puts satisfaction levels at 51% – and the Taoiseach’s own approval rating is up four points.
2. DUN LAOGHAIRE: Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to a serious assault on a woman yesterday afternoon.
3. #PHILIPPINES: At least 37 people are believed to have been killed in a fire at a shopping centre in Davao.
4. #TRIBUNAL: Tusla’s CEO Fred McBride told TheJournal.ie that it is unfair to say the agency was responsible for the Maurice McCabe copy and paste error.
5. #TENSION: North Korea has said the latest round of UN sanctions against the country are an “act of war”.
6. #UNSOLVED: It has been almost 20 years since 48-year-old Felix McCann was murdered and his family are urging anyone who knows something to come forward.
7. #FLYING HIGH: One person has been prosecuted over illegal drone use since regulations were introduced.
8. #CHANGE: Just under half of people in Ireland said they would like to attend a mass by Pope Francis if one takes place when he visits next year.
9. #MERRY CHRISTMAS: It won’t be long now until Santa Claus sets off and sources tell TheJournal.ie the elves are currently loading up the last of the presents onto his sleigh.
Navan definitely needs the rail line reopened. You only have to look at the N3 in the morning and evening from the M3 Parkway to the Blanchardstown junction with the M50. Should never have been closed in the first place.
@Keith Ellis: the train from the M3 parkway is almost empty most days, and the M3 car park is now leased out to other companies as it was not used either. it seems that once people get in their cars they are reluctant to park in M3 parkway and get train the rest of the way. my guess only.
@Keith Ellis: definitely. The Navan line was ripped up in the 60s I think and probably has houses on it now. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands has been wasted in fees to third party consultants to resurrect these white elephants every year…line to Navan, electrification of Maynooth line, Metro North servicing DCU and Dublin airport. These have been regurgitated every year for a decade or more I’d say and the NTA must have wasted a fortune on it.
@GrumpyAulFella: In fairness, the Navan train line only gets brought up around election time. I reckon the only reason it’s still mentioned is twofold.
1. It’s always been a Sinn Fein pledge, and with Peadar Tobín taking that with him neither wants to see the other one taking credit if there appears to be headway made.
2. Nobody trusts this government to last the distance
@GrumpyAulFella: NTA waste millions but as a Quango are untouchable, an old Tory trick to privatise things and getting friends nice jobs and contracts
@GrumpyAulFella: if the Navan line was ripped up in the 60s how did so many Meath fans get the train to croke Park 30 odd years ago?
Metro North? And something to and from the airport other than buses. Public transport in dublin is embarrassing.
@Marv: Probably the only capital city in Europe not to have a rail link to the airport. Scandalous.
@Marv: I think they’ll still be “assessing” and waffling about the Metro until 2072. It’s a total embarrassment how long much needed transport projects take in this country. Although we had Shane Ross heading up the Department for the last number of years so hardly surprising feck all got done. Too busy photo bombing Katie Taylor
@Barry Teehan: Luxembourg, Budapest, Zagreb, Valetta, Bratislava, Bern, Tallin, Riga, Ljubljana.
@Marv: although to think they spent such a fortune on the port tunnel and got the entrance height wrong and had to take it apart would lead you to think that if they did build a train track to the airport , the tracks would be the wrong size !
@Ajax Penumbra: You forgot Ballina
@Barry Teehan: I don’t think that Prague has a direct train/metro to city centre…just a bus link to a station on the way
@S J king: Funny enough he got a hell of a lot done, surprised the hell out of me. Thats for sure.
Our new minister for bikes however will have us in all sorts of problems
Should it not be DTA – Dublin Transport Authority.
Rather than be asking people for their opinions on it, how about actually just building the thing and spare us all heel dragging.
@Simey Joyce: Dta is gone
It all sounds rather exciting but before we’re all breathless with anticipation it has to be asked how long will we be waiting for everything to be put in place given that there may be no money there to fund it? Then again when it comes to transport services waiting patiently only to be disappointed is fairly routine. Here’s my bus now…
@The Alchemist’s Head: the 2nd of never. Still waiting for the “monorail ” to the airport and that was first proposed in 2007 so do the maths.
@windbag: And if the money is somehow found to commence the various projects there will of course be no cost overruns! Wow! A pig just flew by my window…
@The Alchemist’s Head: don’t forget the consultants. They have to get €60/70 million before even a sod is turned.
Maybe plan high rise apartments for Dublin instead of making everyone move out to the sticks and having to follow up with train lines
They need to stop talking about these projects and start implementing them. But as usual, millions will be spent with nothing to show for it.
@Trevor Branigan: Just do it
Why not connect the tallaght and sandyford luas stops? Connecting both red and green lines and stretching across much of the m50. Could also go from Sandyford to blackrock dart.
@Roisin Brennan: It would certainly be better than taking the 75!
So wait the metro line to Dublin airport is still in planning with nothing done and now they want to talk about metro lines on south side – this just smells of election vote grabbing at the cost to the taxpayer for all this consultation – do something with with you have started promising years ago
@Shane Cormican: Who are the TDs that side and look to see who keeps pushing it.
And what about rural Ireland ?
@Barry Teehan: Horse to Navan, tie him up. Get the train.
@Alan McDonald: Haaaaa ! never thought of that one. have you ever considered running for Government ?
@Barry Teehan: Navan is rural Ireland
Well sir there’s nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fida electrified, six-car monorail
What did i say?
Monorail
The public have been giving their view on these regurgitated transport proposals for decades. Just build them already. Its such a waste of money constantly and repeatedly paying consultants for spewing out the same nonsense year in, year out.
Galway needs light commuters rail. We have to many cars and not enough roads.
@Galwaygogo: installation would be huge money. Congestion charge for private vehicles who don’t live in the local area. An outer ring road. Carparks on major approach roads and a fleet of hydrogen powered busses from each carpark to eyre Square every 15-20 min at peak times
Yes!! Train for navan! it’s not starting from scratch some of the lines are there and the statiin.the bus takes ages and is stinky most of the time.
@Lisa Quinn: would the train be less stinky? It’s a lot of the clientele on public transport that people find undesirable, from the drug addict/drunk lad causing a scene or asking for change or the longer watching videos on his phone with the volume on full.
Bit of a generalisation but still valid
@Martin: eh yea .was on a bus last week and it was older and it stank of engine I had to get off in phibsboro to breath.
I sent them a letter 15 years ago asking why the rail line running from under the park that went all the way to the navan mines wasn’t utilized to take cars off the N3 so people wouldn’t be sitting in traffic as soon as they hit blanchardstown and they never replied
I really doubt they will ever bring a rail line to navan. I live in the town and have heard all the plans etc. It would be great for the entire area even a reduced service to cater for low numbers commuting but on the other side the amount of students that could use it and not have to pay for accommodation in the city would be a blessing
There is a rail line to Navan, goes through drogheda and on to Tara mines trains using it every second day or so
@Ronan Lawler: yup , those bad boy zinc trains fly by the back of the house every second night, Tara mines more important than average Joe going to work and that line is goosed at the best of times with northern commuter and darts , compare connolly or pearse to any other major city and they are tiny, needs a new large central station to be built maybe around airport / blanch greenfields that connect all. compare Connolly to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_(Main)_Hauptbahnhof#/media/File:Hauptbahnhof_Frankfurt.jpg
@Wadi: Have you a lot of spare billions of Eureos in you wallet as that is what would be needed.
@Gary Kearney: So we continue with the charade, nobody is saying spend a billion now or in the future but plan for the future as not like the place is not going to grow or get bigger…. dream big or go home. always thinking in the now
Am still waiting for the metro from city centre to the airport with a stop near me in glasnevin.
Its a joke that we don’t have a train line to our capital’s airport. Most European cities do.
They can’t even build a rail line to the airport despite banging on about it for the last 30 years, so citizens of Navan can be rest assured a rail line to Navan won’t happen. We are world class in this country at coming up with amazing transport plans on paper, but bottom of the class when it actually comes to implementing them.
More track. More trains. should have been done 50 years ago, wont be done in 50 years time. These ideas are too big for us
You have a base for a circular tram/train line already in the M50. Stops at main interchanges and would then link the Airport to all suburbs. Only an idea and would have difficulties but what the heck
How about starting with the basics, I’m a nurse and i have to get a taxi to work on a Sunday morning because Dublin Bus don’t run a service until later in the day.
ITs beyond a joke that the hospital routes on a Sunday are unavailable for health care professionals to get to work.
Why not improve the infrastructure we already have.
And what do we need a metro for , should we not just expand the Luas, the fact it does not service most of the major collages and the airport is beyond stupidity
The NTA love flying kites and they are great at it. Actually doing things right, not the forte.
They bought two buses and both are power wheelchair unfriendly. Even though Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann have been buying them for years.
What do you expect when you have planners running an organistation that is support to know about Public transport and none of them do in real world situations
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