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Leah Farrell via RollingNews.ie

Dublin residents claim plans to create new bus corridor through villages will spell 'disaster' for communities

Residents said that the impact of the development will cause devastating damage to local communities.

RESIDENTS IN A number of areas of south Dublin are protesting against National Transport Authority (NTA) plans to create a bus corridor which locals claim will destroy communities. 

The planned NTA Bus Connects Corridor 12 from Rathfarnham to the city centre are being met with strong opposition from local residents and businesses.

Rathgar Road Residents Group has joined neighbours from Rathfarnham, Templeogue and Terenure by launching the ‘Rathgar Is A Community Not A Corridor’ campaign.

Organisers claim that Corridor 12 will “see the destruction of communities and heritage to save seven minutes bus travel time from Rathfarnham to Dublin City Centre at an estimated cost of up to €120 million”.

Notification of the Rathfarnham to the City Centre Bus Connects Corridor 12 Project was sent to some residents in the middle of January 2019, requesting objections to the proposals to be raised before 29 March. After protestations from locals, the NTA has agreed to an extension of the date to 30 April.

The proposed changes include the introduction of a six lane highway comprising two car lanes, two bus lanes, two cycle lanes and footpaths along the proposed Corridor 12, running into pinch points at the urban villages of Terenure, Rathgar and Rathmines.

Residents said that the impact of the development will cause devastating damage to local communities and businesses, compromise safety, while destroying the environment and heritage of the area.

The NTA has outlined that Core Bus Corridor (CBC) is designed to improve bus timing and reliability. Their report claimed the upgrades would result in a seven minute improvement of bus timings from city centre to Rathfarnham and an eight minute improvement the opposite direction. 

Rathgar Road Resident Group Spokesperson, Anne Marie James, said that the plan, if it goes ahead, spells disaster for the whole community. 

She said: “This plan is ill thought out and unworkable. Alleged savings of seven to eight minutes commute time for an estimated €120 million can be achieved in different and cheaper ways. It will be a disaster for local communities, businesses and taxpayers. It will destroy local businesses, historical villages and local communities and will create chaos on every side road to town.”

The NTA has repeatedly stated the corridors are needed to reduce congestion on some of the city’s busiest routes. A number of residents will also be compensated financially as part of the plan. 

Across the 16 proposed corridors that would provide continuous bus lanes, the NTA said yesterday that around 1,300 properties would be affected.

The creation of the corridors – going by NTA current timelines – will conclude far later than the planned redesign of the bus route network which is currently scheduled to be implemented in 2020.

These plans would see the current route numbers scrapped in favour of new “spine routes” that go more frequently through the city centre as well as “orbital routes” that mean many don’t have to go through the city centre to reach their destination if they don’t need to. 

But, after a public consultation drew over 30,000 submissions, the revised plan will not be published until “sometime” in 2019. 

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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:32 AM

    They will not last long with the local ‘happy campers”. They’ll figure out a way of hobbling the sat-tracking and cash-in.

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    Mute Dotty Dunleary
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:58 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: Not unless the bicycles are made from pure steel :-)

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    Mute DJ François
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:42 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: they said the same about Dublin bike scheme but it didn’t happen

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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 12:44 PM

    @DJ François:
    You have obviously not lived in Sligo.

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    Mute Donncha
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:19 AM

    I would warm Sligo Council to give any of the Chinese bike companies that approach them a very wide berth. Just look up Chinese bike mountains on Google Images to see how the “free bike” companies have worked out in China.

    Also, one of them set up in Stockholm at the end of last summer. Unilaterally, I would add as they never asked, they just did it. I’ve yet to see anyone use the bikes (partly I imagine it’s because the app that activates them looks like it was made by a colour-blind 6th class student learning to code). Despite the fact they’re close to unused, they are absolutely riddled with rust only six months later. I reckon they’re death traps at this point if someone hopped on one without a helmet.

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    Mute J.P. Ness
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:42 AM

    Sligo is too much of a kip to merit this scheme. It really is a bunghole of a place

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:45 AM

    @J.P. Ness: They’d regard you as an asset at the local tourist information office. Failte go Shligig.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 26th 2019, 1:29 PM

    @J.P. Ness: I lived in Sligo for over 11 years. Despite not being a native, I very much consider Sligo to be home. Lots of friendly, welcoming, helpful people and, despite its small size, it has so much to offer in terms of music, arts, crafts, surfing, beaches, hiking, cycling trails, mountains, lakes, fishing, pubs, places to eat and festivals. A kip it most certainly is not. What it is, however, is lacking in funding proportional to other areas of the country, though, thankfully, some of that is being addressed finally.

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    Mute john doe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 2:52 PM

    ^^don’t feed the troll ^^

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    Mute Marcus Eugene
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 PM

    @J.P. Ness: Don’t feed the troll

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:52 AM

    And while they are looking for free bikes let the old people with empty large houses get out and down size to free up houses for those looking for them. FG take take take.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:59 AM

    @Dave Barrett: first of all, what has a housing proposal by the government got to do with a bike scheme proposed by a local council? second of all, if the housing downsize scheme ever happens, it will be entirely optional. Go back to bed.

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:29 AM

    @Dave Barrett: what’s wrong with older people in council houses downsizing.people are always screaming about the housing crisis but people in social housing don’t want to have to help in any way.they just want to scream BUILD HOUSES………a lot of older people(including my parents)in private housing downsized because of their needs,what’s wrong with people who have enjoyed very very cheap houses.

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    Mute MarkS
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    Feb 26th 2019, 11:14 AM

    @John: bit of a tangent there love.

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    Mute kehe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:55 AM

    Will they ever learn? Undocked bikes just end up vandalised and thrown in rivers, ditches, fields etc in any city or town that’s tried the scheme.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 AM

    @kehe: it doesnt happen much in Dublin. Can you name the towns in ireland where it has?

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:02 AM

    @James Wallace: does Dublin have an undocked bike scheme? I thought they were all docked.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:12 AM

    @Karen Wellington: no they have bleeperbike, an undocked scheme. I do agree a docked bike scheme would be preferable if they don’t already have one.

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:58 AM

    @James Wallace: didn’t know that, thanks for the info

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:42 AM

    In the mid-1960s student and other utopian radicals persuaded the Amsterdam authority to place ‘white bicycles’ strategically around the city centre. Anybody could use an available bike and leave it at a designated bike rack after use. The scheme lasted a short time. I hope the Sligonian authority has taken the Dutch example into consideration. Waar is mijn fiets?

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @Garreth Byrne: that was before the days of mobile technology. The bikes these days, like the bleeper bikes in Dublin , require you to register a card and the bike is unlocked using smart technology and an app. No comparison to Amsterdam in the 60s. We should copy Amsterdam in the provision of safe segregated cycle tracks, though. That would work here.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:00 AM

    You will probably find the any bikes that go missing up in Dublin ,them lads using the bikes to escape ,only joking now I have ties there through marriage

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:14 AM

    @FlopFlipU: I wish some of the country people would escape from Dublin.might give us a bit more room.ha ha,only joking I have family down the country.

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    Mute Michael Drumm
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:05 AM

    Shave a madra

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