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BROADSTONE STATION - THE CIE/RPA BUNFIGHT

Yet again, the Department of Transport has screwed up. Faced with the option of a heavy rail line down the Broadstone line trackbed or a useless LUAS line, they opt for the latter. It is a rare enough event, in fact, I am not aware of ever having said this previously in connection with anything, but I am in agreement with Irish Rail on this issue (:-|.

There is a disagreement between CIE and Irish Rail on one side and the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) on the other over exclusive access to the Broadstone Line trackbed. For the uninitiated, this is a 1.5 mile long trackbed running from Liffey Junction to Broadstone (both in Dublin), that was the former terminus for trains to/from Galway, Westport, Ballina and Sligo until 1937. The line remained in use until the phasing out of steam engines in 1961, the station at Broadstone having been used as a depot for same. On balance, IRs claim to the trackbed is greater on the following grounds:

• CIE already owns it (although given that private property owners have had property forcefully taken by CIE for the Kildare Route Project, losing this trackbed would be karma)
• The trackbed is engineered for heavy rail (it will be wasted on light rail (LUAS))
• There are serious capacity issues on the Maynooth Line, however, capacity in Connolly Station makes it difficult to run extra trains. Broadstone would facilitate this.
• The Green LUAS Line is reaching capacity as a LUAS Line. To waste another railway trackbed in this manner would be folly.
• The failure to provide integrated ticketing and more importantly, integrated pricing, will see journeys that terminate in Broadstone being dearer than those terminating in Connolly Station or Docklands, due to the change of operator. In Ireland, competition means higher prices for the consumer. But then, the sheeple of Ireland willingly accept it.

Superficial details of the disagreement were reported in the Irish Independent of 11th January 2008. There is, however, a way that both objectives can be accommodated.

The solution to allow both to proceed is to allow IR to build a heavy rail branch line connected to the Maynooth Line which would take additional trains from Maynooth/ Dunboyne into Broadstone, last done over 70 years ago in 1937. As the trackbed is primarily in a cutting, the LUAS line from Broadstone to Liffey Junction can be built on a viaduct over the heavy rail line, leaving sufficient clearance underneath for DART style electrification. Whilst there would be issues, including the need for insulation to prevent the return electrical feed of the LUAS line conflicting with the overhead power wires of a DART line, there is nothing that cannot be overcome, except perhaps bruised egos.

Anyone wishing to see the type of rise over a short distance that can be accommodated on LUAS need look no further than Peter Place, off Adelaide Road in Dublin 2. Here the Green LUAS line rises sharply from street level, over a short distance, to a height to allow it to bridge the Grand Canal. There is no reason why this could not be done in the Broadstone Station compound to enable the LUAS to rise above any IR railway line before passing onto the aforementioned viaduct over same. The map below refers: