“Abandon all Hope Ye who enter here.” This is the final inscription above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno. Today, it should be part of the signage above the M50. In Dante’s Inferno there were nine circles of hell. It is no coincidence that the M50 is a ‘ring road,’ – the tenth circle just like its equally hellish English cousin The M25. Goodness the hours I’ve lost on both roads. I just thank God I am not one of those people stuck this morning in the commute from hell, which is caused by two things – the weather, and Dublin’s inability to construct an underground system.
You cannot call yourself a modern city if you don’t have an underground system. Dublin is still without one. Ergo it is not a modern European city. As far as I am aware every other European capital has an underground train system alongside quite a few non-capital cities such as Barcelona. But Dublin still has a hodgepodge of public transport offerings and lots of roads jam-packed with cars.
The Dart is not very Dart like; the Luas is slow; and the bus system is limited. This leaves the cycling terrorists battling for space with the motorists. As a result the traffic keeps building, the commutes get longer and the circle gets more hideous. The Irish Times runs an article at least once a week reporting on how conditions in the M50 are getting worse. The official line is that no improvements can be made and all measures to improve traffic flow have been taken. In addition a major commuter road Clontarf Road which runs along north Dublin bay, is set for major disruption from February 16th to facilitate the construction of a new €25 million water main. The latest research from Satnav company TomTom shows that the average speed during rush hour in Dublin is 13.5 km/h. This makes Dublin the third most congested city and sixth slowest city in the world for traffic.
Now there are some people out there, the selfish individualist- worshipping libertarian types who think we should build more roads. That is, to keep it polite, foolish. Let’s just tarmac the whole place and be done with it. That’s fine, as long as you compulsory purchase the farms, starting with the McGuirk one in Monaghan. But then I’d expect as much from someone who thinks pizza drone delivery is “progress.” It is also interesting how my editor uses the terrible congestion on the M50 as evidence of how great it is! That’s a neat argument. The A&E in Our Lady of Lourdes is packed – that must mean the health service in Ireland is world class.
No. What we need now is a Metro/underground, call it what you will. It’s a national emergency and if it is necessary to call it a national emergency to get the necessary legislation through then do it. The government should do whatever it takes, and I mean whatever it takes, to get it done.
You know what lockdown taught us, other than the sheeplike stupidity of the public? That governments can execute a plan when they really, really want to. It’s a question of will. The government can get moving, pass what legislation it needs, if it wants to get the job done. It needs to do the same to get this metro built. There should be a partial lockdown to get the traffic off the road and machinery in. The schools have to remain open and the hospitals etc, but there are a lot of people on that road that don’t have to be. So everything should go online again. If you want to socialise; get public transport.
In terms of planning, judicial review should be very limited. And in terms of cost – spend whatever needs to be spent. It can’t be any more than what the last stupid lockdown cost and at the end of this one, you will have an underground to show for it. Actual infrastructure that you can point to. Haven’t we taken in enough corporate tax to afford an underground?
I expect this to get broad left – right support and not knee jerk opposition. The left should love it because traffic, automobiles, etc are the most environmentally unfriendly things out there. Having an underground is a very basic requirement if you care about climate change. And once you get the cars off the road the cyclists are free to come out of nowhere, break the traffic rules and generally behave appalling with far fewer consequences.
But the right or conservatives (not the car worshipping, drone fanatics now) should also support it. The truth is long commutes are terrible for family life. It is outrageous to think that there are mothers and fathers, sitting in their steel cage, listening to RTE on the M50 when they could be home with their children or with each other. In fact vastly reducing the amount of RTE radio people listen to is a conservative win right there. If you are going to surrender to the Machine (and I’m not a big supporter) then you need an underground.
The British, or more accurately Londoners who are I believe a very competent group of people of their own, live right next door and know how to drill through God’s good earth and get a tube line in. This link should give you the tube map from 1940. 1940! My AI tells me that “the London Underground covers most of Greater London with 272 stations across 11 lines, extending into parts of Buckinghamshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire. The network is divided into 9 fare zones, with Zones 1–2 covering central/inner London and Zones 3–9 expanding to outer suburbs. The network has expanded to 11 lines with 250 miles (400 km) of track.” That’s my kind of progress.
The latest line, the Elizabeth line opened in 2022 and is a wonder. It is also a wonder that it came not long after the Jubilee line extension in 1999.
Don’t tell me this can’t be done. It can be – it’s just a matter of will.