Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 March 2018
249. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans for a multi-modal approach to deal with traffic congestion in Dublin city centre and the College Green area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13256/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority (NTA) jointly published the Dublin City Centre Transport Study in 2015 which sets out the various measures proposed for Dublin's city centre to ensure the efficient functioning of transport within the city centre. In preparing the study, Dublin City Council and the NTA reviewed the current and future transportation needs of the City Centre, and the report noted that as the economy continues its recovery and employment rises, without positive intervention, increased congestion and longer journey times on the key routes to Dublin City, and within the City Centre itself, will become an increasing feature of the City. The report also acknowledged that with the introduction of the Luas Cross City Project, Luas trams would be caught up in traffic congestion, and that the service reliability would be prone to disruption due to general traffic. Similarly the report also acknowledged the impact to the reliability of the bus network given the interaction with other road traffic. The report recognised that a rebalancing of the available road space will be required on various streets to facilitate the introduction of additional capacity for public transport, cycling and walking. Significant changes to the traffic network in the City Centre will be necessary, with the objective of guaranteeing that the overall transport system is capable of operating efficiently and reliably, with consistent journey times.
NTA and DCC, in collaboration with Dublin Bus and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, are progressively implementing the measures set out in that document to enable the continued development and growth of the city with the objective of guaranteeing that the overall transport system is capable of operating efficiently and reliably, with consistent journey times. As the Deputy is aware, the City Council's College Green Plaza proposal is currently with An Bord Pleanála for determination, and if approved, would remove a lot of the conflicting traffic movements that currently exist in College Green.
Looking to the future, as Minister for Transport I have ensured that Budget 2018 increased the multi-annual capital investment funding envelopes for the coming four-year period, including providing an enhanced capital envelope of €2.7 billion for a multi-modal public transport investment programme between 2018 and 2021. The 4 year envelope will allocate investment fund projects such as BusConnects, MetroLink, DART expansion, will continue investment in Dublin's light rail network, cycling and walking and traffic management measures in our capital and beyond. These programmes will be implemented by the NTA which has statutory responsibility for development of Public Transport in the GDA.
Furthermore, Government’s Public Transport investment priorities are also set out in the recently published National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP seeks to protect the quality and value of the existing assets and deliver a multi-modal public transport network that will provide high-quality passenger interchange points, which facilitate convenient transfer between efficient and integrated public transport services. All the planned investment in public transport combined will add greatly to the choice and experience of the travelling public, connecting more people with more places and ease congestion in Ireland’s cities.
