Lucan Luas may pass Ballyfermot

The Lucan Luas line could have a stop at Ballyfermot Village if one of the two routes is selected. The proposed ‘Line F’ includes three stops on the Ballyfermot Road – at the village, the Community Centre, and Cherry Orchard Hospital.

There have been two possible routes identified between Lucan and the city centre. One that goes through Ballyfermot and another that runs via Park West. Both are currently at the consultation stage, where the public can have their say.

David King, the project manager for the line, told the Ballyfermot Post that the proposed Ballyfer-
mot route had received a great deal of backing and the overall feeling was that this route was most people’s preferred option.

“There have been a couple of objections but there’s a general consensus that the people want it to come here” said project manager David King. The public consultation stage is open until January 31, the RPA hope to have identified the preferred route by March 2008.

“We wouldn’t begin public consultation on anything that we wouldn’t build,” King said. “One of our first intentions when we are picking a possible route for a Luas line is actually to be run segregated from traffic”.

Concerns have been expressed that the Ballyfermot Road may not be wide enough to hold road traffic and Luas lanes. But the RPA says that the road was selected for its width.

“This is one of the first Luas lines that runs through an existing road network, what we are looking at is wide roads… the Ballyfermot Road is very wide from property to property now there will be some sort of realignment to the roads, where you might need to change the footpath widths”.

The Luas line from Lucan to the city centre scheduled for completion in 2013, it may serve Balleyfermot, Liffey Valley and Lucan.

They anticipate this route to be one of the busiest Luas lines and have planned to use longer trams.
“We’ll be looking at 50 metre vehicles for the new trams, which is bigger than the current lines. We anticipate this line to be one of the busiest routes.”

King added: “We predict this line will serve around 20-25 million people a year in 2016. We’re looking at 43 minutes [from Lucan] in and out of town and to cater for that we will be looking at running a Luas every 4-5 minutes”.

The Inchicore section has raised some concerns due to narrow roads in the village. Inchicore turned down the Red Line Luas. King assured us that this is now not the case and the people of Inchicore want the route.

“We do think Inchicore is a feasible route and there is a lot of support,” King stated. “There might actually be some property taken, but that would be the worst case scenario”.

The Lucan Luas is at public consultation stage until January 31.

- Chris Blake

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