On Track or Not?

How much better would your work life balance be if you didn't have to commute to Dublin by car?

Thousands of commuters see more of the road and will continue to see less of their families without significant changes to County Meath's transport infrastructure.

2020 Commuter Nightmare.

Giving up the car will never come voluntarily by the majority. An enhanced bus service was meant to take up slack but in recent years the service has gained a terrible reputation for reliability, capacity and with congestion they too experience long commutes.

A rail service has the potential to make a significant positive contribution on a large number of the public who are willing to engage and make the change. Both the M3 Parkway and Drogheda train stations require long commutes.

If the Government is serious about tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions then this is the perfect opportunity to take vehicles off the road.

The Employment Magnet.

Whilst Dublin continues to attract more workers from County Meath than those who remain to work here there will always be transport congestion.

As the local population grows children will become young adults and follow their parents in the daily commute to Dublin for work. More time spent in the congestion does not produce anything resembling a healthy Work Life balance and something we do not wish our children and grandchildren to endure.

County Meath is a commuter settlement. We offer little employment in industry and have the lowest level of enterprise Ireland jobs. The obvious solution is to have more employment outside of County Dublin but foreign investors want convenient access to air, road and rail infrastructure.

The Population Magnet

People can't afford to live in Dublin.

New homes continue to be built along the M3 corridor providing attractive sites to developers and those seeking more affordable housing outside of Dublin. Perhaps this is working too well since it has now increased peak time commuter numbers, increased congestion and significantly increased commuter journey times.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has announce that the next census will be held 18th of April 2021. When the results are revealed they will not surprise many who believe the populations of Navan and County Meath have significantly increased.

Navan Population

• 28,559 in 2011.

• 30,173 in 2016

• 36,969 estimated for 2019

Rail Opportunities

There are 2 obvious options for Navan area passengers:

#1. Navan to Drogheda

This is currently in use by Tara mines moving 40 truck loads of lead and zinc daily. At around +€50 Million it would cost the least to upgrade into a passenger service however it is not heading directly to Dublin from Navan. The Drogheda line already has a growing community of passengers too.

In the February 2006 Transport 21 meeting it was announced that a commuter rail link to Dublin via Drogheda would not be needed since Navan would have a new direct rail link in 10 years time.

#2. Navan to the M3 Parkway

Estimated at over €100 Million it is more viable to reopen the more direct route for passengers especially since the rail foundations are still in place. The M3 Motorway is an obvious physical obstacle to overcome.

2010 saw phase 1 of the southern route open 7.5km track between the M3 Parkway to Clonsilla. Not nearly enough track considering the missing 34 kms to Navan which is still 'on the long finger'. That's a very long finger considering in 2018 the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport stated that the benefit would not outway the cost and it therefore does not feature in the TFI Project Ireland 2040.

Pre General Election 2020 we were promised the National Transport Authority will review the project a year earlier than planned, but what exactly do they expect to discover? Will +€100 Million be money well spent to affect the work life balance of 1000's of voters, their families and the future generation of commuters?

Obstacles

The positive gains from a rail network are quite obvious for commuters and their Work Life balance, new business opportunities deeper into County Meath and considerably less harm to the environment from carbon emissions.

The rail network has been discussed and debated by politicians for decades and when there was eventually consensus there was no money. Given that the M3 motorway cost in the region of €650 Million the government has the ability to deliver either rail option at a fraction of that.

Issues to overcome include:

• There are obvious practical obstructions that can be overcome such as the M3 motorway, 6 houses in Kilmessan and other service infrastructure.

• House prices within reach of any train stations will sky rocket. What was once generally unaffordable to the younger generation will become astronomically unaffordable.

• The M3 toll revenue may decrease requiring government subsidy with additional losses to revenue from lower car running costs such as fuel.

• Location of Park and Ride areas will be difficult to site given the peak time traffic already congesting local communities.

• Dublin will become an even greater bottle neck with more pedestrian commuters arriving at stations at peak time seeking public transport.

• Dublin 2020 has been ranked as one of the most congested cities in the world, and the most congested city in western Europe, in the annual survey of traffic data from technology company TomTom. Whilst it remains as the employment capital the motorway will soon return to a state of congestion and train carriages will soon become overcrowded.

The Outlook

We would agree that a train service is badly needed for Meath. The delivery lead time suggests it could easily be a decade to bring in a new service given that the Government recently ordered passenger carriages for other areas with a delivery lead time of 4.5 years from order.

The Meath on Track Campaign suggested that in the meantime a shuttle bus service could easily operate taking passengers to the M3 parkway from a wide area of County Meath.