Hearing to be held over planned DART+ West upgrade after 158 submissions received

Gordon Deegan

An Bord Pleanala is to hold an oral hearing later this month into the planned Dart+ West upgrade to Maynooth.

Currently, CIE has a railway order application before An Bord Pleanala for the DART+ West project which is seeking to significantly increase rail capacity on the Maynooth and M3 Parkway lines.

The project will involve the electrification of 40km of railway line from Dublin city centre to west of Maynooth and to the M3 Parkway Station and development of all associated supporting infrastructure.

The Dart+ West project - which is to be the first Dart+ project to be delivered by CIE - also involves the construction of a new Spencer Dock station and capacity increase at Connolly Station.

An Bord Pleanala has confirmed that it is to stage an oral hearing into the railway order application from September 28th next to October 13th and has received 158 third party submissions.

In one submission, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar has told An Bord Pleanala that he supports the project based on the positive effects it will have on Dublin generally and Dublin 15.

In a submission made while Tanaiste, Mr Varadkar has requested that the railway order “should be conditional on minimal disruption, in as much as is possible, to homeowners, businesses and also the Ashtown Stables”.

Mr Varadkar said that he looks forward to the opportunity of making more detailed comments at the oral hearing.

In a submission on behalf of retailer, Musgrave Operating Partners Ltd, planning consultants, Brock McClure have warned that if there is no revised layout to the railway order application in close proximity to its Supervalu store at The Village, Ashtown Rd, Dublin 15 “the impact will be profoundly detrimental to the current supermarket use at this location”.

Brock McClure state that the existing layout will “also negatively impact on the future development potential and our client’s ambitions for future expansion”.

In another submission, deputy ceo of the National Transport Authority (NTA), Hugh Creegan has stated that the proposal to electrify the Maynooth line has been a long standing objective of transport planning dating back to 1975.

He said that the lack of progress “has been a major constraint” to the delivery of more sustainable forms of development with high quality transport services in west Dublin and parts of Kildare and Meath.

Mr Creegan said that the proposal is “addressing a persistent legacy deficit in transport infrastructure and services”.