Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Ireland rail link from Dublin airport to city centre / Charlemont
with northern section to Estuary/ Swords
A transport project which will link Dublin city centre to its airport has been given the go ahead, Ireland's planning board An Coimisiún Pleanála has announced.
The Metrolink plan is expected to come into operation by the early 2030s and could cost €9.5bn (£8.16bn).
It aims to connect the north and south sides of the city and will be 19.4km in length with 16 stations mostly underground.
The Irish Department of Transport said there would be trains running every three minutes at peak times, capable of carrying up to 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
Irish Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said he was delighted by the planning board's decision.
"This will be hugely transformative for the North Dublin region, for Dublin and indeed for our airport, for growth, for jobs, for houses," he said.
"It's our job to deliver it and we will."
The Metrolink will run from north of Swords to Charlemont Street in the south of Dublin city centre.
It will interchange with the DART (Dublin's train service) and Luas (tram service) transport systems.
Excellent news, Dublin Airport has, on the few occasions I've had reason to use it, felt a little isolated by being quite that far out of the city and only accessible by bus. The bus connection certainly works but having a rail linked access definitely makes an airport feel a bit more use friendly. At least to me! Plus it gives Swords a proper connection to Dublin city centre as well providing a Park & Ride for the M1 just to the north of Swords. Though that'll be a fairly long ride on a train into the city centre though hopefully it'll coax some people out of their cars!
The vast majority of users of Metrolink are not going to be to/from the airport, but rather to/from other stops along the line - the media have a habit of emphasising the airport aspect.
Metrolink really is about providing rapid access for people from North County Dublin (the line will terminate north of Swords at a giant P & R stop) and all of the stops along the route (including the airport) to and across Dublin city centre.
Secondly, there is now an eight week window in which applications for a judicial review can be lodged in the High Court - these are inevitable and will delay the start of any construction by another year or more.
Thirdly, it will still be subject to final cabinet sign-off before tenders can be issued.
But a major hurdle has indeed been overcome.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Excellent news, Dublin Airport has, on the few occasions I've had reason to use it, felt a little isolated by being quite that far out of the city and only accessible by bus. The bus connection certainly works but having a rail linked access definitely makes an airport feel a bit more use friendly. At least to me! Plus it gives Swords a proper connection to Dublin city centre as well providing a Park & Ride for the M1 just to the north of Swords. Though that'll be a fairly long ride on a train into the city centre though hopefully it'll coax some people out of their cars!
Oh good! I will admit I'm not at all across the detail so was just sticking a finger in the wind having looked briefly at a map. If it's only 25 minutes then that is very competitive.
Oh good! I will admit I'm not at all across the detail so was just sticking a finger in the wind having looked briefly at a map. If it's only 25 minutes then that is very competitive.
The comments about timescale/cost from Dubliners on Facebook shows that they are as cynical/pessimistic as we are in the UK! Dublin is a busier airport, in passenger numbers, than Manchester, which has trains, trams and buses. When I set out for Dublin airport from my B&B in Santry a few weeks ago (this was at 06.00 on a Saturday morning), the first airport-bound bus which came along didn't stop as it was full! I and the few others waiting only just got on the next one. Both double-deckers.
The map (post #1) suggests the metro will take over the LUAS Green Line south of Charlemont.
An earlier plan involved continuing south from Charlemont along the Luas Green line, although I understand this was shelved following some protest. I'd be keen to see it push on instead in the direction of Harold's Cross and Kimmage, both unserved by rail, as terminating so close to the city centre seems a wasted opportunity.
Moderator Note - split from: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/dublin-airport-rail-link-given-go-ahead.292861/ With Dublin underway, aren't all major airports in Europe now all served with some kind of rail service? Prague isn't but the link is planned
The comments about timescale/cost from Dubliners on Facebook shows that they are as cynical/pessimistic as we are in the UK! Dublin is a busier airport, in passenger numbers, than Manchester, which has trains, trams and buses. When I set out for Dublin airport from my B&B in Santry a few weeks ago (this was at 06.00 on a Saturday morning), the first airport-bound bus which came along didn't stop as it was full! I and the few others waiting only just got on the next one. Both double-deckers.
The map (post #1) suggests the metro will take over the LUAS Green Line south of Charlemont.
An earlier plan involved continuing south from Charlemont along the Luas Green line, although I understand this was shelved following some protest. I'd be keen to see it push on instead in the direction of Harold's Cross and Kimmage, both unserved by rail, as terminating so close to the city centre seems a wasted opportunity.
1) A key sewer was located bang in the middle of where the Metro was due to start rising
2) The extended closures of the Green Line south of Charlemont that would be necessary were deemed politically unacceptable without alternatives being in place
There are currently no plans to extend it beyond Charlemont.
The Green Line LUAS will be further upgraded to increase capacity in the meantime.
It was shelved for two reasons:
1) A key sewer was located bang in the middle of where the Metro was due to start rising
2) The extended closures of the Green Line south of Charlemont that would be necessary were deemed politically unacceptable without alternatives being in place
The bus I have used to/from the airport does a long circuit along both sides of the Liffey in Dublin. So, although it's a fairly useful service, it would be prone to filling up before reaching the last riverside stop on the way to the airport. My bus pretty much filled up at Heuston, which is the route's furthest point from the airport! A metro is likely to better deal with peak loads.
It does appear to be a different technology again from the DART and the LUAS, making the creation of a unified network ever more difficult and requiring further specialist vehicles. And it does indeed appear poised (though not specifically shown) to be taking over the south LUAS line, which runs on the onetime Harcourt Street railway formation. I'm guessing being labelled as a "Metro" is part of the fascination.
The airport is in a poor position related to existing rail lines, being about midway between the north DART and the Maynooth diesel line, but I have long felt that a DART branch from Portmarnock on the North line across open country to the airport would be the easiest and cheapest way to connect it, with a ready-made route through the centre.
The "airport bus" from Heuston station to the airport, described above, does indeed do an exceptionally tedious transit of the city centre, including both ways up and then down the length of O'Connell Street, and it took me far longer to get from Heuston to Connolly stations than for the rest of the journey to the airport. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Good luck to the air passengers on the train stopping at points like Ballymun on the trip into town!
It does appear to be a different technology again from the DART and the LUAS, making the creation of a unified network ever more difficult and requiring further specialist vehicles. And it does indeed appear poised (though not specifically shown) to be taking over the south LUAS line, which runs on the onetime Harcourt Street railway formation. I'm guessing being labelled as a "Metro" is part of the fascination.
The airport is in a poor position related to existing rail lines, being about midway between the north DART and the Maynooth diesel line, but I have long felt that a DART branch from Portmarnock on the North line across open country to the airport would be the easiest and cheapest way to connect it, with a ready-made route through the centre.
The southern part of the Green Line is largely segregated, using the formation of the former Harcourt Street railway, and the southward extension was specifically designed to be convertible to a higher-capacity metro. However, posts above suggest connecting it to Metrolink is not now being considered. A ramp from underground up to viaduct in the inner city would certainly be challenging.
A link eastward to the DART line was considered about ten years ago, but it doesn't offer much benefit beyond the airport itself, whereas the Metrolink passes through various communities both north and south that currently rely on buses. Also DART's city centre coverage is limited to Connolly, Tara Street and Pearse, requiring a further change to get to much of the city centre. The proposed DART Underground link would have helped with that, but now seems to have been postponed indefinitely.
It does appear to be a different technology again from the DART and the LUAS, making the creation of a unified network ever more difficult and requiring further specialist vehicles. And it does indeed appear poised (though not specifically shown) to be taking over the south LUAS line, which runs on the onetime Harcourt Street railway formation. I'm guessing being labelled as a "Metro" is part of the fascination.
The airport is in a poor position related to existing rail lines, being about midway between the north DART and the Maynooth diesel line, but I have long felt that a DART branch from Portmarnock on the North line across open country to the airport would be the easiest and cheapest way to connect it, with a ready-made route through the centre.
The "airport bus" from Heuston station to the airport, described above, does indeed do an exceptionally tedious transit of the city centre, including both ways up and then down the length of O'Connell Street, and it took me far longer to get from Heuston to Connolly stations than for the rest of the journey to the airport. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Good luck to the air passengers on the train stopping at points like Ballymun on the trip into town!
The network will be unifies as other cities with heavy rail, trams, metro/u-bahn and buses are through integrated ticketing and much better interchanges between modes than currently exist.
Metro will not run through on to the current LUAS line. That was at one time proposed but it won't happen, it does leave Metro with an obvious extension opportunity and plenty of suburbs not currently rail served to extend towards.
The heavy rail line north of Connolly is already struggling for capacity, it would not be able to handle extra Airport trains or their passengers. There is already a need to do something about this as in addition to Metro.
Metro is not just about serving the airport, it is also a link to some poorly served areas such as Sword and Ballymun.
The bus you reference was withdrawn in 2020, Heuston is now served by a coach service running via the Quays and Port Tunnel. Alternative options using Luas and regular city bus are also available.
It does appear to be a different technology again from the DART and the LUAS, making the creation of a unified network ever more difficult and requiring further specialist vehicles. And it does indeed appear poised (though not specifically shown) to be taking over the south LUAS line, which runs on the onetime Harcourt Street railway formation. I'm guessing being labelled as a "Metro" is part of the fascination.
The "airport bus" from Heuston station to the airport, described above, does indeed do an exceptionally tedious transit of the city centre, including both ways up and then down the length of O'Connell Street, and it took me far longer to get from Heuston to Connolly stations than for the rest of the journey to the airport. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Using the Coach is slow to Heuston as it enters the city from the east and then follows up the Liffey (you do get a good peek at North Wall Yard as you go past though), but it's not a particular problem to get to the actual city centre of Dublin (in common with many cities that were large before the railways, the Stations are on the edge of the city centre not in it).
Is this any different to the Piccadilly line from Heathrow.
A DART link to the airport would take a lot longer to deliver as there's a capacity crunch between faster Enterprise services and DART+ proposals to Drogheda (have a look at the DART+ Consultation pages on the project website for the increases being proposed) with the railway being only 2 tracks with the odd loop or pocket siding, which additional trains from the centre to wouldn't do anything to help. There are noises about increasing the track capacity (https://www.irishrail.ie/getmedia/0...747/IE_CEF_FourNorth_Advert_V1-1_20230829.pdf) but it's going to take a long time to expand the railway corridor through residential Dublin.
Having explored Irish Rail's network recently. I used Dublin Airport in June, on arrival, the airport felt so modern but boarding the bus was ridiculous! We let 3 different buses on routes 16 and 41 pass before trying to board, waiting around 20 minutes at the airport bus stop, every bus was FULL from the airport. I'm surprised it even stopped at all to pick up anyone in Santry and Drumcondra, it was full double deckers the whole way! Coming back, the bus was better but still very very busy and slow. City Centre to Airport was nearly 50 minutes! It desperately needs a railway yesterday!
I went back to Ireland last month to finish exploring the rail network. Towards the end of my trip I stayed in Swords for 2 days. I found the 102 in theory connected the town to Malahide for the trains, the 1st day, it worked well but connections with the train were tight due to traffic making the bus late. 2nd day, that bus was very very late meaning it would miss both the DART and the Commuter services and I needed the hourly 53 bus from Connolly to the port. So I had to find a way of getting from Swords to the Centre, I asked the regular bus how long it takes, over an hour and he told me I was better off getting the Swords Express to make my connection. Which was very fast but every seat was taken by the time the coach was finished with Swords for the motorway! Which shows Swords has a lot more demand for travel to Dublin than I expected.
So 2 places to the north of Dublin with the existing transport at capacity, probably over capacity and the muppet boss of Ryanair O'Leary thinks it's not needed, Metrolink is without doubt, needed as soon as possible, I experienced it as a tourist. It would be revolutionary for Dublin to have an underground railway, in the way the Elizabeth Line was for London.
I generally think public transport in Ireland is good with decent coverage (very bus heavy but it mostly works well) and especially good value for money in an otherwise expensive country. But infrastructure is clearly lagging well behind its recent growth in population. It built it's motorways in recent decades, now it's rail's turn! So this is very good news and I hope this is just the start and Ireland's other rail plans as seen in the Strategic All Island Rail Review happen too.
Having explored Irish Rail's network recently. I used Dublin Airport in June, on arrival, the airport felt so modern but boarding the bus was ridiculous! We let 3 different buses on routes 16 and 41 pass before trying to board, waiting around 20 minutes at the airport bus stop, every bus was FULL from the airport. I'm surprised it even stopped at all to pick up anyone in Santry and Drumcondra, it was full double deckers the whole way! Coming back, the bus was better but still very very busy and slow. City Centre to Airport was nearly 50 minutes! It desperately needs a railway yesterday!
The coaches are a lot more expensive for fairly minimal time savings so most passengers who are budget conscious and do a bit of research will take the service buses.
Though they are pretty terrible and the timetables are shockingly bad for such a large airport.
Which is about the same as Belfast International for a better product!
Must admit when I flew from Dublin I got the coach as it picked up a couple of minutes walk from my hotel and seemed the easiest way. When you're on holiday £9 is kinda neither here nor there. But clearly a Metro is far better!
It does appear to be a different technology again from the DART and the LUAS, making the creation of a unified network ever more difficult and requiring further specialist vehicles. And it does indeed appear poised (though not specifically shown) to be taking over the south LUAS line, which runs on the onetime Harcourt Street railway formation. I'm guessing being labelled as a "Metro" is part of the fascination.
The airport is in a poor position related to existing rail lines, being about midway between the north DART and the Maynooth diesel line, but I have long felt that a DART branch from Portmarnock on the North line across open country to the airport would be the easiest and cheapest way to connect it, with a ready-made route through the centre.
The "airport bus" from Heuston station to the airport, described above, does indeed do an exceptionally tedious transit of the city centre, including both ways up and then down the length of O'Connell Street, and it took me far longer to get from Heuston to Connolly stations than for the rest of the journey to the airport. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Good luck to the air passengers on the train stopping at points like Ballymun on the trip into town!
This is a metro line - why should it be compatible with existing heavy rail or trams? It is a totally different mode.
If you had taken the time to read the earlier posts, you'd have realised that it is not currently planned to extend beyond Charlemont - it will connect with Green Line LUAS there.
There is no scope for a DART branch until the northern line out of Connolly is expanded to four tracks - the line is saturated at the moment. Currently there is an EU funded feasibility study under way to present possible options for this four tracking, and that will provide a framework for any future development.
As above, the Dublin Bus Airlink 747 finished operation in 2020. Dublin Express (www.dublinexpress.ie) now operate a coach from Heuston (route 782) along along the Quays and directly through the port tunnel to the Airport.
I am not sure what your comment about Ballymun is supposed to mean? It's a lot different now from what it was.
As I've posted already, only 18% of users of Metrolink are projected to be going to/from Dublin Airport. The line is all about providing a rapid link from North County Dublin and along the entire corridor to and across Dublin City Centre.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
The coaches are a lot more expensive for fairly minimal time savings so most passengers who are budget conscious and do a bit of research will take the service buses.
Though they are pretty terrible and the timetables are shockingly bad for such a large airport.
At peak times the 16 is scheduled to take over an hour to travel between O'Connell Street and the Airport and v.v. (and the 41 50 mins) - the Dublin Express 782/783/784 will virtually always be faster than that.
As part of the revised Dublin City bus network (www.busconnects.ie), there are new PSO bus routes being introduced serving the airport, both operated by Dublin Bus. There will be more routes added in due course.
- The 19 operates every 20 mins and goes via Ballymun, Drumcondra, O'Connell Street and terminates at Merrion Square - it is a slow route to the city - it's more about providing links for airport workers from northern suburbs.
- From October 19th, route 24 will link the Airport with Charlestown, Finglas East, Glasnevin, Phibsborough, and the south city centre (bypassing O'Connell Street) to terminate at Merrion Square - it will operate every 20 mins.
On the 19th of October 2025, Phase 7 F-spine of the BusConnects Network Redesign will commence. Phase 7 includes the introduction of Spine routes F1, F2, F3, 80, 23, 24, 73 and 82 and L89
Which is about the same as Belfast International for a better product!
Must admit when I flew from Dublin I got the coach as it picked up a couple of minutes walk from my hotel and seemed the easiest way. When you're on holiday £9 is kinda neither here nor there. But clearly a Metro is far better!
The bus to Belfast International is not always a coach, however. The GBP to EUR exchange rate has recovered recently. 9 EUR is now £7.84. Obviously wages and the cost of living in Dublin are vastly higher than in Belfast so that needs to be taken into account as well.
The bus to Belfast International is not always a coach, however. The GBP to EUR exchange rate has recovered recently. 9 EUR is now £7.84. Obviously wages and the cost of living in Dublin are vastly higher than in Belfast so that needs to be taken into account as well.
Yes that was my point, it was a normal city double decker (as one one I saw going the other way). Meanwhile Dublin Express was a normal coach.
Fair point on the cost of living, though how many locals get the bus to the airport for anything other than to travel (in which case the cost is likely near a rounding error)? Surely the majority of Dublin airport staff drive precisely because the public transport links are poor!
That's fine for them but with respect we are talking about Dublin here.
Metrolink is not going to be connected to any heavy rail service. It's going to operate using completely different technology (driverless) and is going to be high frequency which would prevent anything else from sharing the tracks. Let's keep this discussion relevant to Dublin.
Yes that was my point, it was a normal city double decker (as one one I saw going the other way). Meanwhile Dublin Express was a normal coach.
Fair point on the cost of living, though how many locals get the bus to the airport for anything other than to travel (in which case the cost is likely near a rounding error)? Surely the majority of Dublin airport staff drive precisely because the public transport links are poor!
Fair dos. I thought you were saying that the Belfast bus is better value. In fairness, the distance to Belfast International is somewhat longer, but is also relatively uncongested so probably doesn't cost much to run.
Locals who have weekly or longer passes, or who are taking advantage of the TFI 90 minute fare or daily/weekly capping, would be more minded to use the normal bus.
That's fine for them but with respect we are talking about Dublin here.
Metrolink is not going to be connected to any heavy rail service. It's going to operate using completely different technology (driverless) and is going to be high frequency which would prevent anything else from sharing the tracks. Let's keep this discussion relevant to Dublin.
I was surprised how poor the service was from Swords to the Airport despite the large number of staff who live there.
In Britain, an airport of Dublin's size with so many recent planning approvals would have had public transport as part of its planning approval (see Stansted or Gatwick for recent examples).
I have no idea, I only ever used Dublin Bus to/ from the airport and only been to Dublin a handful of times, so I'm not aware of the coaches available. Metrolink seems desperately essential at this point for all areas on the route. Ireland as a whole seems to be constantly playing catch up in terms of its infrastructure.
I must be cheap, but always take the cheaper option when available.
Good to see some timing improvement.
I was surprised how poor the service was from Swords to the Airport despite the large number of staff who live there.
In Britain, an airport of Dublin's size with so many recent planning approvals would have had public transport as part of its planning approval (see Stansted or Gatwick for recent examples).
Later phases of BusConnects will have add more connectivity to and from the airport.
Dublin Airport plan on building a brand new covered bus station as part of the airport expansion.
We are aware of an issue with emails from the Forum to Microsoft-based email accounts (hotmail/outlook/live.com email addresses). This is being looked into currently, thanks for your patience meanwhile.
www.bbc.co.uk
www.rte.ie
