Dublin Cycling Campaign has asked An Bord Pleanála to approve the MetroLink application with two alterations.

MetroLink is a major public transport for Dublin. It will deliver a high-quality metro from north of Swords, through the airport, the north city, through the city centre to Charlemont. It will interconnect with DART at Tara Street, two railway lines at Glasnevin, the Red and Green Luas lines, multiple major bus routes, high-quality cycle parking at most stations and a 3,000 space car park and ride on the M1 north of Swords. It will transform the city, improve quality of life and significantly reduce car traffic in Dublin.

Dublin Cycling Campaign would like to thank Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the government agency responsible for delivering the project, for engaging with us throughout the development process. They have listened to our feedback on many issues and taken that into account with the final design.

The final design ensures that walking and cycling access is maintained on the Royal Canal Greenway near Cross Guns Bridge in Phisborough/Glasnevin during the construction period. This will be done using a temporary bridge over the canal that we requested from TII during the last public consultation. We ask our supporters to do the same and hundreds of you voiced your concerns to TII. Your feedback in public consultations does matter and can affect the outcome.

TII have worked with us and Fingal County Council to make sure that around the Swords metro stations will be cycle friendly. There will be new cycle lanes and many places to cross the proposed metro line for people walking and cycling. At the Swords metro stations there will secure and sheltered cycle parking spaces for many types of cycles. For example, the Swords Central metro station will provide cycle parking for more than 900 cycles. This will create lots of opportunities for people living in Swords to cycle easily to the metro to complete their journey.

We have raised two concerns with ABP that we hope can be resolved before the project is (hopefully) granted planning permission.

We requested that the limited cycle parking provision at five metro stations be increased to match the expected demand. We have suggested a number of approaches that TII could use to further increase cycle parking at key stations along the route. For example, at Tara Street station TII predict that they will need to provide cycle parking for 970 cycles to cater for both MetroLink and DART passengers. Currently they are only proposing to provide 256 spaces or 13% of the required total.

Our other request is around the requirements for the heavy good vehicles (HGVs) that will be necessary to build the metro. Between 2013 and 2021, twenty people have died while cycling in Dublin. Seven of those people were killed in collisions involving HGVs, and in almost all cases by turning HGVs. 35% of deaths are directly attributable to HGVs despite HGVs being a tiny percentage of traffic on Dublin’s streets. The requirements that TII are suggesting for HGVs to protect cyclists and pedestrians are outdated by all European standards. We are asking ABP to require TII to follow the latest scientific evidence on eliminating blind spots around HGVs and other safety improvements.

We hope that ABP approve this project with these two alterations.

You can read our full submission on ABP below: