Rendering of Dublin MetroLink Glasnevin-North Station (image MetroLink)
by Ron Bernthal
In July, 2022, the Irish cabinet has approved the preliminary business case for Dublin’s MetroLink project, a planned 19.4km automated metro that will run mostly underground from north of Swords in the north of the city via Dublin Airport to Charlemont, south of the city centre.
The line will have 16 stations and is expected to offer three-minute headways at peak times and will carry up to 20,000 passenger per hour, with the possibility of reducing headways to 90 seconds by 2060. The line is expected to open in the early 2030’s and is projected to cost about €9.5 billion ($9.5 billion). .
The proposed high-capacity, high-frequency MetroLink line running from Swords to Charlemont, linking Dublin Airport, Irish Rail, DART, Dublin Bus and Luas services, will fully integrate public transport in the Greater Dublin Area. As well as linking major transport hubs, MetroLink will connect key destinations including Ballymun, the Mater Hospital, the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin.
The proposed MetroLink route map. (image MetroLink)
Much of the 12 mile route will run underground, an exciting innovation for Irish public transport. MetroLink will carry up to 50 million passengers annually, cutting journey times from Swords to the city center to 25 minutes.
Rendering of MetroLink Ballymun Station (image MetroLink)
Residents In Dublin are familiar with Luas – an electric tram that can run along the road with other vehicles and is easily crossed by pedestrians and cyclists. Its integration into the road network has great advantages but also limits its speed and capacity. Trams get caught in traffic and because it’s on the road it must travel slowly to be safe to other road users.
Rendering of St Stephen’s Green entrance for the MetroLink. (image MetroLink)
The MetroLink will be quite different. When large numbers of people need to move around, you need more trains, and more often. MetroLink trains will be bigger, faster and there will be more of them. To achieve the necessary speed and capacity it must be separated from other road users, namely vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. That’s why for most of the route, MetroLink will run underground where it can achieve all of this independently of the road network and minimizes impact on the city.
MetroLink will be modelling itself on similar systems in Copenhagen and Barcelona. In Copenhagen, with as little as two minutes between the driverless trains and a high reliability, the metro in Copenhagen has been voted the best in the world several times. The metro is a sustainable, fast and a safe way to get around Copenhagen, and about 180,000 passengers travel with the Copenhagen metro on a daily basis.
Copenhagen Metro Line 2 (photo Stig Nygaard, Copenhagen, Denmark / flickr)
Six miles of the Copenhagen line are on embankments or elevated sections. The thirteen of M1 and M2’s 22 over ground stations consist of glass and steel structures in a light design and resemble the tunnel stations in functionality and design.
Since the opening in 2002, over half a billion passengers have traveled with Copenhagen metro., which has recently been expanded with the M3 Cityringen. With Cityringen, there are 17 new stations in central Copenhagen. The metro network will be extended to Nordhavn and Sydhavn in the coming years.
The Barcelona metro system has eight lines (five conventional ones and three automatic), 165 stations and 162 trains operating at peak times on working days, including the Funicular. The Montjuïc Funicular is also included as part of its service..
(photo Barcelona Metro)
