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DART Underground
DART Underground (Irish: DART Faoi Thalamh), also known as the Interconnector or DART+ Tunnel, is a proposed heavy-rail tunnel in Dublin, Ireland. First proposed in 1972, as of 2021[update] it was not funded or scheduled. While the Greater Dublin Transport Strategy 2016-2035 (published in 2016) included the DART Underground as a proposed National Transport Authority project, the tunnel was not included in the National Development Plan published in 2018 or DART+ expansion plans published in August 2020.
The original plans, which proposed an expansion of the electrified Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) network, projected the development of a tunnel between Heuston Station and Pearse Station. It had been planned to leave an existing line, via the Phoenix Park Tunnel, idle in the event of the scheme being built. This line however was subsequently reopened, connecting Heuston station with Dublin's Docklands - a cross-city connection which the DART Underground scheme was supposed to achieve. Accordingly, when the Irish Government published a new national spatial strategy in 2018, the revised plans dropped the DART Underground scheme in favour of these existing lines. Having previously secured planning consent, the project was initially deferred until after 2016, and by 2015, it had been announced that the project would be redrafted to a lower cost design. In October 2016, a "scaled down" plan was published with a potential commencement date "in 2020". As of September 2017 however, it was suggested that the developments would be deferred until after 2030, with the National Transport Authority undertaking a review of the project and its route; this review projected to complete sometime between 2018 and 2027. While the planned alignment was to be preserved, it was announced in November 2021 that DART Underground would not proceed in the period 2022–2042.
DART Underground was first proposed in 1972 in the "Transportation in Dublin" study conducted by An Foras Forbartha, an anteceding body to Forfás as an underground rail link to connect Dublin's three main railway stations. In 1975, CIÉ commissioned the "Dublin Rapid Rail Transportation Study" (DRRTS), which recommended a four-phase plan including a prototypical Dart Underground:
The DRRTS, if completed as envisaged in 1975, would have resulted in a cross shaped pair of tunnels in the city centre meeting at a central station in Temple Bar.
The next plan, proposed in 2001 as an "Interconnector", was included in the Platform For Change strategy report issued by the now defunct Dublin Transportation Office (DTO).
A Railway Order permitting the construction of the project was granted in December 2011 by An Bord Pleanála. In August 2014, then Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe TD was told that both the Dart Underground and Metro North projects would have had to rely on private funding if they were to be built. In 2010, the estimated projected cost for DART Underground was €4 billion, more than half of which was expected to be provided by a public private partnership arrangement. Donohoe was told he had to decide on whether to proceed with DART Underground by 24 September 2015, by which time the Railway Order and planning approval would expire. A High Court ruling reduced the period for which compulsory purchase order notices could be issued from seven years to 18 months. The National Transport Authority's Greater Dublin Area draft Transport Strategy 2016–2035, published in October 2015, expressed the desire to see the tunnel completed as part of the overall DART extension programme.
In May 2010, Iarnród Éireann anticipated that, if construction had begun in 2012, the tunnel would have been operational by 2018. In June 2010, Iarnród Éireann submitted an application to An Bord Pleanála for a Railway Order for the scheme under the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001.
In November 2011, the government deferred funding the project due to the decrease in capital spending until 2016 at the earliest. A month later, in December 2011, a Railway Order was granted for the development. The granting of the Railway Order covered the construction of the scheme and any necessary compulsory acquisition of property, but did not commit funding to the project.
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DART Underground
DART Underground (Irish: DART Faoi Thalamh), also known as the Interconnector or DART+ Tunnel, is a proposed heavy-rail tunnel in Dublin, Ireland. First proposed in 1972, as of 2021[update] it was not funded or scheduled. While the Greater Dublin Transport Strategy 2016-2035 (published in 2016) included the DART Underground as a proposed National Transport Authority project, the tunnel was not included in the National Development Plan published in 2018 or DART+ expansion plans published in August 2020.
The original plans, which proposed an expansion of the electrified Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) network, projected the development of a tunnel between Heuston Station and Pearse Station. It had been planned to leave an existing line, via the Phoenix Park Tunnel, idle in the event of the scheme being built. This line however was subsequently reopened, connecting Heuston station with Dublin's Docklands - a cross-city connection which the DART Underground scheme was supposed to achieve. Accordingly, when the Irish Government published a new national spatial strategy in 2018, the revised plans dropped the DART Underground scheme in favour of these existing lines. Having previously secured planning consent, the project was initially deferred until after 2016, and by 2015, it had been announced that the project would be redrafted to a lower cost design. In October 2016, a "scaled down" plan was published with a potential commencement date "in 2020". As of September 2017 however, it was suggested that the developments would be deferred until after 2030, with the National Transport Authority undertaking a review of the project and its route; this review projected to complete sometime between 2018 and 2027. While the planned alignment was to be preserved, it was announced in November 2021 that DART Underground would not proceed in the period 2022–2042.
DART Underground was first proposed in 1972 in the "Transportation in Dublin" study conducted by An Foras Forbartha, an anteceding body to Forfás as an underground rail link to connect Dublin's three main railway stations. In 1975, CIÉ commissioned the "Dublin Rapid Rail Transportation Study" (DRRTS), which recommended a four-phase plan including a prototypical Dart Underground:
The DRRTS, if completed as envisaged in 1975, would have resulted in a cross shaped pair of tunnels in the city centre meeting at a central station in Temple Bar.
The next plan, proposed in 2001 as an "Interconnector", was included in the Platform For Change strategy report issued by the now defunct Dublin Transportation Office (DTO).
A Railway Order permitting the construction of the project was granted in December 2011 by An Bord Pleanála. In August 2014, then Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe TD was told that both the Dart Underground and Metro North projects would have had to rely on private funding if they were to be built. In 2010, the estimated projected cost for DART Underground was €4 billion, more than half of which was expected to be provided by a public private partnership arrangement. Donohoe was told he had to decide on whether to proceed with DART Underground by 24 September 2015, by which time the Railway Order and planning approval would expire. A High Court ruling reduced the period for which compulsory purchase order notices could be issued from seven years to 18 months. The National Transport Authority's Greater Dublin Area draft Transport Strategy 2016–2035, published in October 2015, expressed the desire to see the tunnel completed as part of the overall DART extension programme.
In May 2010, Iarnród Éireann anticipated that, if construction had begun in 2012, the tunnel would have been operational by 2018. In June 2010, Iarnród Éireann submitted an application to An Bord Pleanála for a Railway Order for the scheme under the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001.
In November 2011, the government deferred funding the project due to the decrease in capital spending until 2016 at the earliest. A month later, in December 2011, a Railway Order was granted for the development. The granting of the Railway Order covered the construction of the scheme and any necessary compulsory acquisition of property, but did not commit funding to the project.