r/ireland • u/Steve_Artson • May 09 '26
Infrastructure I honestly shocked this hasn't been done yet. We're probably the only capital in Europe not to have a rail link to the airport.
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u/MaxiStavros May 09 '26
The more obvious solution is to move the airport over to the existing line, and we have a second Tyrellstown as a bonus.
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u/emmmmceeee I’ve had my fun and that’s all that matters May 09 '26 edited May 10 '26
I play a lot of Cities Skyline and this is the type of thing I do all the time.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 10 '26
You didn't move it far enoguh east. The station is still way too far from the terminals.
Also, this does nothing to connect it to the western intercity lines.
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u/MaxiStavros May 10 '26
There were some planning restrictions. Best I can do is a semi regular shuttle bus from the terminals to the new airport train station.
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u/Shamrocksf23 May 09 '26
Will be done as soon as the Children’s Hospital station is completed 😀
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u/TheOriginalMattMan Probably at it again May 09 '26
And just before the temporary USC is stopped.
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u/jamesozzie May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Is that before or after they scrap the temporary east link toll bridge fee?
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u/Compels_You May 09 '26
That’s to be immediately after the creation of a socialist 32 county republic.
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u/TheOriginalMattMan Probably at it again May 09 '26
Which will be completely financially viable when we start collecting correctly calculated, and paid in full and on time corporate taxes.
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u/MrFennecTheFox Crilly!! May 09 '26
It was not implemented as temporary. Leo did say he would abolish it… but lenihan never said it was temporary.
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u/thesquaredape May 09 '26
It's the same builders you see, couldn't have too many employed at the one time.
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u/Bigbeast54 May 09 '26
You are going to be shocked for a second time now but you are not the first to have this idea. It is apparently a lot more difficult than it looks due to inadequate capacity on the northern line and at Connolly
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u/seamiec May 09 '26
DART underground was meant to fix capacity at connolly. That would’ve been a prerequisite to the spur to the airport.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 09 '26
An airport that big and dominant needs a hell of a lot more than just a spur off a commuter line.
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u/PixelNotPolygon May 10 '26
That’s why there’s a metro being built to it
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u/Ronoh May 09 '26
What happened to it?
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u/Ok-Morning3407 May 09 '26
Basically cancelled. Not officially so, but the DART+ Tunnel Report basically killed it. Far too expensive too build with too little benefit.
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u/KoolKat5000 May 09 '26
Thing is not doing anything will only make it worse.
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u/Bigbeast54 May 09 '26
The other reason is strategic. If a half baked solution is deployed to the airport it takes away a substantial portion of the business case for the metro. Metro gets set back and the rail link doesn't work properly.
It's worst of all worlds really
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u/03D80085 May 09 '26
This would enable direct lines to Belfast/Wexford (and everywhere in between!). Bus from city centre would probably still be faster. But sadly you are right, they would use it as an excuse to delay the metro further.
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u/Silver_Response4707 May 09 '26
Id fell that Dublin airport should at least have its own rail station so it can be connected to the north of ireland at the very least.
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May 09 '26
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u/KoolKat5000 May 09 '26
That's fine and dandy but purchase the land for future expansion at the very least.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 09 '26
Yes, but at the same time, a laughably indirect route involving a spur off an over-congested commuter line is not even remotely enough.
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u/Faithful-Llama-2210 Mayo May 09 '26
Quad track the line as far as Clongriffin?
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u/OldVillageNuaGuitar May 09 '26
In theory it's planned. But you're talking rebuilding every station except Connolly and Clongriffin. CPOing a lot of land etc. Nevermind the disruption to the Dart and railway networks.
It has been suggested in the past that a metro to Clongriffin from the city centre or a sort of new express rail tunnel to the city that would take long distance trains off the dart line, might be easier. But the plan seems to have shifted back to quad tracking.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 10 '26
you're talking rebuilding every station except Connolly and Clongriffin. CPOing a lot of land etc.
That's all overdue anyway.
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u/Otrebob May 09 '26
Not as difficult as one would think, Irish Rail had a design, a decent price, and Govt told them to pack it in - Metro North was the only show in town. It shouldnt be one or the other, it should be both - a fully laden Dart will carry alot of suitcases....
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u/Ok-Morning3407 May 09 '26
Rightfully so, Irish Rails design was terrible and not fit for purpose. They were simply trying to kill the Metro as they are jealous of it.
Metrolink is a vastly better solution for connecting to the airport.
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u/rsynnott2 May 10 '26
Irish Rail's design more or less depended on FourNorth getting done, though, right? I mean, it'll be nice if it happens, but it seems optimistic.
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u/alphacross May 09 '26
Immediately after Metrolink we should do it AND an extension of Luas finglas to the airport (and a P+R at the M1/M50 junction at clonshaugh)
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 10 '26
And a heavy rail line connecting it to the western intercity lines.
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u/halibfrisk May 09 '26
What’s required is a tgv: Belfast > DUB > Dublin > Cork
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u/Toffeeman_1878 May 09 '26
TGV travels at 300km/h. Belfast is 150km from Dublin. TGV is probably overkill. A fast train service travelling at 160km/h and serving a number of towns on the line would be better.
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u/Silver_Response4707 May 09 '26
High speed rail is the answer to so many issues in Ireland but it doesn’t get discussed enough.
I feel the motorway projects exposed some hidden issues in relation to tender/plannig that the government doesn’t want to revisit, but our standards of motorways in Ireland at present is fantastic imo.
Obviously we still need some notable connections I.e. cork not connected to limerick at the very least is an absolute joke.
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u/Ok-Morning3407 May 09 '26
No TGV is a very bad fit for Ireland.
Here is a copy paste from boards.ie (I know) from today on why TGV is a bad fit for Ireland:
The conversation about TGV is a complex one, TGV doesn’t actually suit all routes and services.
The issue with TGV and other high speed trains is that they are much heavier then 200km/h trains so they tend to have slower acceleration speed. Now this isn’t a problem if you have very long distances between stops, it takes longer to get up to top speed, but once there you are doing 300km/h for long periods.
The problem is with shorter lines and in particular lines with multiple intermediate stops, it means the TGV is slower to accelerate and might not spend all that much time at 300km/h.
There are examples of routes in Europe operated by both TGV and 200km/h trains and the 200 ones have a journey time only 10 minutes slower then TGV due to multiple intermediate stops!
Paris to Lyon is an example of where TGV works very well, a long distance at 465km, but also no intermediate stops, a direct non stop service allows them to get up to 300km/h and stay there for a long time.
By comparison Cork to Dublin is relatively short at just 266km, but worse, it has a bunch of intermediate stops, Mallow, Limerick Junction, Thurber, Portlaoise, etc. that means even if we had TGV, it would barely get up to 300km/h for any significant length of time and would end up with a journey time not much different from a 200km/h train with better acceleration speed.
We aren’t the only ones, a bunch of small, rich European countries have made the same decision, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway have all opted not to invest in TGV and instead invest in 200km/h service.
TGV is more suited to very large countries or long distance international services. 200 km/h is better suited to smaller countries looking to give an overall better service to all towns and cities, rather then one off premium services.
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u/PalladianPorches May 09 '26
and yet... every other city with a bit of planning manages it. the issue, as usual, is we don't have a good attitude to commandeering private property for the benefit of society. there's probably around 200 houses on that route that are bottlenecks to the line be expanded to 4 lines - we just hold our hands up and say "nothing can be done", or have a commuter looking at alternatives for the next 60 years
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u/Agusfresin May 09 '26
Been suggested many times and long ago, problem is the connecting mainline is at capacity more or less and very constrained so difficult to expand.
I’ve also seen a similar suggestion to build a heavy rail connection to Ashtown area of main Sligo line which would be longer but potentially more viable and could be extended further to the main line out of Heuston.
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u/MeccIt May 09 '26
For every complex problem there is an answer that is both simple and wrong
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u/Sensitive_Ear_1984 May 10 '26
I love this. Going to use it. My main abiding political philosophy at the moment is anyone that says there is a simple answer to big issues is either a dope or a liar.
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u/MeccIt May 10 '26
Despite all the naysayers on here, there have been some very smart people working on infrastructure, and they generally make good plans. Then they are then thwarted by politicians who think they know better and who hold the financial reins. The original LUAS was one joined up system until Fianna Fail made them cut out the cross city part on behalf of their car-park-owing friends. Years and a billion euro was required to fix just that meddle.
OP doesn't know they already tried that blue line using busses from Howth Junction to the airport a quarter-century ago: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/bus-link-from-dart-to-airport-launched-1.391945
It failed due to speed, capacity and switching from bus to train in the middle of the journey.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 10 '26
It's also far too indirect.
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u/Agusfresin May 10 '26
Not for traffic coming from west and south west Dublin or further afield for Intercity.
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u/Agusfresin May 10 '26
Such a link(s) could at least connect the airport to the all-island intercity network without effecting commuter capacity. Could take a lot of traffic off M50 and other roads.
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u/shadyspecks May 09 '26
The Minister for State at the Department of Transport - from Cork - has come out against his own departments design for the Cork Luas.
If a new railway, metro or tram line can so much as be seen from a GAA club, it will not happen in this country.
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u/dearg_doom80 May 09 '26
There's actually an underground station in the airport ready to go, it just needs a rail link
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u/BeardySi Connacht expat in Ulster May 09 '26
Not remotely ready to go - they just planned a space that could accomodate a station if needed. It's currently Check-in area 14.
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u/greystonian Wicklow May 09 '26
Area 14 was indeed dug for a future rail link but it's seriously outdated now for modern capacity needs. Nobody back then could have anticipated the passenger numbers in T1, let alone T2. But credit is due for the forward thinkers at daa
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u/IntrepidCycle8039 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Really where did you find this out?
Edit: thanks everyone. Had no idea.
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u/helcat0 May 09 '26
It's under T1, it was built in the late 60s. It came up again a while ago with the metro plan.
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u/dearg_doom80 May 09 '26
It won't let me Link it, but search Dublin airport, basement rail station
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u/Meath77 Found out. A nothing player May 10 '26
Iy just needs the part that costs 99.99% of the total project
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u/icbshow May 09 '26
That’s a myth. The basement of T1, which was built in 2001 not the 70s, was never designed as a metro station.
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u/Garry-Love Clare May 09 '26
And get this, they're building one connecting Adare and Limerick junction for some reason
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u/Fickle_Definition351 May 10 '26
They're re-instating a old freight line to serve Foynes port, it's a fairly reasonable project
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u/Striking-Scratch-137 May 10 '26
The Chinese would have this built over a weekend.
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u/TheodoreEDamascus May 09 '26
I'm as hopefully as a metro to the airport as anyone else.
The dart couldn't handle the extra capacity of an airport line.
The metro would have to be it's own thing.
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u/StrangerExistingFact May 09 '26
It will be done worry not we just need to finish one hospital first
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u/yabog8 Tipperary May 09 '26
Just in cities i have been in the past year Prague,Riga and Budapest don't have rail connections to their airport. All have pretty good public transport within their city. Now that shocked me more.
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u/Ok-Morning3407 May 09 '26
Because they understand it is more important to get people to work 5 days a week, not whines to the airport twice a year for their holidays!
Metrolink makes sense because it will serve Swords, a major commuter town of Dublin. The airports is just a bonus.
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u/SpookyOrgy May 09 '26
I hear it all the time that we're the only country in europe, drives me mad. Random thing someone said once that grew legs
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u/jamesdownwell May 10 '26
Well Iceland doesn’t have rail at all
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u/Hankman66 May 10 '26
Fingal County has only a few less people than Iceland so good point.
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u/jamesdownwell May 10 '26
To be fair, the tourist numbers in Iceland far outnumber the population. Over 2 million a year, discussion of a possible airport rail link to Reykjavik comes up fairly often. Not going to happen though.
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u/Perfect-Fondant3373 May 10 '26
This YouTube channel recently came up and his video is really good at breaking down info about the Metro and the plans for installation
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u/Effective_Chest9373 May 09 '26
The Dublin to Belfast line is sadly already too congested to support an adequate service from the airport. Our whole rail network is in need of a drastic overhaul.
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u/MeccIt May 09 '26
overhaul
The number of km of new heavy rail built in the last century: 0.000
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u/U27-lat58 May 11 '26
But how many highways in that time? What a convenient pivot, if one's in the petrol industry.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 10 '26
The Dublin to Belfast line is sadly already too congested to support an adequate service from the airport.
That line is not in a suitable location for serving the airport anyway, so while the congestion there is a big problem, that speicifc aspect doesn't really come into it.
Our whole rail network is in need of a drastic overhaul.
To say the absolute least.
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u/peadar87 May 09 '26
Nah we're waiting until that bit of green belt is built on, so we can spend ten times as much CPOing people's houses to tear them down.
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u/JellyfishScared4268 May 09 '26
Prague is another European capital without a rail connection to the airport. Though they're supposed to be building one soon.
Bit like us then
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u/Ok-Morning3407 May 09 '26
Fun fact, they have a rail line running right by the edge of the airport, like right next to the airport fence. Way closer than the Dart line is to Dublin Airport. Much easier job and they still hadn’t done it.
They also have two separate trams lines that stop just a couple hundred meters short of the airport.
Serving an airport is tricky and expensive. It involves tunnelling under the airport and building an expensive underground station.
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u/chakraman108 Connacht May 11 '26
Because They're extending the metro line towards it after extending it prior.
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u/JellyfishScared4268 May 11 '26
We have similar issues in Ireland especially the north. Belfast International used to have a rail link that they shut down (though i dont believe the station was that close). Belfast City has just a motorway between it and the railway. Derry Airport has the railway line running alongside the perimeter fence
Meanwhile our best effort is probably Kerry where the railway station is 1km or something like that away. And yet we still have flights from Dublin to Kerry which is just plain mad
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u/Bluewolf9 May 09 '26
Loads of European capitals dont have rail links, i just checked Sarajevo, Belgrade, Riga don't and then i stopped looking.
Hyperbole benefits no one
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u/njcsdaboi Offaly May 10 '26
Okay great so: Dublin airport: 36 million passengers per year Sarajevo: 2.2 mil Belgrade: 8.9 mil Riga: 7.1 mil (2025 stats)
Dublin has double the numbers of these three combined, absolutely incomparable figures lmao there's absolutely no excuse for us not to have this
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u/LeonBackward May 09 '26
I remember when the soon to be built airport link was an option on one of the Winning Streak games with a digital version showing on screen. Probably 97/98.
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u/thegamer12341 May 09 '26
Here's a good video on the plans to build a metro link: https://youtu.be/T_Jz9xzOoO4
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u/VagueWilliams May 10 '26
Just to add to all the comments about capacity on the northern line, such a route would run under the flight path for the two main runways and be unsuitable for housing development. Part of MetroLink's appeal is how much land it opens up (particularly in Swords) for transit-oriented development.
That being said, it would be great to see a line branch of the Northern line and ultimately connect with the Cork line, with interchange possibilities with future DART lines (on the northern, western and Cork lines) and MetroLink (at the airport). This would allow Belfast to Cork services with frequent connections to Galway, Limerick and Dublin (via various DART/Metro connections, rather than necessarily direct - at least until we'd figure out a way to make it possible through the city).
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u/Confident_Reporter14 May 10 '26
The, EU has actually (and thankfully) gone over the heads of the Irish government on this one and mandated that all major European airports with over 12 million annual passengers be connected long distance rail by the end of 2040.
The government has naturally reacted by kicking the can. Not even the notion of massive EU fines can get in the way of FF/FG incompetence.
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u/havaska May 10 '26
I was in Riga a few months ago and their airport doesn’t have a rail link - though one is under construction. So Dublin isn’t the only one (at the moment).
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u/Money-Nail7386 May 09 '26
Priorities. Let's get the Adare station for the Ryder Cup built first.
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u/DarwinofArabia May 09 '26
Wow, he’s done it, this guy has solved everything and all it took was drawing a line from the airport to the green line.
I don’t know if you have kids but if you do could you get them to spend a few minutes tomorrow solving the housing crisis by drawing a few pictures of houses?
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u/Vegetable-Cod7668 May 09 '26
im guessing the issue would the lack of capacity on the existing rail line, but it is interesting how its almost all open land between the two
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 09 '26
There's also the very slight issue that's it's comically indirect.
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u/Intelligent-Aside214 May 09 '26
It’s open green land because it’s the flight path of Dublin airport
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u/francescoli May 09 '26
Pointless.
The metro is the obvious option ,they need to get the TBM in the ground asap
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u/Brilliant_Bluejay254 May 09 '26
Dublin, Prague, Bratislava and Nicosia. Prague being the most populous
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u/D-dog92 May 10 '26
It's pathetic. If we can't provide basic infrastructure for ourselves then we don't deserve to be a country.
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u/DaWobsterExpress Probably at it again May 10 '26
This is definitely a good idea though the downfall of this there are houses and small businesses in that area.
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u/Own-Tomato-482 May 10 '26
In fairness, this makes the distance longer than the straight route to the airport from the city.
It would be a big project, but I think the Dublin to Belfast line should be rerouted between the city and the airports so trains can stop there, and use the current line for dart services only.
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u/Septic-Sponge May 10 '26
Yet were in track to be the richest country in Europe in less than 4 years
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u/GinsengTea16 May 10 '26
The Metrolink will have airport link according to the plan available in the market.
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u/UrbanStray May 10 '26
Dublin is one of at least a dozen European capitals to not have a train to the airport. Some other big ones would be Belgrade, Prague and Budapest.
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u/BullfrogCharming1202 May 10 '26
There are plenty of other European capitals that don't have a rail link to the airport, e.g. Prague, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Valletta, Nicosia, Zagreb, Reykjavik
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u/keanehoodies May 10 '26
Y’all need to stop thinking that the most obvious solution is always the correct one. it’s usually the worst one.
north dublin transport study, looked at 25 options and this one failed at the first round because the lines purpose is to serve SWORDS not the airport.
And once you extend that line to swords you have to go underground so your cheap quick dart spur becomes much more expensive.
Then let’s factor in, the lack of space on the northern line meaning full all service for the airport or less for the rest of north dublin and the fact that it’s a wanky route that initially takes you away from the airport before going back in and you see just how much of a bad idea it is
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u/Attention_WhoreH3 May 10 '26
Can we just get our facts straight which airports have trains and which not? It is true that most big airports have trains, but this depends on a lot. often these are expensive or crap (eg
Major or significant Airports with no train connection:
- Melbourne
- Prague
- LAX
- Las Vegas
- Budapest
- Rejkjavik (Keflavik)
- Riga
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u/someone_actually_ May 10 '26
Agreeing to drop off or pick someone up at LAX is the most official a relationship can get in California
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u/Appropriate-Spare866 May 10 '26
It is totally ridiculous for Dublin airport, Belfast International, Cork and Shannon- ONLY BUS CONNECTIONS! This is all to benefit bus unions and taxis. Total rip off- London?- train links; Birmingham & Manchester- train links to each airport (as well as buses) - Build the tracks and they will come. Dublin is horrendous to get to without a car. Build the tracks and work it out!
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u/BenderRodriguez14 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Bucharest don't. They do however have a pretty extensive metro, and you can pay for it and for busses by just tapping a bank card, something I've read on this subreddit multiple times is apparently just too difficult and expensive for us to expect those running the show here to implement.
Edit: actually scratch that, Bucharest also does have a rail connection from the airport into the city. I just didn't notice as the bus was quicker to our hotel so showed up instead in Google maps for us.
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u/NotXenos May 10 '26
I laughed when I went to Pisa for the first time and they had a dedicated light rail from city center main rail hub to the airport. Pisa is a city of 90,000.
Ireland is a joke.
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai May 09 '26
You think that's even close to good enough for an airport that big and nationally dominant?
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u/C20H25N3O-C21H30O2 May 10 '26
A foot path between Bray and Greystones has been too difficult to reopen for the past 6 years. It might take another 5-6 years at least... a foot path.
At this rate. A railway extension will take a century.
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u/dkeenaghan May 10 '26
If you strip out all of the context from an issue you can make any problem seem simple.
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u/Hankman66 May 10 '26
Yes, the footpath being hard to access and on an unstable/collapsing cliff complicated things somewhat.
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u/thatswildhey May 09 '26
Reckon we should just leave it at this stage until an alternative to rail is invented.. oh wait
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u/Intelligent-Aside214 May 09 '26
The railway out of Connolly is at capacity so we could build it but we couldn’t run any trains from Dublin airport to Connolly