Plan unveiled to re-route rail line to Dunshaughlin

A radical plan which would see part of the restored rail line between Navan and Dublin located east rather than west of the M3 motorway, taking in the towns of Dunshaughlin and Ratoath, was revealed this week by a consortium of developers and landowners. Consultants for Iarnrod Eireann and Meath County Council have already carried out a scoping study on a possible route for the rail line, which produced nine options. These have been reduced to two options, one of which (Irish Rail Route 3) takes a direction from Pace, then proceeds directly west of Dunshaughlin before moving on to Kilmessan. Under this option, the railway station serving Dunshaughlin would be located about a kilometre and a half from the town, and the station would be separated from the town by the Dunshaughlin interchange on the M3. The proposers of an alternative option - developers Duignan & McCarthy, J Stanley, JH Real Estate (Harris), John O"Meara, Menolly Homes, PJ Molloy, and WJ Murphy - are suggesting a rail route veering right from the Pace-Black Bull area, proceeding east of Dunshaughlin (with a rail station within walking distance of the town), before crossing a bridge over the M3 and then rejoining the westerly route on towards Kilmessan. Revealing the report on the proposal for an easterly option, consultants Clifton Scannell Emerson Associates, Fitzpatrick & Associates and Tiros Resources, said that the route they proposed would provide a much better rail service to Dunshaughlin, attract an extra 700-900 passengers per day, generate significantly higher revenues for the rail operator, and attract substantial additional section 49 supplementary contributions (estimated at an extra €9.5 million). They also say that the plan would provide significant environmental benefits, including cuts in greenhouse gases by the increased use of public transport; provide for the orderly development of Dunshaughlin with a coherent urban structure based on the existing built up area, and avoid motorway severance by facilitating the provision of appropriately-located land to enable Dunshaughlin to develop in a sustainable way. Local county councillor Brian Fitzgerald said this week that he regarded the proposal as 'viable, especially from the point of view of the development of Dunshaughlin and Ratoath'. He added: 'Under the proposals for the route suggested by Iarnrod Eireann, a station for Dunshaughlin would be located west of the Dunshaughlin interchange. To attempt to bring potential rail passengers into a situation where they would have to negotiate a vast interchange would be foolish, in my view.' Town planning consultant Douglas Hyde, acting for the group, told the Meath Chronicle this week that the rail route proposed for east of Dunshaughlin was the most sensible and viable one which would be far more advantageous to the development of the county, and especially Dunshaughlin and Ratoath, than the route proposed for the west of Dunshaughlin. This particular modification of Irish Rail Route 4 would see an overall reduction in costs of €17 million. 'This reduction in capital costs, together with the increased passenger patronage and greater supplementary development contributions, estimated at an additional €20 million and €9.5 million, respectively, means that Route 4 is comparable to Route 3 in terms of overall cost,' he said. He added that the engineering advantages would be immense, including avoiding the need to bridge the four-lane parallel link road that runs between Pace and Black Bull; using the under-bridge on the Trim Road at Black Bull (now under construction), and avoiding the need to bridge across the Ratoath Road at Black Bull, which would require property acquisition, including houses. It would also avoid the need to reposition the Dunsany roundabout, avoid the need to acquire dwellings at approaches to the north M3 bridge, eliminate the need for two road bridges at the approaches to the northern M3 bridge, and require shorter bridge crossing of the motorway.