{"id":1647,"date":"2023-10-03T12:05:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2024-05-01T09:30:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T09:30:29","slug":"aie-request-confirms-that-iarnrod-eireann-hasnt-analysed-the-impact-of-a-shuttle-service-from-howth-junction-on-local-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1647","title":{"rendered":"AIE request confirms that Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann hasn&#8217;t analysed the impact of a shuttle service from Howth Junction on local services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have received a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/response-pack-IE_AIE_031.pdf\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/response-pack-IE_AIE_031.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">response<\/a> from Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann to an Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) request. The request sought the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Any analyses of potential operational patterns involving a shuttle service between Howth Junction and Howth, requiring passengers to change at Howth Junction to access Bayside, Sutton and Howth.<\/li><li>Any analyses of the time delays or reduced capacity of the network at Howth Junction caused by the current arrangement&nbsp;where northbound trains to Howth cross the southbound track from Malahide.<\/li><li>Any analyses of the time savings or increased capacity of the network should one or more Howthbound trains be replaced by a shuttle service.<\/li><li>A copy of the terms of reference for&nbsp;&#8220;studies which will examine the doubling of track capacity between Dublin\u2019s Connolly and Malahide train stations, where DART and intercity traffic currently share the same tracks&#8221;, for which funding was awarded on 22nd June.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In the public consultation in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1432\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1432\" target=\"_blank\">2022<\/a> and in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1592\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=1592\" target=\"_blank\">2023<\/a> on Dart+ North, I asked repeatedly for the analysis as to how a shuttle service between Howth and Howth Junction might work both in terms of negative impacts on trips to Bayside, Sutton and Howth, and in terms of any benefits for trains from Malahide.  In my 2022 submission I wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cThe reports are very clear about the selection of options as Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann has moved through this process, and show the criteria taken into account. Looking through the reports, especially the \u201cDart Expansion Options Assessment\u201d there doesn\u2019t seem to have been an analysis of this type for the proposal to develop infrastructure for a shuttle service to Howth. (The Dart Expansion Options Assessment compares a \u2018do minimum\u2019 bundle with four other bundles, each of which includes the Howth shuttle proposal. What about those bundles without the Howth shuttle?)<\/p><p>\u201cI appreciate that the exact operational form of a shuttle service remains to be determined. However, there\u2019s no point in developing infrastructure for such a service unless there are credible scenarios in which that infrastructure would be useful. Therefore there should be some sort of analysis of such likely operational scenarios.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>At the second public consultation I\u00c9 made clear that they have no actual plans to run a shuttle service, no examples of how it might operate and indeed might never use the new infrastructure to run a shuttle service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result of the AIE request simply  confirms the above. The impact of using the proposed infrastructure at Howth Junction in the manner for which it would be designed, i.e. a shuttle service, simply hasn&#8217;t been analysed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have received a response from Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann to an Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) request. The request sought the following: Any analyses of potential operational patterns involving a shuttle service between Howth Junction and Howth, requiring passengers to change at Howth Junction to access Bayside, Sutton and Howth. Any analyses of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,66,75,60,1,64,79,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1650,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}