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Plans for new roads, public transport and sports facilities have been unveiled as part of Project Ireland 2040.<\/p>\nPlans for new roads, public transport and sports facilities have been unveiled as part of Project Ireland 2040.<\/p>\n
$10 billion is earmarked for public transport over the next ten years, while $7.7bn will be spent on national roads, and over $5bn on regional and local roads.<\/p>\n
Transport Minister Shane Ross, who was critical of his now Department while in Opposition, offered an olive branch to those gathered at the event.<\/p>\n
“About 10 years ago, or maybe a little bit longer, there were some who worked in opposition at the time who regarded the Department of Transport as a kind of nursing home for invalid semi-state bodies,” said Mr Ross.<\/p>\n
“No names mentioned but that was the case. I come today to exercise that particular incident in people’s lives because today we are celebrating a new departure into a new and very exciting plan.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the head of Transport Infrastructure Ireland has said that we cannot keep building on to the M50 to help congestion.<\/p>\n
Commuters using the motorway that runs around Dublin face increasing traffic and travel times.<\/p>\n
CEO of TII, Michael Nolan says public transport may be the only solution.<\/p>\n
“Even during the recession it was traffic on the M50 kept growing and growing at a rate of 6-7% each year,” said Mr Nolan.<\/p>\n
“We have reached this year the traffic levels that we anticipated in the mid-2020s but the M50 is a finite piece of road space – three lanes, maybe four lanes in each direction.<\/p>\n
“You cannot keep building your way out of a problem.<\/p>\n
“There has to be a public transport solution to step into that space and provide relief there.”<\/p>\n