{"id":602694,"date":"2026-07-24T22:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602694\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:05:17","slug":"i-wouldnt-have-thought-it-would-be-needed-raheny-locals-react-to-dart-line-expansion-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602694\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I wouldn\u2019t have thought it would be needed\u2019: Raheny locals react to Dart line expansion \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

If commuters are to be encouraged to leave their cars at home, then Ireland needs a 21st-century transport network, Marie Clynes says. But before any rail expansion to Raheny <\/a>train station is set for construction, \u201cwe need to see the small print\u201d.<\/p>\n

Clynes is among many Raheny locals with a mixed view on plans for a big expansion of the Dart<\/a> rail line between Dublin Connolly and Malahide that will see the current two tracks expanded to four.<\/p>\n

Construction on the project, estimated to cost more than \u20ac1 billion<\/a>, is expected to continue into the early 2030s.<\/p>\n

Angela O\u2019Connor (72) and Leslie Donegan (76) live in the same housing estate as Clynes in Raheny, around the corner from the station, which is one of 10 affected by the proposed track expansion.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, a retired teacher, has lived in Raheny \u201call her life\u201d and \u201cmight be happy with three tracks\u201d as opposed to the expansion to four.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor says the \u201ctotal disconnect\u201d between rail services and bus services needs to be amended if work on the rail is potentially going to halt Dart services.<\/p>\n

\"MaintenanceMaintenance crews repair an overhead cable at Raheny Dart station in June. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins <\/p>\n

The Irish Rail<\/a> announcement means gardens and other privately owned land along the 10 railway stations needing to be remodelled will potentially be needed for construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to lose their gardens,\u201d O\u2019Connor says, adding: \u201cIs this going to be another Rathgar? \u2018Let\u2019s get rid of all the beautiful trees.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

In any case, O\u2019Connor thinks she\u2019ll be \u201cshooting up the daisies\u201d by the time the project is completed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Billion-euro expansion announced for country\u2019s most congested rail lineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Clynes, also a retired teacher, has lived in Raheny for 30 years and welcomes the expansion and thinks \u201coverall\u201d it is a good idea.<\/p>\n

She says, however, \u201cwe need to see the small print\u201d and wants reassurance that Raheny residents will be consulted with on the process.<\/p>\n

Donegan worked in the fish trade and was a regular commuter to Howth \u201cgoing back years ago\u201d. He agrees the widening of the tracks is needed but for him it\u2019s about \u201chow many billions\u201d will the project cost in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in this country, no matter what it is, bicycle sheds or anything like that, it always costs three or four times the amount,\u201d Donegan says.<\/p>\n

Robert Peat (53) moved to Valencia in Spain when he was 27 to be an English teacher but returns during the summer to Raheny, where he grew up, to teach English to Spanish students.<\/p>\n

Peat is struck by some of the progress made in infrastructure in the area since he left for Valencia. Driving down the Malahide Road, he was \u201camazed at the amount of building that\u2019s going on\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cServices are going to have to match that amount of construction,\u201d Peat says, adding that transport is an \u201cessential\u201d service.<\/p>\n

\"TrafficTraffic on the Howth Road in Raheny.
\nPhotograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t do it now, they\u2019re going to have to do it at some point in the future, so you\u2019ll just kick the can down the road, which I think, unfortunately, is a lot of what happens here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxine Maher (60) works in the pharmacy neighbouring SuperValu in Raheny village but cycles in from her home in Donaghmede.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought it would be needed, four lines,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Maher says \u201cyou see congestion at certain times, maybe\u201d due to people making their way into town, but otherwise she does not hear of much traffic frustration from locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will affect the village, definitely\u201d if homes are bought under a compulsory purchase order, Maher says, but weighing up the pros and cons, she says she would be \u201cfifty-fifty on it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maher says: \u201cIt\u2019d good for the village in a way that people can come in and stop off, but then you\u2019ve got those people that live there that would have to be selling their houses and they\u2019re probably there a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If commuters are to be encouraged to leave their cars at home, then Ireland needs a 21st-century transport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,13413,18,19,17,13419,87097],"class_list":["post-602694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dart","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-rail","tag-raheny"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116977226767259156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}