{"id":677333,"date":"2026-09-07T19:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677333\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T19:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:26:17","slug":"more-than-200-property-owners-face-compulsory-purchase-orders-for-dart-west-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677333\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 200 property owners face compulsory purchase orders for Dart+ West \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish Rail<\/a> is to contact more than 200 property owners over compulsory purchases as part for the Dart+<\/a> West project. <\/p>\n

The 206 landowners are located between Spencer Dock in Dublin<\/a> and Maynooth, Co Kildare<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The compulsory purchase order process includes formal letters with a legal \u201cNotice to Treat\u201d issued from Monday onwards.<\/p>\n

Irish Rail is seeking land to improve the alignment of the railway<\/a> and for access during construction works associated with electrification. <\/p>\n

It will mostly involve parts of individual land holdings, including commercial and residential property. A spokeswoman said that in some cases it may be temporary to facilitate site access. A number of rights of way across the railway would also be closed. <\/p>\n

Dart+ West is one element of a suite of measures designed to grow the existing Dart network from 50km in length to over 150km, through the electrification and upgrading of existing lines. <\/p>\n

It will serve Ashtown, Pelletstown, Broombridge, Castleknock, Coolmine, Clonsilla, Navan Road Parkway, Drumcondra, Leixlip, Maynooth<\/a> and Hansfield, Dunboyne and the M3 Parkway. It aims to provide Dart services at least every 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Irish Rail is also seeking to close or alter level crossings at Ashtown, Coolmine, Clonsilla, Porterstown, Blakestown and Barberstown. A new station is to be provided at Spencer Dock. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Legal challenges to Dart expansion plans droppedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Dart+ West project received statutory approval for its design in July 2024, and after a judicial review process<\/a>, the permission became operative in June 2025.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Monday, Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine said the move marked \u201ca significant milestone\u201d in the delivery of the project. <\/p>\n

Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> said it was the \u201ckey enabler\u201d for the wider programme, extending the Dart network from the city centre to the M3 Parkway and, subject to planning, to a new train depot in Kilcock. <\/p>\n

\"Dart+Dart+ West is one element of a suite of measures designed to grow the existing Dart network from 50km in length to over 150km <\/p>\n

However, residents in west Dublin have expressed a number of concerns about the project. <\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD and assistant Government Chief Whip Emer Currie<\/a> said there was some anxiety about the loss of level crossings. She said plans for the closure of the Coolmine level crossing have indicated no alternative vehicle route. <\/p>\n

At Clonsilla, she said she understood the closure would mean a detour of a \u201ccouple of kilometres\u201d while at Ashtown there was to be an underpass provided. <\/p>\n

At Barberstown, the level crossing would be shut permanently with no access for motorists. <\/b>The Porterstown level crossing is to be permanently closed to cars and a new pedestrian and cyclist bridge provided instead. At Blakestown, between Maynooth and Kilcock, the crossing would also be permanently removed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is widespread support for Dart+ West and the electrification of the Maynooth rail line through Dublin West. If anything, there is frustration at the pace of delivery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fund Dart+ South West now and unlock potential for 65,300 new homes, says CairnOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project would significantly increase both the frequency and capacity of rail services, and that investment is badly needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she said, there was understandable concern about what impact permanently closing level crossings could have on congestion in surrounding communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe Irish Rail has yet fully convinced residents that complete closure is necessary to deliver the project safely,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of our level crossings are currently operated by attendants who manually close the gates. The question I am regularly asked is whether these crossings could instead be upgraded to the highest modern safety standards and retained, at least during offpeak hours. That needs to be clearly addressed.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish Rail is to contact more than 200 property owners over compulsory purchases as part for the Dart+…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,2914,13413,52,18,18571,13,14,6,19,17,13419,3625,11,12,15,16,51348,5,13421,7,8],"class_list":["post-677333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-dart","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-emer-currie","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-rail","tag-kildare","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-maynooth","tag-news","tag-public-transport","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117231407181349700","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677333","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=677333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}