Metro 'too small' to cope with demand, says expert
Wednesday February 06 2008
A boss of world metro maker Siemens says the planned Metro from Dublin city centre to the capital's airport will be far too small to cope with projected demand.
Dr Werner Kruckow, chief executive of Siemens Ireland, said yesterday that the proposed Dublin Metro will only be able to handle 20,000 passengers an hour in each direction which is far "too small".
The transport chief said the development of a sustainable city like Dublin requires the fast implementation of a high capacity transportation network, similar to that in other European cities.
Munich in Germany had a metro with a capacity for 36,000 passengers per hour in each direction, yet the maximum it has ever carried was 30,000.
"Dublin is planning for a peak of 20,000 per hour in each direction. This is much too low," the Siemens chief said in Dublin yesterday.
The Metro plan also failed to take account of projected population increases, which is due to reach two million.
