A job for the Wombles
They are going to build an underground railway in Dublin.
They’ve been muttering about this for years but have finally decided to take the plunge.
They tell us it is fully costed and will come in on target at €9.5 billion. I am prepared to take any bet that it will cost well in excess of €20 billion. After all, our children’s hospital was to cost €700 million and the bill is currently standing at €2.3 billion and it still isn’t finished. It’s apparently the most expensive hospital on the planet.
They reckon this underground will do wonders, easing the traffic congestion in the city. God help commuters who are going to have to put up with years of diversions and restrictions while the tunnel is being built.
Click to embiggen
I noticed one thing on the plan. North of the city the rail suddenly pops up to the surface, flies over the motorway and the slides underground again. I hope the train can cope with the gradients?
There is of course a much easier way of easing congestion on the roads. All they have to do is remove all those cycle-ways and bus lanes that are clogging up the streets. In fact they should ban bikes and buses altogether as they are half the problem. It would cost a fraction and could nearly be done overnight.
On a side note, I found something that made me laugh. It absolutely nails the problem with electric vehicles.
Just nip over to Scrob’s place.
It’ll be called Hamas Line as a token woke solidarity.
I’ll leave that to the Dubliners. They have a great knack of coming up with great irreverent nicknames for things.
They should have a contest to name the line. The winner gets to ride free for the first month.
How about Tubey McTube-Face?
Happy belated birthday Grandad, I like your optimism 20 billion !!! I reckon 50 will be nearer the mark.
And the train won’t fit in the tunnel if past experience is anything to go by
Not so long ago they stated categorically that the idea of the hospital costing more that €2 billion was sheer nonsence. It now stands at €2.3 billion and that’s still not the final cost.
Thanks for the H/T, Grandad!
Longrider has a better mention of the issue!
https://longrider.co.uk/blog/2024/02/20/on-keeping-my-car/
If the Dublin underground is going to follow the disaster London is facing – especially as Mare Khaaaan is heading it all up, I’m afraid that it’ll probably cost treble even before a spade hits the soil…
Yes, I read that piece over at Longrider’s. Another who is not too happy with the way things are going.
But GD, not all electric cars are bad, we’ve got one and it’s great. I often tell people about it…
It’s an attractive little four seater, easily does 80+ on the motorway, range is over 400 miles on a run and you can recharge it in a couple of minutes. You can take recharge cans with you too so you can top up without a recharge station. We’ve had it several years and it only cost £600 on Ebay !
‘Course it’s not actually electric (except for the lights & stuff). Otherwise it couldn’t do any of this and would cost a fortune 🙂
I find it strange that no one mentions the possibility of a spare battery in case of running out of charge. What do you do if the charge runs down? Presumably that would involve a tow to the nearest charging point which could be tricky, and expensive.
Grandad, Grandad…
Gareth just said he can drive at 80mph on a motorway, an’ that’s illegal!
Tell the Garda, tell the Taoiseach, tell oh, buggerit, just tell me, an’ I’ll ignore it!
Hab Ich nicht gesagt? Das war in Deutchland probiert !
(That’s my story anyway – so there!)
And a shout out to all other Citroen (non-electric) Pluriel owners 🙂
My Tiguan is German, and understands everything you say…
But “don’t tell him Pike”!
It is Doom, of the trickiest and most expensive sort. See ‘t interwebs…
(IMO the real tell is that – were “Net Zero” the real aim – it would be much easier to make synthetic “GREEN” hydrocarbon fuels to keep the existing fleet on the roads. That this is never mentioned I think is quite instructive of the real agenda)
I hear from sources, that there will soon be “electric car only” lanes on all motorways.
They’ll be on the inside lane, with laybys every hundred yards for failing batteries, and a van will come along every few hours with new packs of AA Duracell replacements!
Have you perhaps come across the term “Cockwomble”? Wonderful word with, maybe, relevance to this project.
I had to look this word up. There are a large number of things that this will apply to here in the wilds of Oregon.