Just Build The Metro
This week, I will be travelling to Amsterdam for RailsWorld. RailsWorld is an annual conference for Ruby on Rails enthusiasts, a web programming framework that prioritises personal productivity at its core.
I love Ruby on Rails and I owe it my life, but that's not the only reason why I'm excited about my trip to Amsterdam.
The main reason is that I can move around Amsterdam without needing a car. This level of freedom is thrilling but counterintuitive to the individual notion that car ownership is freedom. Roads are actually quite restrictive to individual mobility.
Arrival with and without a metro
I will arrive at the main city airport, and once I'm through security, I'll hop on the local tram. The tram will only take 31 minutes to get to my hotel. During that time, I will probably sit and read or scroll on my phone. I can also work, chat with fellow passengers or just hop off at any stop along the way that takes my fancy, knowing that if I resume my journey, I will not be subjected to a traffic jam.
The whole thing is just easy, and I will be joined by 1000's of people who will do the same thing at that very moment.
Contrast that with Dublin.
I arrive at Dublin Airport and get through border control. Once I'm out in the air, I now have to figure out how to get to the city. Years of experience have taught me to be sceptical of bus services (unless they are heading away from Dublin) because they often take the longest possible route. They are also regularly delayed, are under policed, and there is always an awkward exchange with payment(Dublin does not have a card machine on its buses, so you have to get cash or buy a Leap card).
The other option is a taxi. If you use the poorly named "Free Now" option, you get to pay €3 extra euros before even getting into the taxi, followed by a minimum €5 charge(and more on Sunday) plus a racist moaney rant from a taxi driver(because one things that unites Irish taxi drivers is that they hate other taxi drivers no matter what color or nationality they are – beit black, eastern european or Irish).
Being lucky, I don't really have to worry about the cost of the taxi, but either way, I'm hit with traffic. Depending on the time of day, it can take up to 2 hours to reach the city centre (this only happened once; usually it takes 40 minutes).
That's 40 minutes which could be reduced down to 20 if we had a metro.
Throughput
One of the most important concepts you learn as an engineer is throughput. Even with infinite money, you can't simply throw money at new computers; you must make the code effective. This can be counterintuituve and even big companies make this mistake but Big O notation is all about time + space not speed.
Take roads.
Intuitively, if we make roads wider, more cars can fit on them so, the road will become more efficient and traffic should be faster.
Expect, in reality, this doesn't happen. Instead, the number of cars expands to fill the space, and pretty soon, you're back to square one.
A metro has the same problem, except you can fit far more people in a smaller space and move them much faster and more safely.
The majority of people who use Dublin Airport are not from Dublin. If there were a metro, most Dublin Airport customers could reach the Airport via the train because the most populous areas of Ireland all have train stations and the service generally runs on time. This would take 1000's of cars off the roads every day.
Not just the Airport
I don't live in Dublin, so the main benefit of the metro to people outside of Dublin is the airport link.
So that link alone benefits the nation enormously, but what about the people of Dublin?
They certainly benefit from the metro because it serves far more than the airport.
One of the stops is Ballymun.
Ballymun is an area that has been historically deprived but has huge potential.
- An educated population lives nearby
- Lots of potential land for development
- Close to industrial hubs
Ballymun is one of the many proposed stops.
Benefits for Drivers
Of course, the biggest beneficary are people who have to drive and those who want to drive. Taking thousands of cars off the road is going to make driving more enjoyable.
I'm lucky because I don't have to make that commute every day, but thousands of people do.
We should do right by them and stop diminishing their life experience on road signs and licence plates.
The metro has been delayed by nearly 30 years since it was first mooted in the 90s. We are not a serious country if we can't do this. There are even talks of further delays to the commencement date in 2026. This can't go on because things will only get worse, and the airport cap won't stop it.
For all the decision makers involved, there should be only one thing on their mind. Just build the metro.