The group behind Dublin Port wants to entice more cyclists... and bird-watchers
A 2040 masterplan includes commitments to improve the facility’s ‘severe and unwelcoming’ image.
THE STATE-OWNED COMPANY behind Dublin Port plans to make the facility more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists over the next two decades as part of a bid to better integrate the port with the rest of the capital.
As part of its revised 2040 masterplan, Dublin Port Company has committed to promoting the transport and freight hub “for recreation and amenity” by the local community.
Over the coming years, it will highlight walks and cycle routes and provide “facilities for bird watching and viewing wildlife as well as views of the bay and the wider environment”.
As well growing freight and passenger trade, Dublin Port Company is tasked with integrating the port into the capital’s ‘conscience’.
“As we build more capacity on the same footprint in Dublin Port, we will continue to work to achieve a reintegration of the port within the city,” said company chief executive Eamonn O’Reilly.
“Next year, for example, will see construction start on a 4km greenway for pedestrians and cyclists on the northern fringe of the port overlooking the Tolka Estuary.”
Eamonn O'Reilly
‘Unwelcoming’
The 2040 masterplan also includes a commitment to encourage employees at the port to use “non-motorised sustainable transport modes” to get to work.
It’s envisioned there will be cycle lockers available for staff and an electric or hydrogen-fulled bus “to link the port to Dublin City’s public transport networks”.
Dublin Port Company also wants to see the rollout of a ferry servicing the River Liffey in partnership with the city council and the Irish Nautical Trust.
It hopes to improve the aesthetics of the facility and ‘soften’ the port’s boundaries.
“At present, the port estate, when viewed from both the north and south sides and along its eastern perimeter, can appear quite severe and unwelcoming,” it said in the masterplan.
“(Dublin Port Company) is committed to continuing to implement boundary softening measures to break down the physical barrier which exists between the port and the immediate area outside the port estate, particularly along East Wall Road.”
Cruise business
Under the 2040 masterplan, the State-backed group plans to spend €1 billion improving the facility over the next decade for its ferry, cruise and freight business.
By 2030, it hopes to shift a third of road freight to other modes of transport such as rail or waterborne transport.
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“Dublin Port is at the heart of the national rail network with direct connections to all major centres of population … The level of freight that is transported by rail remains comparatively low, but (Dublin Port Company) believes that there is potential for rail freight to grow over the period of the masterplan.”
It also hopes to promote Dublin Port as a facility for cruises. There were 64 cruise calls throughout the first six months of this year, compared to 50 during the same period last year.
As previously reported by Fora, Dublin Port Company is committed to developing so-called ‘turnaround business’, where cruise companies start and finish tours in a city.
Turnaround passengers tend to take a short break in the home port city either before or after they embark on a cruise and are therefore more valuable than ‘cruise calls’.
Dublin Port Company has promised to part-fund new cruise facilities at the port. It said it will engage with Dublin City Council, Fáilte Ireland, the Department of Tourism, Transport and Sport as well as other potential private and public funders.
