Expected unmet demand of 6,500 bicycle parking spaces in Dublin City when metro opens. Project team only planning to meet 31% of demand inside M50 and 20% inside city centre.Plans for MetroLink, a high-capacity railway between Swords and Dublin City Centre, significantly under-provide for predicted bicycle parking demand, and instead of fixing the issues, the project team have been accused of attempting to come up with a new analysis and unenforceable side promises.In a submission to the latest MetroLink consultation, the Dublin Cycling Campaign accused the project team of providing an updated analysis that massaged the numbers.The level of extra overall information provided by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) was seen as so significant that the An Bord Pleanla inspector ordered extra public consultation before planners would make a decision on the projects railway order application. It was known this would be the outcome when the oral hearing ended in March.It took the An Bord Pleanla until July 1st to formally seek the move and then took TII until the second half of August before it opened the consultation, blaming the delay on logistics associatedwith printing this volume of material and the delivery of it to the locations concerned.According to Kevin Baker, a member of the infrastructure group of the Dublin Cycling Campaign: The applicant knows they have significantly under-provisioned cycle parking. Instead of turning up to the oral hearing with revised plans they provided an updated analysis that massaged the numbers. For example, the original planning application did not provide for 29% of demand at Griffith Park station. Instead of increasing the area of the underground cycle parking at this station their new analysis shows there is less demand.Metro stations such as those planned near DCU at Collins Ave, beside Na Fianna GAA Club on Mobhi Road and a new Glasnevin/Phibsborough station at the Royal Canal are planned at points where planned and already partly constructed cycle routes meet.In the groups submission, Baker wrote: The applicant has not provided for a public transport project that sufficiently integrates with cycling because of the underprovision of cycle parking. Instead of examining options and alternatives to provide more cycle parking the applicant has instead attempted to come up with a new analysis and unenforceable side promises to hide away from this issue.When you lay them out plainly, it is clear they have significantly under-provisioned cycle parkingin the Outer City and City Centre locations, he said.He said that the TII project team only provided numbers for 2035 when every other part of the transport impact analysis provided including for walking, public transport and car use looks at scenarios through to 2050 and further to 2065. He said that Transport Infrastructure Ireland provided an apparent letter of comfort from the NationalTransport Authority outlining that the authority would work with local authorities and others on bicycle parking as part of other projects and initiatives but the campaign said that relying on promises outside the scope of the application for MetroLink is not an appropriate way to ensure adequate cycle parking is provided.Baker said that significant changes to the bike parking assessment were presented to the oral hearing in its final hours just before the Dublin Cycling Campaign was scheduled to ask questions of the applicant but that TII was still unable to adequately describe why cycle parking was not being provided to an adequate level.The MetroLink team was dismissive of using two-tier cycle parking stands, which are a common approach used by private developers in Ireland and at high-capacity bicycle parking at train stations in other countries such as the Netherlands and the UK.The campaign said that it has been recommending two-tier cycle parking stands in multiple submissions over the last few years but that the only response at the oral hearing was that this would have a negative visual impact.Baker said that this contention doesnt appear to have been assessed anywhere in the MetroLink Environmental Impact Assessment Report documentation. He said: There are multiple places where two-tier cycle parking racks could have been used with negligible impact.Examples of this include upgrading existing cycle parking at Charlemont station by the Green Luas and tucked away at the back of Glasnevin train station, which is hardly in a visually sensitive area.Baker said that TII generally said there was a lack of space for cycle parking but that while this may be true at stations with constraints, no answers were provided to a question from the campaign as to why TII-controlled land surrounding the Tara metro station could not be used.It is widely seen that there is resistance in Ireland to providing bicycle parking at city centre train stations where land is at a premium. This goes against the advice from authorities in the Netherlands, who are seen as the leaders in combining bicycles and rail.Around 40% of rail passengers arrive by bike, and the Dutch highlight that the most premium space is not at transport hubs but on trains and trying to carry bicycles on trains is not a scalable solution for most countries. Retrofitting bicycle parking at train stations can be a costly business, with Dutch transport authorities spending 60 million on 7,000bicycle spaces under the canal outside of Amsterdam Central Station after the citys new metro line opened.Baker also wrote: At Glasnevin, where provision is short by 376-480 cycle parking spots, TII could have attempted to incorporate cycle parking on the first storey of the metro station building above the ticket hall. There is no floor plan for this storey in the Structures Details Book 2 of 3 submitted with the original planning application, so it is unclear what usage this space will have.It is not clear that the applicant has considered alternatives that would have provided for the necessary cycle parking. Instead, they have thrown up their hands [as] if there wasnt superfluous space adjacent to stations, he said.Baker added: What options this leaves the board with is up to the inspector and the board. It might be possible to secure additional cycle parking at multiple stations along the route via conditions, or it might require more further information from the applicant that explores the alternatives.The project team was contacted this morning for comment on the campaigns submission. The following table was provided in the campaigns submission with text explaining that the table contains data from Table 4.1 Potential Cycle Demand Accommodated by Project Proposals and adds the Design Year with 21% predicted increase in demand, unmet demand percentages and summaries for the areas Outer City and City Centre: