Just 1.1km added to network in 2026 with 6km expected next year.LONG READ: Everybody is frustrated by the slow delivery of Dublin Citys active travel network, this months Mobility and Public Realm Committee was told, but councillors sounded at breaking point, with a number commenting that theyd be dead or long retired from politics before the network is finished. It relates to the 214 km of the network which is planned to be implemented by Dublin City Councils active travel office. Other projects such as BusConnects Core Routes, its infrastructure project, will deliver more of the network, topping out at around 314km. A report was compiled after the chair of the Mobility and Public Realm Committee, Cllr Janet Horner, asked the Active Travel Office for a report on their work, including an estimate of the time and cost to complete the network.The report said that between 2022 and 2025, Dublin City Council delivered approximately 13km of high-quality active travel infrastructure. This includes the Clontarf to City Centre Scheme and the Royal Canal Greenway phase 3, which went through the planning process in 2017 and 2015, respectively.The document, authored by Chris Manzira, acting director for the active travel programme office, said: A further 1.1 km of the network has been delivered in 2026 with an additional 4.2 km tendered for construction and 7.6km in the final stages of detailed design. Designs for another 12.7 km are at an advanced stage and could be tendered across 2027 and 2028. Beyond these projects, a further 41 km of the network are in the early design phase.He said that in 2022, Dublin City Council commissioned an independent quantity surveyor to prepare what he called a high-level cost estimate for delivery of the active travel network. This found a costing of between 7.5 and 13.1 million per kilometre, and would result in a total cost of 1.6 billion to 2.8 billion.This costing aligns with published 2024 estimates from the National Transport Authority (NTA), which suggest around 7 million per km for the upper end of the cost of full-build segregated active travel routes and more for junctions. Manzira wrote: The delivery of the network requires considerable consultation and engagement with communities, and it is not simply an engineering exercise. The ambition of the office is that now that the establishment phase is complete and there is a pipeline of designs that the delivery will accelerate. A delivery rate of 6 km a year would result in a delivery timeframe of 30 years.Obviously, if more kilometres can be delivered consistently each year this reduces the delivery time. This would require ongoing considerations informed by the extent of infrastructure improvements to be applied, such as level of public realm enhancements and utility services, and the funding levels available, noting that inflation will also impact overall cost of schemes, he said.At the committee meeting, Jason Cullen, chair of the Dublin Commuter Coalition, said; Theres some really astonishing numbers in there. Im going to start on the fact that its going to take 30 years to complete the 180km of cycle tracks It is just unacceptable to be presenting a 30-year plan for that. You have to speed up.Cllr Karl Stanley (Social Democrats) said the active travel team are phenomenal, but the report is really concerning.There has never been a year where weve delivered 6km a year. In 2026, it looks like were going to deliver 1.1km a year. So Im curious to know what steps the active travel team is taking to accelerate their pace so they can actually meet that time frame, which unfortunately I dont think is adequate, he said. On interim projects, he said: I was surprised to hear that interim schemes are now not allowed, or were not doing them anymore. Im curious to know if thats an official policy and whos driving that because I dont remember that ever being debated or discussed publicly.Zoe Baker, a representative of the Blend Residents Association, said: I just want to put across the disappointment thats been expressed by community groups along the North Circular Road and, in general, of uptake of ideas and opinions in a heritage area when dealing with the active travel team.It seems like budget is a factor, and to the point where you know, theres no point even consulting with the community if ideas and opinions arent taken on board and its just down to the NTAs budget line, she said. So if were going to really maintain the level of consultation and engagement, we really need to be, you know, pushing for really the uptake of their ideas. Cllr Paddy Monahan (Social Democrats) said: I was also curious about the move away from interim schemes. It seems like were really doubling down on bigger and bigger schemes and, just looking at the raw figures in the report there, theyre absolutely eye-watering.When it comes to finances, Im wary that roads are extremely expensive but rarely criticised and things like bicycle parking and hospitals are politically opportunistic. People will have a pop with them. So, the raw figures are hard to put in context, he said.Cllr Monahan said: But when youre talking about 30 years, I mean, that its that figure that really hurts my head that my kid is going to be in his 40s that Ill be 80 by the time were talking about this getting done. And then, as other people have mentioned, we dont have a great track record of 30-year planning for schemes in Ireland. So, Id have severe doubts either about it going ahead or about it being anything like the costs that were looking at now. Cllr Hazel Chu (Green Party) said she knows that the team works really hard, but looking at this summer where the world is melting, and our active travel programme and network in the city is completely out of step with the climate and transport crisis that we have to address, and thats very clear.Cllr Donna Cooney (Green Party) said: I know youre [the active travel team] working really hard, but I just Id like to know the reasons why its taking so long to get the projects built.She said that councillors were aware that it would take time to set up an active travel office and get staff in place in the early stages, but that they understood that after that the roll-out would be much quicker.Cllr Cooney said: I dont think Ill be around in 30 years time to see this through to fruition, and Id like to see my youngest to be not in his 40s either before this happens. So I suppose its a bit depressing. She said, with quicker-build schemes which the councils active travel team has all but abandoned, youre getting the benefits of some safe cycling in the interim rather than us having to wait 30 years.And were building developments based on the fact that were going to have active travel routes in them on Richmond Road, for instance. And we have been told were not even going to look at that until post-2028. Yet all these developments with thousands and thousands of bike parking spaces are based on the fact that people will be able to cycle when they cannot do that at the moment because its not safe, said Cllr Cooney.Dr Caoimhe Clarke of the Irish Doctors for the Environment referred to an NTA report on the benefits of active travel, but she said that the return to the Exchequer would not be seen without a network of routes.She said: As the doctor in the room, were not going to see the health benefits unless all of these active travel networks are in place ASAP. We know we have the stats from years ago, and when we talk about if people are cycling or taking public transport or walking instead of taking their car, that has huge health benefits in terms of chronic illness, mental illness, and physical health illnesses.Robbie Sinnott, who is one of the founders of the Voice of Vision Impairment, a disabled persons representative organisation (DPRO), said: I firstly have to absolutely commend the amazingly brilliant, I think its a model in terms of consultation with DPROs in terms of UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) compliant disability proofing; its absolutely exceptional, and its taken a while to get there, but it is absolutely fantastic, so like thats the first thing, and so theres fair play.Unfortunately, its happening within a rubric policy framework that has not been disability proofed, he claimed.He again as he has done on previous occasions argued against the use of raised crossings and continuous footpaths. He claimed they were less safe, although these kinds of traffic-calming measures are widely seen as safer and more accessible, with international research pointing to the same. Cllr Horner (Green Party), chairperson of the committee, said: The reason for putting this report in the kind of framing of our current level of delivery broken down by kilometres and looking at the cost expenditure is that element that we can see clearly that we are not delivering at the pace that we anticipated we would be a number of years ago when the active travel office was launched.We continue to face significant challenges. Weve got a development plan that sets targets for the modal shift. As I understand it, we are not on course for walking and cycling. We are on course for public transport because things like the 2 fare were so successful, but obviously thats not on the cards right now, she said.Cllr Horner said: We have targets that we are not hitting, and our current strategy in order to hit them is the investment in the infrastructure, and the active travel network. At our current pace, we will not be delivering that. Similarly, BusConnects has moved significantly slower than I think anyone in the NTA would have anticipated it was going to.The report helps us to see clearly that there is an issue there in terms of our expenditure versus actual progress and delivery. But we have to, as a city council, recognise what those barriers are, what we need to overcome and whether theres something we need to bring, whether its to the minister or to the NTA or where it might be, to say this is actually how we need to get back on track with how we deliver appropriately for the city, she added.Manzira, the acting director for the active travel programme office, said: In terms of the time it takes to deliver a scheme, going through the design process and the governance process for the individual projects, we are looking at two to three years generally, depending on the complexity of the scheme, and theres various processes and approvals, theres stakeholder engagement, including other statutory bodies, utility companies, and then, of course, there is the non-statutory public consultation that we use and then reviewing that.So thats generally the time frame for bringing a scheme through. The more complex the scheme, the longer it takes, and there is an opportunity there for us to try and speed up delivery on some sections where we have a long stretch, and one of the things we have started doing is to break up some of these schemes so that we can deliver a little bit quicker and try and still have continuity.Manzira said that this is something the active travel team has done on the Kilmainham to Thomas Street Active Travel Scheme, where the project, including the delivered section around St Jamess Walk, is split up into sections. He said: We are doing something similar as well on the Grand Canal from Portobello to Blackhorse Bridge.He said, subject to approval, the active travel department may go to tender on another project or two before the end of the year.On the interim schemes one of the things that has become apparent is that when you put some of the interim schemes and then the effort that needs to go in for the ongoing maintenance of some of those measures to try and manage that and also try and deliver new schemes. It would then become a challenge, and wed be getting occasional complaints in some areas. So that means that we are now just focusing on the permanent schemes that was the driver on that decision, Manzira said.He admitted there were budget constraints with doing everything residents want, but gave examples of design changes where public consultation on the North Circular Road project changed the design. Manzira added: In terms of how we are prioritising our schemes. The focus is on trying to get continuous links, and it might be that when we are coming out to construction we are doing small segments of it and that is because there is a segment that we see ourselves being able to get started on quicker and well come back to do the other [sections].Cllr Horner said that there was a need for a course correction and called the current situation has prompted a sense of frustration among councillors where the network will not be delivered within their political lifetimes, if not our actual lifetimes.Celina Barrett, assistant chief executive covering transportation and public realm for Dublin City Council, said: Were not setting six kilometres as our target. I suppose maybe whats lost in the report because of all the numbers is the acceleration that the team, the acceleration phase the team are in terms of whats planned for next year. We hope to build on the delivery from next year and move on from that.She said that they are engaging with the NTA and with other council departments, including road maintenance and when maintenance is being done on a road, they are looking at a road, they ask: Is there an opportunity to deliver parts of the cycle scheme with that?She said: Were also looking at ways that we can reduce costs and deliver faster. So, were saying six kilometres because were confident that we can achieve that next year, but we want to build on that ambition. So were not saying six kilometres as a limiting factor.We are doing a lot of work internally. We recognise the frustration, and the team are frustrated as well because they want to be delivering. But we think the team has developed to the point where we now have a pipeline, and we have a focused pipeline. So we want to set the delivery targets for next year and have projects rolling behind that, she said.