My god! A Metro for Dublin?

I just saw this in the newspaper:

"WORK is under way on a new €1.5bn underground DART line through the heart of Dublin city centre, it was learned yesterday.

The interconnector rail line, from Docklands to Heuston Station, will quadruple the greater Dublin area's rail service capacity from the current 25m passenger journeys annually to 100m."

It goes on to say:

" The proposed interconnector route will see DART trains from Balbriggan and Howth branch off after Clontarf Road and go underground at Docklands station, where the line will connect with the Luas.

It will continue to Pearse station, connecting with what will be the Maynooth to Bray/Greystones DART.

At St Stephen's Green it is to connect with the Luas and the Metro to the airport before continuing to High Street and Heuston, again linking with Luas, intercity and commuter trains before continuing above ground to Hazelhatch and the Kildare commuter line. "

Apparently there'll be another DART line from the Docklands down to Heuston as well. So, is Dublin transport finally entering the 20th century???

Then again, they're just talking about it at the moment. Looking at how long it took to do the Luas lines and the Dublin Port Tunnel, I'm not optimistic that I'll see this new integrated public transport system in my lifetime. Hell, they were talking this time last year about being close to putting in a new ticketing system in the city center dart stations, where you had to swipe your ticket through as you exited as well as entered, but there;s no sign of that yet either.