[Article] Businesses are to sue Luas for €40m

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/1531868?view=Eircomnet

Businesses are to sue Luas for €40m
From:The Irish Independent
Sunday, 21st September, 2003
JEROME REILLY

LAWYERS acting on behalf of businesses gone bust or barely surviving after suffering massive losses because of the Luas fiasco are preparing to sue for damages conservatively estimated at €40m .

Minister Seamus Brennan's televised admission last week that the light rail project was a "mess" may have inadvertently strengthened the case of those who have had to let staff go, close down or try to survive on substantially reduced business following months of disruption.

If the claims for negligence are proven they will add substantially to the mounting bills facing taxpayers because of the dragged-out maladroit attempts to modernise our public transport system.

As the crisis relating to the €700m project continues, a senior business leader told the Sunday Independent their estimate of €40m in direct losses was "very, very conservative".

Mark Fielding, Chief Executive of ISME, which represents small and medium sized businesses insisted that the Government-appointed Railway Procurement Agency should be sacked en bloc for incompetence and mismanagement.

There have been significant jobs losses while more than 200 businesses along the route in the city centre have lost an average 50 per cent in turnover during the last year.

The Sunday Independent has learned there have been days when not even a single customer has entered a retail premises with five or six staff on duty at some of the worst affected retailers.

Mr Niall McCrudden of Insight Opticians was forced to shut down a thriving business in Harcourt Street because of Luas. "The most frustrating thing is that we had absolutely no contact from the Luas people. We had days when not a single customer darkened the door. We had to close," he said. He has employed solicitor Neill Blaney to prepare a case and it is understood that there are now moves to mount a joint action involving a number of businesses in the Harcourt Street area.

On the same street, Origin Gallery owned by former publisher and current member of the Arts Council Noelle Campbell Sharp was forced to shut down for months. Ms Campbell Sharp claims to have suffered losses of nearly €200,000. Niall McCrudden of Insight Opticians said that the matter was now in the hands of his legal advisors. The manager of Wynn's Hotel in Abbey Street Neil Loftus has admitted that he has had to let go of 20 per cent of his staff because of a downturn in trade he blames on Luas.

"Noelle Campbell Sharp is talking about losses of €200,000 from her Origin gallery and . . . that is the thin end of the wedge," said Mr Fielding of ISME. "About 200 businesses have been directly affected and even that low average loss rate would give you total losses exceeding €40m. We accepted that there would be no gain without pain. We are not against Luas. The problem is the people in the Railway Procurement Agency. Luas is the Irish for speed. It seems to us that the people in the RPA have been 'on' speed."

The ISME chief added that many retailers are running half price sales in order to keep staff and pay wages.

"They are on the brink of closure; there is no doubt about it. The problem is can businesses sustain themselves and keep going until the works are finished."

He added that in London there was a remission on rates for disruption caused by work on utilities. "There have been broken promises and misleading promises from the RPA who are fast to come out and say 'you should not be complaining' and that all this carping is short sighted. It's all very well for them in their Ivory towers but the fact is businesses are closing and people are losing their livelihood."

"We have heard of a number of companies which are contemplating making financial claims although the RPA have attempted to put the shutters up and are insisting that they will not tolerate claims.

"However our view is that some of these businesses must have a constitutional right to regain the losses - if the losses are bought about by mismanagement. It will be easy for people to see mismanagement and negligence. I mean look at the Red Cow junction fiasco. For the RPA to come out and deny that they were responsible for the collapse of the road in Harcourt Street, now that just flies in the face of any kind of reason."

sligoliner

LUAS - Look Back in Horror
Date: 22 September, 2003
From: www.platform11.org
Issued by: Platform11 Press Office

LUAS: The Facts

Essentially what should have been a straightforward, light rail transport project for a mid-sized European city has turned into one of the most remarkable and bizarre episodes in the history of public transport planning, political interference and incompetence in European railway history. Quite simply in plain language, the Railway Procurement Agency, an organisation that is essentially a fostered grandchild of CIE, is not up to the job and should be removed from the LUAS project immediately. CIE in any name, shape of form, is pathologically incapable of delivering public transport in Ireland that works for the society and economy of Ireland while delivering value to the Irish taxpayer. This coupled with the on-going reality that Irish politicians cannot view rail transport in this country as anything other than a political football has led to this mess.

The Big Questions

Why did the RPA build two unconnected lines at once? Why did they start out in the suburbs and progress the construction towards the city centre at the same time when they could have completed the Sandyford-Stephens Green line initially, and then tackled the Tallaght line? This was entirely due to interference from Mary O'Rourke (then Minister for Public Enterprise), in the face of opposition from the then Light Rail Project Office (LRPO).

The Results of these Decisions

This then led to massive cost over-runs as a result of:

Having to build two separate depots (originally only one was planned at Red Cow) and duplicate facilities
Then having to additionally upgrade the Sandyford line to Metro standard (as requested to by the department at the last minute after originally turning down this suggestion from the LRPO) .
The extension from Balally to Sandyford was turned down by politicians originally and then they did a volte-face.

All of these factors have led to outrageous cost over-runs which could have been avoided if the politicians had not interfered in the way that they have. The requirement to build both lines simultaneously also came from government and not the RPA.
A Better Way

The Sandyford line is essentially a "no brainer". The route follows the course of the old Harcourt Street route closed by CIE in 1959. Basically, all that was required was to lay the tracks and build the stations on the intact railway route. The Sandyford-Stephens Green line could have been completed and finished in a relatively short time, and Dubliners would already be enjoying the benefits of light rail transport. The Tallaght line could have been then tackled, and the experience and knowledge acquired in building the first line could have been used during the construction of the Tallaght, to avoid the Red Cow insanity. Instead of employing two separate working crews for the two projects, one could have been used on each LUAS line consecutively.

Best Practice

This is how it is done everywhere else in the world. But as Platform11 has been highlighting since our inception, proven international rail transport methodology has never been understood by CIE, even when some of their offspring break away and rename themselves the “Railway Procurement Agency”. The RPA has inherited CIE’s incompetence. All that happened was some of the same old clowns started a new circus and Irish taxpayers are paying an appalling price.

Political Interference

On top of this the whole project has been blighted by political interference from the start. The Red Cow situation is a shining example of this. In what other country would a national transport minister be getting involved in detailed suggestions concerning “stilts”? Why did these discussions not take place at the public enquiry? The answer is that the politicians refused funding for anything more than the situation that pertained at initial design stage. To have central government involved to the degree that they have been in interfering with the work of a light rail transport project is nothing short of farcical and uniquely Irish.

The Future

All over the world light rail is successful and serves cities and commuters well. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the RPA’s surreal management of the LUAS project and the politicians meddling is that they may have killed light rail transport in Ireland forever. Sadly, the incompetent RPA have made “Light Rail” a dirty word in Ireland, and considering the assault of the Irish taxpayers by the CIE-schooled managers of the LUAS project, one can hardly blame them.

Platform11's View

Many Dublin schoolchildren grew up singing the street rhyme “CIE are Robbery” but it took the CIE managers putting on a different clown uniforms and setting up a new circus called the Rail Procurement Agency, to really make that children’s song a tragic prophecy. The Politicians at the same time have decided that Todd Andrews is still the mentor of choice when it comes to rail transport policy on this island and that his disastrous legacy and failure to understand precisely what railways are, and why the Irish economy/society needs them, continues to this day. Platform11 along with the tax payers of this country have had enough – we need rail transport that works for Ireland. Irish people have travelled to the continent and witnessed first hand how rail transport works and why it is important to a nation and its economy.

Integrated transport is quite achievable. Dublin must have this it order to increase competitiveness and to improve the quality of live of its citizens.

ENDS 22/09/03