[article] Locals 'will pay half of €450m rail route cost'

NavanJunction1

Irish Independent, 20.04.2006

LOCALS will be asked to pay up to half the cost of the proposed €450m Dublin-Navan rail link.

Developers building homes in an area from Clonsilla in Dublin to Dunboyne, Co Meath, are to be levied to help foot the bill.

Yesterday, Meath County Council chairman Brian Fitzgerald (Ind) said elected members had been told that half the cost of the rail line would have to be met by the local authority, and that development levies would have to be introduced to meet the costs.

"We're putting in place what are called Section 49s on new houses being built along the first phase," he told the Irish Independent last night.

The Navan Dart link, announced last December under the Government's Transport 21 plan, is expected to be completed by 2015. It will provide welcome relief to tens of thousands of commuters.

Campaigners for the line said the costs issue would be a 'devastating blow' to commuters, especially since the council was suffering from 'well documented' financial difficulties.

"The Navan railway announcement under Transport 21 is beginning to look like another electoral ploy," a spokesman for Meath on Track said.

A council spokesperson said it was undertaking a feasibility study with Iarnrod Eireann on what would be the best rail route.

Bluetonic

Misleading title.

NavanJunction1

Bluetonic wrote:

Misleading title.

True, in a sense - most of the new homes levied will be occupied by Dubliners moving to Meath.

The word on the ground is that a levy of €15k+ will be put on each new home.

Bluetonic

NavanJunction1 wrote:

True, in a sense - most of the new homes levied will be occupied by Dubliners moving to Meath.

NavanJunction1 wrote:

The word on the ground is that a levy of €15k+ will be put on each new home.

Whats you opinion in it? I know the propsed rail system will fall short of a what everyone wants, but would you be personally happy to pay the 15K to guarantee a future train service if you were buying a new house?

NavanJunction1

Bluetonic wrote:

but would you be personally happy to pay the 15K to guarantee a future train service if you were buying a new house?

It's a funny situation. The lack of a rail service means that Navan has a high turn over in terms of people moving out of Dublin, and then back in within a few years because of traffic. In that context, you'd find a lot of people would be happy to remortgage €15k just save having to move home and pay stamp duty etc.

But it doesn't work that way - the levies are only on new homes. The Sunday Times reported that Meath house prices were already ahead of Kildare & Wicklow. In addition, the M3 will be tolled twice, once north of Navan, and again in Fairyhouse.

The Navan/Kells corridor will be an expensive place to buy, and an expensive place to live. Will new home buyers buy the houses with the levies you have to ask..

Either way it will push up house prices even more.

The big question is this: does construction begin before the levies are raised by MCC or after. And when does it, or does it really guarantee the railway?

Really, the government has delivered nothing more than the prospect of a big bill..

And on top of that, the article only refers to levies on the 4.7m to Dunboyne (cleverly called Navan rail Phase 1) - it doesn't mention Navan itself.

Bluetonic wrote:

the propsed rail system will fall short of a what everyone wants

Funny you say that. Nobody asked for DART - that will add according to one estimate I read on P11 about €80-€100m to the price tag.. That's alot of new homes

Another means to kill the project?

BendiBus

Bluetonic wrote:

Whats you opinion in it? I know the propsed rail system will fall short of a what everyone wants, but would you be personally happy to pay the 15K to guarantee a future train service if you were buying a new house?

Supply and demand determine prices. Doesn't matter if it's building, land or levies. An increase in levies will not directly affect what people actually pay for their homes. If Joe has 250K to spend and Mary has 260K to spend the house will sell to Mary for 260K. The breakdown of where the 260K goes will change but not the total. It will affect margins on property I imagine.

The real driving effect will be the increase in demand due to the rail service, not the levy.

NavanJunction1

A query, if anyone can help. There seems to be 2 models for financing the reopening of railways.

One, the Cork-Midleton model involves raising of levies, but the other like the WRC doesn't seem to involve raising any.

That may be just an assumption or an sort of urban myth but does anyone have any information as to whether that is indeed the case? And if so how has that arisen?

BendiBus wrote:

The real driving effect will be the increase in demand due to the rail service, not the levy.

I agree with this, but I do think the levy will affect prices in some way.. I can't remember whoever it was that said that the true value of anything is that which a person is willing to pay for it..

Victor

NavanJunction1 wrote:

The Navan/Kells corridor will be an expensive place to buy, and an expensive place to live. Will new home buyers buy the houses with the levies you have to ask..

But the railway will make them more desireable.

The big question is this: does construction begin before the levies are raised by MCC or after. And when does it, or does it really guarantee the railway?

The levies would apply to all new planning permissions from the date of the contribution scheme and would continue until the necessary portion is funded. The project start is independent of the constribution scheme.

NavanJunction1

And all the while Navan station and the Drogheda line lie empty of passeneger traffic.