Article Irish Times: 11 major T21 projects delayed

westtip

11 major Transport 21 projects delayed
Tim O'Brien

Almost a third of the 39 key road, rail and motorway projects announced in Transport 21 have been delayed and their delivery dates on Department of Transport funded websites have been altered.

Just a year and a half into the Government's 10-year transport programme, 11 major projects, including the M50 upgrade and Metro North, have been put back - some of them by up to two years.

Comparison of the timetables published at the launch of Transport 21 and those issued since, shows the department initially giving 2007 as the deadline for completion of phase one of the M50 upgrade - the current works between Ballymount and the Lucan junctions.

Last week however, the Department's more recent dedicated site for Transport 21 gave 2008 as the deadline, as did the project website. No explanation of the discrepancy was provided.

Other deadlines which have been altered without comment include:

A new train depot at Portlaoise initially scheduled for 2007, which is now set for 2008;

The introduction of 120 new intercity railcars, initially set for completion by 2007, now set for 2008;

The Luas extension from Connolly to the Docklands initially set for 2008, now scheduled for 2009;

The Luas extension from Tallaght to Citywest initially set for 2008, now set for 2010;

The Cork commuter service to Midleton initially set to begin service in 2008, now set for 2009;

The M3 motorway, initially set for completion by 2009, now scheduled for 2010;

The Limerick Southern Ring Road which has been moved from 2009 to 2010;

The Waterford City bypass which has been moved from 2009 to 2010;

Metro North, initially set for 2012, is now earmarked for 2013;

The city centre Luas link line BX, initially to be completed by 2008, has had the completion date removed. It is now described as phase one of the Liffey Junction extension, which is itself to be completed by 2012.

In a move similar to the removal of a completion date for the city centre Luas link, dates for completion of phase one, two and three of Metro West are also no longer available. Phase one was to have linked Tallaght and Clondalkin by 2010; phase two to extend the line to Lucan by 2011 and phase three to extend to Blanchardstown by 2012.

The only date now provided in relation to these projects is the completion of Metro West to Ballymun by 2015.

However, Irish Rail's new Docklands Station has been completed three years ahead of schedule. In addition the western rail corridor is on target, as is the roads programme, with the exception of phase one of the M50.

Spokesman for Irish Rail Barry Kenny said work was under way in relation to all projects, adding the slippage may represent only a few months from the end of one year to the beginning of the next.

However, a spokesman for the Railway Procurement Agency Ger Hannon said the delay in relation to BX was because it was decided to bring the green line beyond the red, doing all the work that would be necessary in O'Connell Street as part of the Liffey Junction extension.

He said he was surprised 2008 had ever been given as a date for the docklands extension, particularly as the Minister's order had been given only a few days before the end of 2006, which meant it was not feasible to complete by 2008.

In relation to the Metro West extensions, he said there had been some repositioning of phases but added that it was all within the overall timeframe of 2015 for the entire route.

mike65

westtip boards.ie is not a relay service! Please give us your own thoughts on the story

Mike

Bards

Just speaking of the N25 Waterford City Bypass.. at the Sod Turning Cermony martin Cullen asid that the deadline was 2010.. 2009 was not mentioned as the deadline even though Ascon reckons it will be finished by end of 2009 so I do not know where the Irish Times (The so called paper of record) got their information.

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=7482&lang=ENG&loc=1887

If the I.T are wrong on this then it calls innto question their whole article

mike65

Good spot Bards 2010 was indeed always stated.

Of course if some hack simply read through the T21 schedule when announced then compared it to now as would appear to be the case

Comparison of the timetables published at the launch of Transport 21 and those issued since

then he/she is relying on the website being correct in the first instance.

Mike.

westtip

mike65 wrote:

westtip boards.ie is not a relay service! Please give us your own thoughts on the story

Mike

Ah well suppose so but don't want to start another rant about the complete waste of money and effort the WRC is - claimed to be "On time". I just wish there was bit of honesty on this one about the fact Claremorris/Sligo will (quite rightly) never be resurected, because of cost, need and sheer impossibility; the old track runs through several back gardens, has far too many level crossing requirements and there is no consumer demand for it ... not what west on track the biggest bunch of fools this side of the Shannon would have you believe - but a group which does the west a disservice.

soco

westtip wrote:

Ah well suppose so but don't want to start another rant about the complete waste of money and effort the WRC is - claimed to be "On time". I just wish there was bit of honesty on this one about the fact Claremorris/Sligo will (quite rightly) never be resurected, because of cost, need and sheer impossibility; the old track runs through several back gardens, has far too many level crossing requirements and there is no consumer demand for it ... not what west on track the biggest bunch of fools this side of the Shannon would have you believe - but a group which does the west a disservice.

Not that most of the WRC isn't a big waste of money, but Claremorris-Sligo isn't funded under T21. Mind you, when a CBA of the WRC achieves similar benefit:cost ratios to the Metro....

Stimpyone

Is anybody actually working on the M50 upgrade. I use the road several times a day/night unfortunately, and I hardly see a sinner.:(

westtip

soco wrote:

Not that most of the WRC isn't a big waste of money, but Claremorris-Sligo isn't funded under T21. Mind you, when a CBA of the WRC achieves similar benefit:cost ratios to the Metro....

Yes I agree it is a complete waste of time and resources - I live in the west but would rather see a Navan rail line than Claremorris Galway route (which will probably require a change at Athenry) I hadn't read about the CBA of WRC vis a vis the metro - but this kind of cooking the books wouldn't surprise me, the WRC is a cloud cuckoo project and if it does go ahead to the full extent to Sligo it will be closed down again within five years, and if this government goes and privatises the railways within five minutes. Still they do love their pretty plans and pictures drawn up on computers in offices by planners who live in a dream world, with arrows going here and there displaying gateways, hubs and strategic transport coridors through counties (like Leitrim, donegal, Sligo) that would struggle to fill Croke park twice and simply don't have the population for some of these projects Sligo @ 60,000 and Leitrim @ 28,000 two counties the entire population would actually fit in croker, Donegal at 147,000 would fill it almost twice.- and don't kid yourself anyone who comes in on this - A railway from Claremorris to Sligo will not result in a huge surge in population in Mayo and Sligo. Still a snazzy powerpoint presentation and a couple of pints in the Dail bar for the misguided fools from West on Track does I suppose keep the peasants quiet and buy a few votes based on false illusion.

Irish and Proud

Stimpyone wrote:

Is anybody actually working on the M50 upgrade. I use the road several times a day/night unfortunately, and I hardly see a sinner.:(

Yeah! What is all that about?

Maybe the workers find it difficult to access the site because of the large volumes of traffic they would have to cross! :rolleyes:

It's a scandal that motorists are being inconvenienced by the mainline works for an unreasonable length of time, while they still pay full whack for the privilege - given that NTR will benefit massively from the M50 upgrade, I think it's only fair that motorists pay a reduced toll for the duration of the works, rather than the hikes they endure every year regardless. :mad:

Regards

soco

westtip wrote:

Yes I agree it is a complete waste of time and resources - I live in the west but would rather see a Navan rail line than Claremorris Galway route (which will probably require a change at Athenry) I hadn't read about the CBA of WRC vis a vis the metro - but this kind of cooking the books wouldn't surprise me, the WRC is a cloud cuckoo project and if it does go ahead to the full extent to Sligo it will be closed down again within five years, and if this government goes and privatises the railways within five minutes. Still they do love their pretty plans and pictures drawn up on computers in offices by planners who live in a dream world, with arrows going here and there displaying gateways, hubs and strategic transport coridors through counties (like Leitrim, donegal, Sligo) that would struggle to fill Croke park twice and simply don't have the population for some of these projects Sligo @ 60,000 and Leitrim @ 28,000 two counties the entire population would actually fit in croker, Donegal at 147,000 would fill it almost twice.- and don't kid yourself anyone who comes in on this - A railway from Claremorris to Sligo will not result in a huge surge in population in Mayo and Sligo. Still a snazzy powerpoint presentation and a couple of pints in the Dail bar for the misguided fools from West on Track does I suppose keep the peasants quiet and buy a few votes based on false illusion.

Going by the Strategic Rail review from a few years back the Sligo-Cork plan for the WRC got a benefit-cost ratio of 0.88. Interestingly the Navan-Clonsilla line had a ratio of 0.44 (I think) while Navan-Drogheda got 0.77. The study was conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton, an international consultancy. Don't ask me how they arrived at these conclusions.

Meanwhile the Metro only managed the benefit:cost ratios below in 2002 (5% is the discount rate the Dept of Finance guidelines use) though the case may have improved since. Sorry to be drifting off the point a bit, but in a Dublin context it illustrates the folly of building the Metro ahead of Interconnector. On a related note perhaps, it shows how utterly helpless planning is in the face of politicians

Frank McDonald in the IT on 7 August wrote:

In its outline business case for metro, submitted to the Department of Transport in November 2002, the RPA said the benefit-to-cost ratio of a line from Swords to the city centre would range from 0.65:1 to 0.81:1, based on discount rates of 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.

spacetweek

mike65 wrote:

Of course if some hack simply read through the T21 schedule when announced then compared it to now as would appear to be the case

And why wouldn't they do that? what was the point of putting up the dates at the time the plan was announced if they're not planning on sticking to them?

A cursory glance at www.rpa.ie gives the above modified (and late) dates.

I'm not bothered about the roads too much, but the rail projects delays are unacceptable.

munkeehaven

id give it about fifty years before any form of a modern unified coherent infrastructure is fully developed.it just shocks me how far behind we are in this area.doesnt the government know how valuable the rail system is?

Tea drinker

No No No, you are mixing them up with someone who actually gives a sh!t

I might have to go over to the politics forum for an ould rant shortly.:)

FFS it was obvious YEARS AND YEARS ago to anyone with a brain the country was roaring for some decent transport mechanisms.

Stimpyone: I never see anyone on the M50 works either. Maybe they are on strike or finishing up some apartments?