DART Underground: Public Consultation underway

Cookie_Monster

From todays Indo:

Seem more concerned about the "wasted" money than the PC but anywya

THE State has spent €40m planning and designing an underground railway line that may never be built, new figures reveal.

Iarnrod Eireann has admitted spending tens of millions of euros on the DART underground project, even though the 7.5km line does not yet have planning permission. New figures show that €20m will be spent this year alone planning the line that will run underneath Dublin city centre.

A public hearing into the project, which is expected to last up to four weeks, begins in Tallaght today. But with the Government forced to make huge cuts in public spending, it may yet fall victim to the recession.

Another high-profile rail project for the capital -- Metro North -- has already incurred costs of €135m, and if both are shelved if will mean hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers' money will have been wasted.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has repeatedly insisted the project will be approved if it makes economic sense, and money was set aside in the revised capital spending programme announced last summer.

But a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the EU could result in all large-scale infrastructure projects being indefinitely postponed.

DART Underground is a 7.5km tunnel linking the Northern line at East Wall to Heuston with new underground stations at Docklands, Pearse St, St Stephen's Green, Christchurch and Heuston; and a surface station at Inchicore.

It will allow for two DART lines in Dublin -- one running from Hazelhatch/Celbridge to Howth, and a second from Maynooth to Bray/Greystones.

It is expected to cost €2.5bn, which includes the tunnel, electrification of lines to Maynooth and Hazelhatch, a depot and 282 new rail cars.

Savings

Iarnrod Eireann said the costs incurred to date were needed to plan a major infrastructure project to the highest international standards.

"This has now been achieved," a spokesman said. "Experience has shown that proper planning at this stage of a project leads to savings later at construction. Subject to planning approval, construction of DART Underground can begin in 2012.

"Considering the scale of the project, and comparing it with other major infrastructure projects, the costs to date represent good value for money."

Four consortia have been shortlisted to build the scheme, and the successful bidder is expected to be announced in 2012. If approved, DART Underground will be finished in 2018.

The business case for the project, published by the National Transport Authority, says the line has a cost-benefit ratio of 2.4. This means that for every euro spent on the project, the State gets €2.40 back in wider benefits such as savings in reduced congestion, costs of dealing with road accidents and fare income.

By 2030, more than 25 million car trips will be removed from the road, meaning there will be 170 fewer accidents a year, it says.

"This is a long-term project with an expected life in excess of 100 years," the business case adds. "It should not be overly affected by short-term economic problems."

DART Underground will allow 20 trains to run in each direction per hour, allowing up to 64,000 commuters to use the line. Up to 7,000 full-time construction jobs will be created.

Link

282 more railcars, wow.
47 6 car sets, that's a huge order

Victor

"IMF says the state can no longer afford to buy the Indo for civil servants" - now there a headline I'd like to see.

Cookie_Monster

Victor wrote: »

"IMF says the state can no longer afford to buy the Indo for civil servants" - now there a headline I'd like to see.

sure they can just read it free online.

CIE

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

From todays Indo:

Seem more concerned about the "wasted" money than the PC but anyway

Link

282 more railcars, wow.
47 6 car sets, that's a huge order

Yeah, and all on the heels of all the DMUs they bought and the cars they want to scrap that have decades of life left in them. Not to mention a tunnel that they're not even using, that those DMUs can already use. Add on top of that all the money they spent to "reconfigure" Connolly so that it has less capacity than at any point in its previous existence...and what excuse do they have left to them? Future waste will solve past waste??

Run_to_da_hills

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

From todays Indo:

Seem more concerned about the "wasted" money than the PC but anywya


Link

282 more railcars, wow.
47 6 car sets, that's a huge order

With the way things are going they will now have to recommission locos from the ITG along with what remains of the MK3s.

schemingbohemia

CIE wrote: »

Yeah, and all on the heels of all the DMUs they bought and the cars they want to scrap that have decades of life left in them. Not to mention a tunnel that they're not even using, that those DMUs can already use. Add on top of that all the money they spent to "reconfigure" Connolly so that it has less capacity than at any point in its previous existence...and what excuse do they have left to them? Future waste will solve past waste??

I wish people would actually realise that the Phoenix Park Tunnel is not of any assistance or an alternative to the DART Underground and to compare it to it is ludicrous.

The DU is about creating a network instead of the individual lines we currently have, it's about a second DART line, it's about massively increasing the number of services for commuters and bringing a real alternative to the Car for commuters in the GDA. None of which would be solved by using a permanently speed restricted line to bring DMUs around to another seriously congested station.