Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

Snippet on Newstalk from Michael McGrath. He didn't deny the media reports and just said the NDP is being finalised and will be published in the coming weeks. Sounds like a delay in on the cards alright.

I'm not sure where the claims being made a financial/budgetary issues are coming from but that wasn't in the MoS article (which still seems to be the only source on this). The article states "Government sources told the MoS the setbacks were revealed to ministers at a controversial cabinet meeting in July". So going by the MoS (again, the only source), somebody revealed "the setbacks to ministers, not them deciding to set the project back.

I think people read the first two paragraphs of that article (from a newspaper which very few would consider a credible source for political insight), and made up their own narrative from there. The MoS article doesn't support the claims being made here.

It also makes no sense that the Katherine Zappone thing would have kept this under wraps for so long. It was hardly the scandal of the century and it was out of the news for a couple of months before coming up again recently. There has been plenty of slow news days since for someone to run the story.

The article quotes a minister who described it as a "shattering blow" with no info on when or in what context that comment was made (was it made back in July but nobody picked up on it, was it made recently before the MoS broke the story?).

The whole thing makes no sense at all (both the MoS article and the claims being made here).

Well I think it is fair to say that the MoS article is BS. Their claim that "the setbacks were revealed to ministers at a controversial cabinet meeting in July" suggests that there is something outside of government control which has pushed both Metrolink and DART+ back several years, which doesn't seem to be the case.

There may be other issues going on in the background but these are likely to be within government control (i.e. making funding available), hence the lack of comment on the story. If there are budgetary issues, it is extremely unlikely that these would have simply pushed out both Metrolink and DART+ equally. It's also not an all or nothing situation. DART+ Coastal is obviously well behind already and it may be kicked out to the 2030s with other parts of DART+ continuing to be delivered. Basically, there may be some truth to it but not what the MoS has reported.

Why would the government take the flak for cancelling/delaying projects now when they can just let them run for now and cancel/delay them later if they want? Much easier to let Metrolink go to ABP, which costs nothing. The RO will take more than a year, start the procurement and get prices, then it becomesmuch easiertocancel/delay if the costs are huge. I doubt Metrolink is a budgetary issue anyway, the payments for it will be going on to the 2050s.

Well hopefully the MOS article is just pure BS. But ultimately I can't see government handing over more than 3bn to CIE for DART+ back in the luas days they actually set up a parallel railway agency to prevent just that. CIE have never done anything this significant and I can't see the government allowing them to press ahead. I also can't see the government committing to fund metrolink.

I think we will get some scaled back version of DART+ based on hybrid or battery electric trains with less significant electrification and engineering works at bridges and stations, excuse given will be evolution in battery technology and savings due to covid 19. and a BRT built on the airport route.

That would

a: Not satisfy the requirements for DU

b: Not satisfy the requirements for Metrolink

It would be a pointless bodge leaving something utterly substandard.

The railway order is now not going to be ready until Q1 2022.

Just a reminder that we were assured right up until summer that the railway order and the application would be in by now.

It's being delayed bit by bit under the radar

Did you listen in? Any highlights?

You have raised some good points here @VeryOwl about us having a GP government to get these projects built to help our environment. If other green parties based in Europe had looked at the current state of our own PT infrastructure at the moment; they would probably say to their Irish counterparts that our transport infrastructure is a complete joke under European standards when it's compared to other countries that have a green party presence in the EU.

These green parties based in other parts of the EU have much more advanced PT infrastructure for their regional & national government through the process of a normal functional democracy. They could have asked several major questions as to why urban areas of our country are so slow in building an advanced transport system in place for our own little backwater based near the edge of Europe. If the GP want to keep & sustain this green wave that they got during the previous round of European Parliament elections; they must be seen by the electorate in Dublin to build Metrolink as a clear priority for our own capital city. They just need to stop fidgeting & get it built now.

As we are in a period of severe climate change taking place right across the globe with no signs of it ever stopping if we don't do our bit to contribute to the cause; the Irish green party cannot ever be seen to take major risks to delay this project again for another couple of years or by not bothering to do it at all while people who live in areas of North Dublin that are served by Metrolink are crying out for it to be built now. We want to see our government & the NTA pull up their socks and get these major projects built as a matter of clear priority once these updates are provided for by being written in the upcoming revived NDP being launched next month.

Let them cut billions from their beloved road expenditure ! The road v rail spend here is a disgrace!

Your last paragraph essential sums it up. We have lots of roads because predominantly it only inconvenienced farmers and landowners. The vocal urban dwellers are delighted they can travel with ease for their weekend away out of the big smoke.

The more people you inconvenience, the more moaners and complianers come out of the woodwork.

It also doesn't help, as per roadmasters above post, that the media still report metrolink as if its just about linking the city centre to the airport, its about way more than that and should be the stepping stone to more metro's and a world class interconnected public transport system.

I don’t think SF give a toss about ML. ML being cancelled will give them something to gripe about for a day, but housing is what the next GE will be fought over (as things stand).

Housing may be linked to ML, but not for most people. And most people aren’t interested in getting behind a project that will deliver housing in the 2030s.