Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

Fingers Crossed! 🤞

Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Transport, is to bring the business case for the Metrolink project to cabinet next month, as part of a push to get the project under construction before the government’s term expires.

The 19km Metrolink line from north of Swords to Dublin city centre is going to be the single most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the state and is currently not due to be completed until at least 2035.

This high cost has raised questions about whether it will ever be approved. However, Ryan is keen to get the go-ahead from cabinet for the preliminary business case so that planning permission can be secured and a contractor appointed while he is in office.

A government source said the hope was to get construction under way within the current government’s term in office, which will end in two and a half years’ time.

Ryan has confirmed that he will bring the preliminary business case for Metrolink to cabinet next month.

He said that the second milestone in the project would be an application for planning permission, known as a railway order, to an Bord Pleanála.

“Work is ongoing on the extensive set of documentation which is required for a project of this scale and, subject to the government decision, the project will be ready to seek planning permission in the autumn,” he said, in response to questions from Duncan Smith, the Labour Dublin-Fingal TD, and Róisín Shortall, the Social Democrats co-leader.

Once completed, it is anticipated the Metrolink will be able to carry 20,000 passengers an hour in each direction, with the journey between Dublin Airport and the city centre taking 20 minutes.

Smith said the submission of the preliminary business case next month was “long overdue but a welcome step”. “I hope we can move forward with no further delay.”

Ryan has said publicly that construction will begin on the project “once planning permission has been obtained”. However, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) which has overall responsibility for the project, has signalled that the completion of the entire project will take at least 13 years.

Peter Walsh, the chief executive of TII, told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee earlier this year that he hoped to get planning permission from An Bord Pleanála within “two years” and then it would take “at least” two more years to select a contractor.

He said it would then take nine years to build the metro, giving a completion date of 2035, “all going well”.

Shortall said the Metrolink had first been promised back in 2007. She said she was disappointed there was such a lack of urgency when there was a “Green Minister for Transport”.

“There continues to be gridlock on the northside of Dublin, there’s been huge apartment development based on the promised Metrolink and there’s little or no chance we’ll meet our emissions targets on transport,” she said.

The state has already spent around €250 million on planning work and land acquisition for Metrolink. Shortall received confirmation from TII last week that it was planning to submit the railway order application in the third quarter of this year.

TII pointed out that there was no deadline for An Bord Pleanála to deal with the railway order but said that it would develop the procurement documents at the same time.

Ryan is a disaster of a politician.

Because of his ideological leanings he simply has zero business having the transport portfolio.

’ You don’t need a car to live in rural Ireland ‘

nope, not a hope, I’d say we’d be doing well to have it by 2031. Genuinely.

as a family member said.. “I was still working when it got to go ahead and to think there is about 0.0001% chance I’ll still be here to use it.. by the time they get it built”

Ryan probably wants it delayed until the tech is available to move all the plant and machinery to sites in ‘electric’ 40 ft trucks.

What I’d do is remove Metrolink from his transport portfolio… a separate ministerial position given the shîtshow of incompetence .. ‘Metrolink Delivery’ and just have them work daily on getting it built.

Ryan is 10000% out of his depth… absolute state of this country and political leadership of it that a man like that can end up with a portfolio of such critical importance to the state and fûck it up on us.

There is such a thing as announcement fatigue.

Constantly making announcements about projects just infuriates people.

However I really do wish that TII and the NTA could come up with timeframes for the project that are realistic, given the staffing constraints, rather than every deadline continually being missed.

It's rubber stamping/ time wasting exercise. Designed to make processes excessively complex

Can we PLEASE move on from Dunville Avenue?

It is irrelevant since the issue of the sewer became apparent.

We can't have politicians pushing WRC-style projects through on the nod for regional political gain, though, either. But there has to be some way of getting projects approved and started with both a reasonable level of evaluation and oversight without unreasonable second-guessing and delays.

Yes. The George 'How can I buy a TV in Arnotts if I can't drive across TOWN?!' Hook brigade are thankfully a dying breed. Radical ideas and implementation are still needed.