Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

if you are in government and it’s possible to open that first section, you’d be utterly mad not to.

Obviously there would be some uptake but would there be much trip generators from opening north of the m50? I suppose it would be good to test the system when demand isn't so high.

I wouldn't expect it to be something mentioned in the high level information available to the public. Undoubtedly the two civil contracts from the M50 north will be completed first so it makes sense from everyone's perspective to progress with fitting these out before the tunnel is complete. Once the civil works are completed, TII will want to hand them over to the PPP company, otherwise they are liable for securing and insuring the site.

Rolling stock will go into production soon after award of the PPP (after detailed design is completed and signed off). Obviously sets will be completed in batches over several years. The manufacturer won't want to have completed stock sitting in their facilities for years, they will want to get it to the depot at Dardistown as quickly as possible (and their pricing will almost certainly be based on that). They will certainly be bringing to operationally ready and testing and commissioning the new systems before the tunnel is completed (trying to do everything at the end would be a huge risk).

I assume the operate contract will be similar to Luas where the fee paid to the operator will be based on performance, not fares revenue.

I wouldn't be certain they'd lose money on that section if it was Estuary-Northwood (i.e. including the short underground section at the Airport). I expect that ML will be very busy on all sections from opening day(s).

The enormous latent demand for mass transport in Dublin: look at how both DART and Luas were given capacity increases almost from launch (In DART's case, more cars were ordered within 24 hours of first passengers being carried). I don't see ML being different.

Also, early opening would help the case for a second line. I think people in Dublin don't realise how much they really want a Metro network. Seeing a line in operation makes it very easy to imagine the same thing serving your own neighbourhood... and people who until now didn't care will start asking their TDs why their part of the city is getting left behind.

From experience, its clear metrolink will be exceptionally busy from day 1 and will hit capacity well ahead of forecasts. Latent demand for good transit is severely underestimated in all traffic models, not just in Ireland but globally. So many trips are avoided/delayed because of the 'hassle' it would involve at present. At the moment if you fancy going to from Swords to the south city centre for non work purposes, your best option is to just not, who has time for a 2 hour round trip.

Posters here have brought up the cost of that metro in Milan before but they were using costs from more than a decade ago, ignoring the huge cost increases since then, costs which didn't include rolling stock, etc.

It isn’t like it hasn’t been done here, the Dublin port tunnel which is in fact two tunnels with a combined length of 9.2km or 4.6miles was done in only five years (2001-06)

It has been done and can be done if the will was there which it isn’t.

Only at the airport (and dardistown using the depot tracks I guess). The airport turn back is just north of the station, and only links to each tunnel in the southbound direction

Not sure if there's any planned further south.

Now, saying that, I would imagine it would be trivial enough to add temporary switches outside stations if the demand for it requires, especially if they're opening it in phases at a reduced frequency.

M500 is the PPP which basically includes everything apart from the civil works. There is so much wrapped up in it and it will be for the company themselves (a JV between numerous huge international companies) to schedule all the various elements. You could have a company like Siemens and they will be involved for the full 25 years, it's not like traditional subcontracting where you bring in someone to do something and they are gone once that's finished.

The M500 contract will have to be awarded early as a huge amount of work for it will be happening in parallel with the civil works, it just won't be happening on site. There will be a huge amount of design work and approvals, then procurement and production of necessary items happening while the civil works are ongoing (the rolling stock will be years in production, all the ducting, ventilation equipment, transformers, etc. will be made specially for the project, even off-the-shelf items will be a "job lot" specifically for this project, they wont just hoping there is enough stock available when it's need, particularly given how fragile supply chains can be).

The PPP company will have paid hundreds of millions in down-payments, they will be monitoring the civils contracts and will want to get the two above ground sections as quickly as possible. They'd love to get going at the sections north of the M50 a couple of years before getting into the tunnel.

I'm sure the intention is that M401, M402 and M403 will have three different contractors. The scope of the works is so big that they want to utilise the resources of multiple contractors, that's why it has been split into three packages.

The article says to the airport, and then claims it's going to Malahide. bad journalism and/or subediting.

Nowhere do Laing say they're interested in anything other than the full contract and indeed that's all that will ever be offered as the PPP, you can't operate part of it