Two consortiums have confirmed they will bid to build the long-awaited MetroLink rail line, which was finally granted permission by An Coimisiún Pleanála on Thursday, three years after planning permission was sought.
The 18.8km rail line, expected to cost more than €10 billion, was first proposed a quarter of a century ago and is anticipated to begin operations in the mid-2030s.
Travelling mostly underground, the remote-controlled, driverless trains will run every three minutes from Swords in north Dublin to Charlemont, close to Ranelagh in South Dublin. The route will have 16 stops serving areas including Dublin Airport, Ballymun, Glasnevin, Phibsborough and the city centre.
A trip from Swords to the city centre is expected to take about 25 minutes, while journeys from the airport to the city will take about 20 minutes.
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Once construction starts, MetroLink will be the largest infrastructure project in the State, with building work expected to continue for up to eight years. However, the commission’s decision could be subject to legal challenges and must secure final Cabinet approval before construction can begin.
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Speaking after the commission issued its decision on Thursday, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said recent “market engagement events” in Dublin, London and several other European cities had attracted solid interest.
“There are two consortia that have already confirmed that they will be bidding. I’m aware of others as well,” he said.
“There are very substantial firms that are coming together to make combined bids, which shows the seriousness that the sector is taking this with.”
Mr O’Brien also said a new “statutory delivery body” with responsibility for the construction of the line would soon be established. This body could deliver “flexibility” on hiring and pay of senior MetroLink staff, he indicated.
The body would ensure “we have the required skills and people with those skills”, he said.
The commission’s decision to grant a railway order for the line will allow the State transport developer to seek indicative tenders for its construction, before formulating a final business case that it will submit to the Government for approval to build the line. The likely cost of MetroLink will be known at this stage.
Before lodging its planning application for MetroLink in September 2022, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) had to submit a preliminary business case to government to get approval to press ahead with the planning process. This business case had to include cost estimates, with a “risk allowance range” for inflation.
At that time, €9.5 billion was the midpoint of a “credible” cost range of between €7.16 billion and €12.25 billion. However, a figure of more than €23 billion was also submitted to government as the extreme upper limit of costs, if all “unknown unknown” risks were to be eliminated, according to the Department of Public Expenditure’s major projects advisory group.
More than 300 parties made submissions to the board on the application in advance of the opening of public hearings on the line in February of last year. These included:d residents and businesses affected by the route; politicians; campaign groups; heritage bodies; and State agencies, including the Office of Public Works, which had serious concerns about the impact of the proposed station at St Stephen’s Green.
A metro for Dublin was proposed in 2000 when it was included in the then government’s Platform for Change transportation strategy. An application for the line, then called Metro North, was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2008 and was granted permission in late 2010.
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However, the State was by then in the depths of the economic crisis, and the following year the government baulked at approving the business case for the line, which put the likely cost at €3.5 billion, and the project was shelved.
In 2015 it was reinstated, with construction scheduled to begin in 2021, with a view to delivery in 2026 or 2027. In 2018, a decision was made to combine the metro from Swords to the city with an upgrade of the Luas green line from the city to Sandyford. The following year that decision was reversed, and it was back to a Swords-to-city metro, ending at the Charlemont Luas stop north of Ranelagh.
