The Dublin Metro project was given a significant boost today when the European Investment Bank announced it had approved a €500 million loan in principle.
The bank’s vice president with responsibility for Ireland Plutarchos Sakellaris said today that the project represented a significant contribution to sustainable urban transport for Dublin. It will be a public-private partnership (PPP) project with a provisional completion date of 2016.
“It will be the backbone for a future integrated public transport network in the Irish capital,” said Mr Sakellaris.
The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD welcomed the decision and said it was an important signal of confidence in a priority public transport project for Dublin. “Metro North is now well on track for delivery in 2016,” he said.
An oral hearing before An Bord Pleanála on the railway order application for Metro North, concluded in March this year. Its decision is expected during the Summer.
Separately, the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has short-listed two PPP consortia under the procurement process.
Metro North was one of the key projects announced as party of Transport 21. The Government has consistently refused to state what budget will be allotted to the metro system on grounds of commercial sensitivity.
The announcement was also welcomed by Fine Gael’s spokesman on transport, Fergus O’Dowd.
“It needs to be built as soon as possible and on time. Now is the cheapest time to get a loan. It is essential to the city of Dublin in terms of infrastructure.”
The EIB’s loans to the 19km Dublin Metro, which will run from Dublin city centre to Fingal via Dublin airport, will amount to 8 per cent of the project’s estimated €6 billion cost.
The project involves the design, construction and maintenance of a light metro system serving the northern corridor. A total of 17 statins will be built and 21 trains will service the line.
Metro North project is designed to be the backbone of a future integrated public transport network in the Dublin Region.
It will interchange with existing LUAS lines, with the DART and with suburban rail services. However, an underground interconnector linking Heuston and Connolly stations with the city centre and St Sephen’s Green will be necessary to make all those connections possible.
Mr Dempsey announced that the interconnector would be his number one priority when appointed as Minister. However, the completion date for the interconnector now looks likely to be 2018, a few years behind schedule.
The EIB has invested in a number of other infrastructure projects in Ireland in recent years. Earlier this year, Mr Sakellaris said the bank was currently examining two other PPP projects forming part of a western transport corridor between Cork, Limerick and Galway – the N17-N18 Gort to Tuam motorway and the motorway linking the Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Wexford roads.
The EIB was still completing its appraisals of the projects and, if the conditions were met, agreements could be signed in 2011.
Owned by the 27 member states, he bank has increased its total lending to more than €79 billion in 2009, including €70.5 billion in EU member states, a 40 per cent increase on 2008.