[Article] Dublin train plans in battle of the budget

thejollyrodger

Dublin train plans in battle of the budget

05/09/04 00:00

By Niamh Connolly


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The crucial missing link in Dublin's fragmented rail transport system could be completed by an ambitious €3.4 billion plan to integrate the commuter rail network with the rest of the city, according to Iarnrod Eireann.

The company's master plan, submitted two months ago for inclusion in December's budgetary deliberations, proposes an underground tunnel from Heuston Station to Spencer Dock.

According to the rail company, an underground interconnector is a crucial piece of the jigsaw linking all the transport systems in the capital: rail, Luas, the Metro and the bus network.

The track would run from Heuston Station, with underground stops at High Street near the Guinness Brewery, St Stephen's Green, Pearse Street and terminating at Spencer Dock.


The entire integrated rail plan could be delivered by 2013, if current funding levels are maintained - or well before that date if the plan is accelerated.

But with the budget estimates fast approaching, Iarnrod Eireann is expected to pitch for an acceleration of capital funding so that the project could be completed by 2011.

In the last budget the company received a multiannual envelope of €2 billion to cover all capital costs from 2004 to 2008. Some €1.3 billion of this was earmarked for elements of the integrated rail plan.

A further commitment of €2.1 billion would be required in December's budget for transport to accelerate the project. This explains the rail company's early pitch before transport minister Seamus Brennan draws up his own wishlist for the new finance minister.

But the semi-state rail company will meet competition for capital funding from the Metro project, new Luas spurs and quality bus corridors.

If Iarnrod Eireann's Integrated Network plan were adopted, double-decker Dart carriages - similar to those in Paris - would boost capacity by an average 60 per cent on the proposed underground interconnector from Heuston Station to Spencer Dock.

These would run on a newly-electrified commuter line to Kildare, as well as on the Dart spur from Howth Junction serving Dublin Airport, according to the plan.

``Higher capacity trains, longer or double-deck, are more feasible than additional train paths and would deliver a peak hour capacity increase ranging between 40 and 100 per cent,'' Iarnrod Eireann's proposals state.

According to the submission to government:

Commuters would have integrated rail services through Heuston Station with the rest of Dublin's transport system by opening up access to Spencer Dock and IFSC.

Luas, the bus network and rail system would be integrated with busy commuter belts on the existing mainline network - in the south to Gorey, in the north to Dunleer and Drogheda, and in the west to Longford and Athlone.

The design would provide an interchange between rail and local, provincial and national bus networks from population centres within a 100-kilometre commuter belt, such as Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Wexford, Louth, and Co Dublin.

Iarnrod Eireann estimates a fourfold increase in rail passengers at peak time by 2016, with no requirement for increased annual subvention from the exchequer.

Its wider commuter rail plan includes:

new stations at Pelletstown, Phoenix Park, Porterstown on the Maynooth and Longford line, and on the Kildare route, stations at Adamstown, Fonthill Road, Kishogue and ParkWest

electrifying lines to Maynooth, Kildare and Drogheda; stations earmarked as potential development spurs include Hansfield and Dunboyne as well as a park-and-ride on the N3

Controversially, the company has pitched to build a rail spur to Dublin Airport as part of its master plan. This proposal has so far drawn little support from Brennan, though it was advanced by officials at the department of finance as a cheaper option to an underground Metro.

The proposed €400 million Dart spur would have a station at Malahide Road and a park-and-ride on the M1 facility.

Double-deck Dart carriages would share the northern track to Drogheda from Spencer Dock to north of Howth Junction, where a spur would run overground to the airport.

As a far cheaper alternative to a €2.4 billion airport metro to the city centre, the Dart spur has already provoked considerable political debate. The Railway Procurement Agency's initial €4.5 billion estimate for a public-private Metro project was scaled back to €2.4billion under pressure from Brennan.

The proposed route runs from Dublin Airport overground to Ballymun and Glasnevin, and underground to Phibsboro, O'Connell Street, terminating at St Stephen's Green.

Under a leaseback deal, repayments of €250 million would be made annually over a 20-year period, to be paid when the Metro goes into operation.

However, independent consultants have advised against the RPA overseeing the Metro, and urged a new state entity to oversee the public private tender contract to boost competition between Luas, rail, Dublin Bus and Metro.

The cabinet's transport sub-committee now has two options for servicing Dublin Airport: Iarnrod Eireann's Dart spur, costing €400 million, and a dedicated underground Metro from the city centre to the airport, costing €2.4 billion.

Brennan, who supports the Metro as part of a Greater Dublin Metro, has promised to bring a memo on the project to cabinet ``within weeks''.

It remains to be seen whether the new finance minister will share his or her predecessor's scepticism of the Metro on cost grounds. Department of Finance officials are concerned about an annual outlay of €250 million from the exchequer for 20 years.

There are also fears that the costs of a Metro could escalate in a similar fashion to those of the Luas, unless rigid penalty clauses are employed.

Support from the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, for the Metro is also lukewarm.

Ahern told the Dail in June that ``to put a metro into the city on the scale proposed by the minister and the department would take up an enormous section of the capital programme for the entire state for an inordinate number of years, and we must examine whether the project should be phased or whether we can complete part of the project.

``My feeling is it will be extremely difficult to undertake the entire project.''

Green Party TD Eamon Ryan believes that Iarnrod Eireann's underground interconnector project from Heuston to Spencer Dock must be considered as an entirely separate project from the Metro.

``Iarnrod Eireann should be building that interconnector from Spencer Dock to Heuston. But to try to block or stymie the Metro is the wrong way to go,'' he said.

The underground system from Heuston Station to Spencer Dock is ``a vital piece of infrastructure'' for the capital which must be pursued by Iarnrod Eireann, he said.

Ryan believes that unlike the Dart spur, the Metro would open up large tracts of land north of Ballymun for development.

``Using a Dart line as a spur to the airport is a fourth-rate solution compared to the Metro.

``There is a huge amount of land zoned for development north of Ballymun. The same benefits don't exist on the Dart line spur,'' he said.

Fine Gael's spokesman on transport, Denis Naughton, agrees with the assessment.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport supported the Metro plan despite misgivings about the RPA's estimates, he said.

``The question is whether the objective is to provide a simple connection to Dublin Airport or to provide additional commuter services on the north side of Dublin. If this is the case, the Metro is the only way to go,'' he said.

Ibec has backed the Metro project over the Dart spur.

The Metro is a critical piece of infrastructure enabling Dublin to compete with other European cities, said Ibec's director of enterprise and technology, Brendan Butler.

``It becomes a significant black mark against Ireland as a location for foreign direct investment. It has been commented upon by visiting senior executives to a number of Irish-based multinationals,'' he said.

``These people are travelling to major cities across the world and know what the competition is like.''