Dublin - Metrolink (Swords to Charlemont only)

Well he played his part in making sure the extension south of Charlemont didn’t happen. I won’t trust him on this matter until we have a spade in the ground tbh.

Department of Public Expenditure public spending code.

A final case for funding will have to be made by the NTA/TII to that Department and then brought to cabinet for approval.

I wouldn’t be expecting any final decision until next year sometime.

@tom1ie

DEPR is the acronym used for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform (Previously Public Expenditure and Reform). They monitor and to a large extent regulate and control public expenditure.

PSC is the Public Spending Code which is a set of rules and procedures which govern public expenditure. Among other things this sets out how public capital projects operate. For projects such as the Metro both a preliminary and final business case must be prepared and submitted by the sponsoring authority and the project must go through decision gates (stages of expenditure approval) during planning and approval before it is given final approval to proceed to construction. Essentially it provides the governance by which the Government keep control of Capital Expenditure and related projects

More here: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/public-spending-code/?fl=en

Page 8 of the following TII document shows the PSC as it applies to major road projects and where the decision gates align with the TII project phases It’s application to major rail projects is very similar

https://www.tii.ie/roads-tolling/projects-and-improvements/major-active-projects.pdf

I think it's at the ministers discretion

Before and after. Shame this wasn't caught.

Maybe a silly question but I wonder does this have any effect on the performance of the metro train? Ie it now has a steeper gradient to traverse?

Probably doesn’t matter I’d say.

Sounds great. With a bit of luck we'll see builders moving in this time next year, at which point we can all exhale, perhaps pop some reasonably priced prosecco, tremendous progress.

Once construction starts I think it'll move along more rapidly than predicted, there's usually a lot of padding in tunnelling project timelines because of the geotechnical variables. Might even see it finish up around 2031.

Being discussed now on NewsTalk.

Its a good question but difficult to answer with anything other than "how long is a piece of string"

There have been very few major project Railway Orders in recent times to compare it to.

If you take the M28 as an example, which although it is a road rather than a rail project follows the same approval framework, that was approved by ABP in June 2018. There was a two year and nine month delay as it worked its way through the legal process (Judicial Review and subsequent appeals). Preliminary work commenced in 2021 and continues (fencing, scrub clearance, archeological survey, utility diversion, etc). The main contract went to tender in late 2023 and has not yet been awarded. Currently construction is expected to start in late 2024. So that was 6.5 years from ABP approval to construction commencing. The legal decisions in this case were somewhat delayed, on the other hand neither the Court of Appeal nor the Supreme Court heard the case, nor were the opponents granted approval to "take it to Europe". SO the legal process could actually have taken a lot longer. And a further three years have elapsed since the legal process ended. Will there be a Judicial review of the ABP Metrolink decision ? Will the decision from that be subject to further appeals ? Will other issues arise to accelerate or delay the project ? It's simply impossible to tell.

And that's before any political considerations. Look at the NCH, all set to go back in the days of the Bert and Cowen, change of Government, and hey presto ten year delay ensued. Nothing to say that that couldn't be repeated. And that's before ever factoring Ryan into the equation.

So at this relatively early stage, given that there are further hoops to jump through and further pitfalls ahead, it's anybody's guess. Hopefully, with a fair wind, it will be underway by the end of the decade.

Queue vociferous cries of shrill indignation.............

Howdya mean "breaking into them" out of curiosity?

E: only after I posted did I realise you meant "braking", leaving it up in case anyone else was similarly puzzled

Something that occurred to me yesterday. Over its nine year construction period, the cost of building Metrolink would work out at €35 per week for each inhabitant of Dublin City, or less than €15 per week for those living in County Dublin.

The actual story is more reasoned. The residents support Metrolink, but were asking if any small green space could be found for residents during construction... the current plan will take all of the available greens. A fair and reasonable request.

I heard Duncan Stewart on the radio earlier, another 70 something yr old anti metrolink crank, who has made a comfortable living over the last 30 years, wanting to **** on the futures of the younger generations. Out with usual speil of airport-city centre without looking at the bigger picture.