{"id":99981,"date":"2025-10-02T22:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99981\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:43:10","slug":"two-consortiums-will-bid-to-build-long-awaited-metrolink-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99981\/","title":{"rendered":"Two consortiums will bid to build long-awaited MetroLink \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two consortiums have confirmed they will bid to build the long-awaited MetroLink<\/a> rail line, which was finally granted permission by An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la<\/a> on Thursday, three years after planning permission was sought.<\/p>\n

The 18.8km rail line, expected to cost more than \u20ac10 billion, was first proposed a quarter of a century ago and is anticipated to begin operations in the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n

Travelling mostly underground, the remote-controlled, driverless trains will run every three minutes from Swords<\/a> in north Dublin to Charlemont, close to Ranelagh<\/a> in South Dublin. The route will have 16 stops serving areas including Dublin Airport, Ballymun, Glasnevin, Phibsborough and the city centre. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s decision could be subject to legal challenges and must secure final Cabinet approval before construction can begin.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dermot Desmond is both right and wrong that AI will supersede MetroLinkOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael O\u2019Leary and Dermot Desmond\u2019s MetroLink comments show you can be rich and wrongOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking after the commission issued its decision on Thursday, Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien said recent \u201cmarket engagement events\u201d in Dublin, London and several other European cities had attracted solid interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two consortia that have already confirmed that they will be bidding. I\u2019m aware of others as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very substantial firms that are coming together to make combined bids, which shows the seriousness that the sector is taking this with.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien also said a new \u201cstatutory delivery body\u201d with responsibility for the construction of the line would soon be established. This body could deliver \u201cflexibility\u201d on hiring and pay of senior MetroLink staff, he indicated.<\/p>\n

The body would ensure \u201cwe have the required skills and people with those skills\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Before lodging its planning application for MetroLink in September 2022, Transport Infrastructure Ireland<\/a> (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 \u201crisk allowance range\u201d for inflation. <\/p>\n

At that time, \u20ac9.5 billion was the midpoint of a \u201ccredible\u201d cost range of between \u20ac7.16 billion and \u20ac12.25 billion. However, a figure of more than \u20ac23 billion was also submitted to government as the extreme upper limit of costs, if all \u201cunknown unknown\u201d risks were to be eliminated, according to the Department of Public Expenditure\u2019s major projects advisory group.<\/p>\n

\"Metrolink\"Source: metrolink.ie <\/p>\n

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\u2019s Green.<\/p>\n

A metro for Dublin was proposed in 2000 when it was included in the then government\u2019s Platform for Change transportation strategy. An application for the line, then called Metro North, was submitted to An Bord Plean\u00e1la in 2008 and was granted permission in late 2010.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Analysis: Dublin\u2019s MetroLink: How much will it really cost?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

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 \u20ac3.5 billion, and the project was shelved.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Depicting MetroLink as primarily an airport service is an example of Michael O\u2019Leary\u2019s myopic thinkingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two consortiums have confirmed they will bid to build the long-awaited MetroLink rail line, which was finally granted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[7928,9,10,52,26,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,11550,15,16,4852,5,13421,63497,10411,7,8,53919],"class_list":{"0":"post-99981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-coimisiun-pleanala","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-dublin","12":"tag-dublin-airport","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-luas","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-metrolink","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-public-transport","27":"tag-ranelagh","28":"tag-swords","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories","31":"tag-transport-infrastructure-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}