Minister refuses to ‘go public’ on metro cost

TRANSPORT Minister, Martin Cullen, has refused to reveal the estimated cost of a new metro service between Dublin city centre, the airport and Swords which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Mr Cullen blamed commercial reasons for his reluctance to outline the budget for a key element of the Government’s Transport 21 plan, which will become the State’s biggest ever infrastructural project.

“I’m not going to open the possibility of a mugging for the State,” he remarked yesterday at the official launch of the public consultation process for the Metro North project.

Mr Cullen said he was not going to ‘go public’ about the cost of Dublin’s metro system in advance of seeking tenders for the project, with the controversy over potential cost overruns on the Dublin Port Tunnel likely to have been a factor in the Government’s reluctance to estimate a price.

It is projected that the metro will carry at least 80,000 passengers per day and remove 41,000 cars a day from Dublin’s streets. Trains will run every four minutes along the 17km route to the terminus at Lissenhall, north of Swords, increasing to 90 seconds at peak times.

The estimated journey time between St Stephen’s Green and Dublin Airport is 17 minutes, and 26 minutes between the city centre and Swords. Approximately six kilometres of the route will run underground, while there will be elevated sections nearer the airport.

Although the Railway Procurement Agency has outlined three route options - West, Central and East - it is already clear that the Central Route, which goes from St Stephen’s Green to the airport and Swords via the Mater Hospital, Dublin City University and Ballymun, is firm favourite.

The Minister said the Metro link would also integrate with Luas and Dublin Bus services as well as park-and-ride facilities at Swords and Ballymun.

RPA chairman, Padraic White, said it was important to realise that Metro North was a strategic commuter service for Dublin’s northside, and not just a facility for airport users. It is estimated that only 20% of passengers using the metro will actually be travelling to and from Dublin Airport.

Surprisingly, only one of the three routes offers a “door-to-door” service from the city centre to the main airport terminal, as two routes propose locating the airport metro station near the Great Southern Hotel on the outskirts of the airport complex.

RPA chief executive, Frank Allen, said a decision on the Metro North route would be made in July, while construction work is likely to begin in early 2009.

Fine Gael transport spokesperson, Olivia Mitchell, expressed scepticism that the project could be delivered by its target date of 2012.

“There is still no price tag for the metro with estimates varying between €1.5 billion and €5 billion,” said Ms Mitchell.

Labour’s transport spokesperson, Roisín Shortall said plans to run the over-ground section of the Metro at Ballymun “on stilts” should be reversed because it would become “a major eyesore.”