Irish Railway Record Society

Irish Railway News  - Journal 160

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

RAILWAY PROCUREMENT AGENCY (METRO)

BACKGROUND

  In January 2002, the Government mandated the RPA to prepare a detailed business case for the Dublin metro and to examine how it might be progressed as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The RPA was also instructed to begin the procurement process by seeking expressions of interest from international suppliers and contractors. The project was officially launched in March 2002 at an event in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, which was attended by over three hundred representatives of the world’s leading operators, railway equipment suppliers and contractors.

  In November 2002, the RPA submitted a comprehensive Outline Business Case for the metro to Government. This drew together the work of the agency on the project’s many aspects, including its costs, benefits, alignment options, the potential for associated property development, financing and commercial structuring options, the cost to government and choices of procurement strategy. The study put forward a very good case for the metro, with a positive cost-benefit ratio. At the same time, the RPA pre-qualified 22 international companies and consortia, including all of the leading companies involved in building and operating metros around the world.

  Following concerns regarding the affordability and timescale of the project, the RPA submitted a revised metro proposal to Government in June 2003. This provided for a 1 km shorter route through the City Centre and the elimination of one of the proposed stations, with resulting significant cost savings.

  There followed ongoing contacts between the RPA and the Department of Transport, examining and refining every aspect of the proposal. This process culminated in the Government including the RPA’s metro proposals in the Transport 21 plan announced in November 2005. Subsequently, on 28 February, the Minister for Transport launched the public consultation process for the first phase of the metro project - Metro North.

  Speaking at the launch of the public consultation process, the Chairman of the RPA, Padraic A White, said that the Metro ‘will provide a fast, frequent and reliable service from the Fingal County Town of Swords and Dublin Airport to the city centre, carrying up to 30 million passengers each year. The journey time on the 17km of the Central route from Swords to St. Stephen’s Green is estimated at 26 minutes and from the Airport 17 minutes’. It is estimated that up to 80% of the traffic would be non-Airport related.

ROUTES

  For the public consultation process launched by the Minister in March 2006, the RPA put forward three possible route options for Metro North: Central, East and West. All three proposed routes start at an underground station near the existing Green Line terminus at St Stephen’s Green West.

 East (Red) Route   This would continue underground via possible stations at Hawkins St and Upper O’Connell St to the Mater Hospital/Dorset St. Still underground, the line would follow the alignment of Dorset St, Drumcondra Rd and Swords Rd, with stations at Drumcondra and Griffith Avenue. The line would surface close to the junction between the Swords Rd and Collins Avenue and would then continue on a mixture of elevated structures and at grade running along the N1/M1 corridor, via possible stations at Whitehall, Santry and Clonshaugh Rd, to the Airport station, which would be located near the Great Southern Hotel. North of the airport the line would run on an elevated structure, with stops at Nevinstown, Swords and Estuary, before continuing at grade to its terminus adjacent to the M1 interchange at Lissenhall. There would be Park+Ride (P+R) sites at Clonshaugh Rd and Lissenhall. The total length of the East Route would be 17 km.

  West (Green) Route   The city centre underground section would include possible stations at Tara St, Rotunda and Broadstone. At Broadstone the Metro would surface and follow the course of the former MGWR main line to Liffey Junction, from where a viaduct would take it over the Royal Canal, the IÉ Dublin-Sligo and Islandbridge Junction-Glasnevin Junction lines and the River Tolka, with possible stations located in the vicinity of Cabra Rd and Lee Rd. The line would go underground again through Finglas with possible stops near the Tolka Valley Rd, Finglas Main St and the Mellows Park. Leaving the Finglas tunnel, the line would cross the M50 on an elevated structure, with a station and P+R site close to the motorway’s interchange with the N2 North Road. The line would then run in an easterly direction at grade to serve the Metropark development close to the M50’s Ballymun Rd interchange, before turning northwards in tunnel to run under the airport. The Airport stop would be located adjacent to the existing short-term car park. North of the airport, the line would surface having passed under the Naul Rd and run at grade to Airside before reverting to an elevated structure along the course of the N1 Swords by-pass, with possible station locations at Airside, Swords and Estuary. From Estuary, the line would continue to Lissenhall. The total length of the West Route would be 22 km.

  Central (Blue) Route   This is the RPA’s favoured route. It would serve underground stations at D’Olier St, O’Connell St, the Mater Hospital and Botanic Rd, before surfacing at a station immediately south of Dublin City University. The line would then continue on an elevated structure along Ballymun Road, with possible station locations at Ballymun town centre and Ballymun North, before crossing the M50 to a P+R site at Metropark. It would then run at grade along the airport’s eastern perimeter, close to the Swords Rd. before reverting to an elevated structure to serve the Airport station situated close to the Great Southern Hotel. The line would then continue on a mixture of elevated and at grade sections along the alignment of the N1 road to the northern terminus at Lissenhall, adjacent to the M1 interchange, where there would be a P+R site. Possible station locations would be Airside, Swords, Estuary and Lissenhall.

  A possible alternative routing would see the line turn northwards after the Metropark station, enter a tunnel and follow the West Route’s alignment under the airport, rejoining the basic route at Airside. The Airport station would be situated adjacent to the existing short-term car park. The total length of the Central Route would be 17 km.

  The selection of the optimal route will take into account the environmental impact, construction feasibility, transport objectives and cost of each option, while taking into account input from the public consultation process. The RPA plan to announce the final route alignment, which could be a mix of the routes outlined above, in July of this year, following which a detailed Railway Order Application, including an Environmental Impact Assessment will be prepared. It is anticipated that an application for a Railway Order will be made in Mid-2007. Assuming that the Railway Order is granted in 2008, construction of Metro North will take approximately four years and the RPA is confident that the target completion date of 2012 can be achieved.

  DESCRIPTION

  Unlike the heavy rail underground/metro networks found in cities such as London and Paris, the system being proposed by the RPA is described as a mid-sized metro, similar in concept to systems operating in many European cities of Dublin’s size, e.g. Porto in Portugal. The system will be fully interoperable with the existing Luas network in specific sections and will allow the phased upgrading of a section, or sections, of Luas line to firstly mixed Luas/Metro use and then to full Metro operation. The upgrading will include platform lengthening and boosting of power supplies. The system will be fully segregated in congested areas using a mix of tunnels, cuttings and elevated structures as appropriate and highly segregated in outer suburban areas, operating more like a light rail (Luas) system. Signalling will be installed on tunnelled sections, with trains being driven on a line of sight basis in other areas. Underground stations will be close to the surface in order to give easy access.

  The system will use low flow light rail type vehicles, similar to those in use on the Luas network. Currently it is proposed that these will be 45-metres long and 2.6-metres wide and will run as coupled pairs. Headways of 5 minutes initially are proposed, but these will drop to as low as 90 seconds with growth in demand. This will give a potential capacity of about 20,000 passengers/hour. Traction voltage will be 1,500 V dc, with consideration given to dual voltage vehicles if there was a physical connection to the Luas network.

OIL USAGE

In April, Forfás, the national body responsible for providing policy advice to the Government on enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation produced a report ‘A Baseline Assessment of Ireland’s Oil Dependence — Key Policy Considerations. The report noted ‘Ireland consumed nine million tonnes of oil in 2004, an amount that has doubled since 1990. In 2002, Ireland ranked third highest among the EU-25 countries in terms of oil consumed per capita. … The amount of oil used for transportation in Ireland tripled between 1972 and 2002, leaving Ireland consuming at least 50% more per capita than the average of the EU-25 by the end of the period’.

Regarding the increase in transport sector energy usage it said:

‘Firstly, it may be that Irish residents use the existing stock of cars more intensively than in other EU countries, due to more distributed settlement patterns, longer commuting distances and weaknesses in the public transportation infrastructure’.

‘Secondly, increased freight transport by road has contributed to the increasing consumption of oil in transportation in Ireland. Between 1995 and 2002, national road haulage volumes more than doubled, compared with an EU-15 growth of just 19%. Over the same period, rail haulage volumes fell by 28% in Ireland, while they increased by 6% in the EU-15 countries’.

‘Thirdly, the emergence of low cost air travel and the revolution in air travel availability from Ireland has also contributed to the increasing consumption of oil in transportation. Between 1990 and 2002, the number of passenger kilometres generated by Irish air travellers to other EU-15 countries more than doubled, while the volume of total EU traffic rose by 78% over the same period’.

The recent Transport 21 programme of capital spending on transport over the next 10 years can play a key part in preparing Ireland for the transition to a world of falling oil supplies - its strong emphasis on public transportation infrastructure (accounting for ¤16 billion of the total spend of ¤34 billion) will be central to this preparation. An opportunity exists to ‘fast track’ those elements of Transport 21 relating to public transportation that are currently  envisaged as part of medium-term and long-term priorities rather than for immediate implementation’.

‘In time, the electrification of transport will likely be the main route to mitigating the social, spatial and economic impact of peak oil on businesses and consumers. But this in turn highlights the importance of the time horizon Ireland adopts in analysing peak oil and potential mitigating strategies’.

  NOISE

 New regulations incorporating EU Directive 2002/49/EC on environmental noise have been enacted. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has told relevant authorities including the National Roads Authority, IÉ and the RPA to make strategic noise maps and action plans to tackle the problem for densely populated areas, railways, airports and major roads. This may include building noise barriers.

  The areas being focused on are Dublin, any road which has more than 6 million vehicles per year on it, any major railway which caters for more than 60,000 train ‘passages’ per year and places near civil airports that have more than 50,000 take-offs or landings per year. New projects will have to include features that help cut sound pollution. The noise maps must be completed by June 2007 and action plans by June 2008.

DOCKLANDS 

On Thursday 9 March, the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen TD attended a ceremony to announce work commencement on the new station at Spencer Dock, North Wall, to be known as Docklands. The new station is on the north side of arches 3 and 4 of Sheriff Street Bridge near the Royal Canal. It will provide an alternative terminus in the city centre area, which will not be in conflict with DART or other services and is adjacent to the expanding International Financial Services Centre. It will consist of two tracks and an island platform and will only be connected to the former MGWR line at Newcomen Junction, which currently out of use has been completely re-laid with CWR on concrete sleepers and will be used for these services. The Minister said 'In purely transport terms, however, this project translates in the short-term into a practical, value-for-money measure by providing more rail services along the Western line as far as Maynooth. The growth in demand for services along this line has been unprecedented. Since the year 2000, passenger numbers have risen from 3,400 to almost 10,000 per day'. The Minister said that all services from the re-opened Dunboyne/Navan line and extra services from the Maynooth line would use the station. The station location is at the west end of the Midland yard and is not connected to the former GS&WR and GNR(I) lines. The location was chosen to allow construction of the proposed underground Interconnector station to take place at the east end of the yard in future without having to disrupt services. The following day, IÉ applied for planning permission for the station buildings. The application noted a 'station building with access from the north side of Sheriff Street Bridge, interim staircase from the south side of Sheriff Street, canopied platform, station plaza, and associated site works...'. The Planning Application noted 'Access to the station from the southern side of Sheriff Street by means of a staircase descending from Sheriff Street Bridge. This staircase is an interim measure only; the permanent route to the station will be along the linear park, which will run along the eastern bank of the Royal Canal between Mayor Street and the bridge. On completion of the park those wising to access the station from Mayor Street, where the Luas is proposed to run, will walk along the linear park and through the arches under the bridge'. The station, track and signalling project represents an investment of ¤28m and is expected to be open for services in 2007 if there are no planning delays. Work started immediately on lifting the old sidings, clearing the site and installing new track. This included lifting track as far as Newcomen Junction. This work is exempted from planning permission under the Planning Regulations 2001. Two tracks of CWR will lead to Newcomen Junction. A facing and trailing crossover pair will be located between the station and Newcomen.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 160, published June 2006.

Copyright © 2006 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: August 07, 2006 .