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CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

State Agencies The Minister for Finance announced a merger of many state agencies during the Budget on 15 October. This included the amalgamation of the Railway Accident Investigation Unit, Air Accident Investigation Unit, and Marine Casualty Investigation Board. The Railway Accident Investigation Unit was part of, but functionally independent to, the Railway Safety Commission. The functions of the Dublin Transportation Office, the Commission for Taxi Regulation and the Public Transport Licensing will be carried out by the new Dublin Transport Authority.

The National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) is the statutory financial advisor to CIÉ for the DART Interconnector project. In October, the NDFA sought tenders for a contract for the provision of external financial advisory services to assist it in its role in relation to the Interconnector project. The Interconnector is to be built on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis and the successful tenderer was required to have ‘provided the same or similar financial advisory services for a PPP project of at least €100m capital cost ex-VAT within the past 3 years’.

EU Commission The Minister for Transport, Mr Noel Dempsey TD, told the Dáil that ‘a letter of formal notice of an infringement was issued by the Commission in relation to the manner of implementation of Directive 2001/14/EC.  This relates in the main to the absence of an infrastructure charging regime and failure to transpose Article 6 of Directive 2001/14/EC.  The Commission has invited Ireland to submit observations within two months on this matter. A response to the Commission is in preparation.’ He also said ‘Broadly speaking, these Directives opened up the rail freight market further by requiring Member States to grant access to what is defined as the Trans-European Rail freight network (a series of lines across the EU which includes the Cork-Dublin-Belfast-Larne line) to any railway company wishing to provide international freight services. The Directives also sought to ensure that all railway companies are treated in a fair and equitable manner and provide for the efficient and competitive use of infrastructure.’

 ‘Article 6 of Directive 2001/14 deals with incentives to reduce the cost of providing railway infrastructure and the level of charges for access by third parties to the railway. The most appropriate mechanism, permitted by the Directive, for doing this, is a contract between a competent authority and the infrastructure manager. In an Irish context, primary legislation is required to facilitate this. It is proposed that appropriate legislation will be introduced at the earliest opportunity. The Commission was advised of this position at the time of the transposition of the Directive.’

‘Ireland's response to the proposals in the First Railway Package when it was at draft stage was to ensure that any Directives adopted took account of our unique rail gauge and the fact that Ireland was isolated from the main European rail network and would not impose significant bureaucratic costs with little of no associated benefits. The Council [sic] agreed on the need for derogations for Ireland, (and Northern Ireland and Greece) to the more onerous administrative requirements in the directives contained in the First Railway Package.  The derogations were granted for a five-year period until March 2008, but can be renewed. However they are conditional on (a) no railway undertaking from outside the island of Ireland applying to operate competing services and (b) no railway undertaking operating in Ireland applying to operate services in another Member State. To date, no such applications have been received. On this basis, we have been in correspondence with the European Commission requesting a further five-year extension of these derogations and are awaiting the formal response of the Commission on this request.’

UK based lobbyists Rail Freight Group responded to the derogation extension request: ‘We have recently been approached by a number of organisations and customers expressing interest in moving rail freight around the island. This is unlikely to happen with the existing structure, so the Rail Freight Group has written to the European Commission opposing any extension of the derogation’. The Group was also extremely critical of existing rail freight arrangements: ‘Another operator seeking to run trains on the island would need traction and wagons; the gauge is different and the only company with equipment is the incumbent who will say that there are no spare locomotives, no spare wagons, and no terminals which can accept traffic from another operator. It is the old incumbents’ story repeated across Europe – we would rather cut up locos and wagons than sell them to a potential operator. Of course, a new entrant could build new but, given the risks of such a start up, he would need a deep pocket indeed. Then no doubt the railway authority would employ its own staff to ensure that the safety rules would make it very difficult for a new entrant to get safety certification for any equipment – adding time and cost delays’.

The EU Commission replied to the RFG: ‘It appears ... that modifications to the regulatory framework in the rail sector fully implementing all provisions of EU law (e.g. setting up of a rail regulator, ensuring the independence of essential functions) would not be justified by developments in the rail freight market’. ‘With regard to international rail passenger transport, the potential benefits of complying with all provisions of the Directives in terms of encouraging market entry and competition which would lead to better service offers and higher service quality are today unlikely to outweigh the costs for the Member States concerned, incurred for instance, through the setting up of a regulatory body and ensuring the independence of essential functions (capacity allocation and track access charging)’.

‘However, this situation may change in 4-5 years time, if business development prospects will improve. The Commission will therefore continue to closely monitor the evolution of the rail market of the two countries. For the time being, the reasons which led at the time of the adoption of the Directives in question, to grant derogation to these two countries, still remain valid. The specific geographical situation of Ireland and Northern Ireland and a lack of prospects of market entry in the coming years justify the prolongation of the derogation’.

Ten Irish environmental Non-Governmental Organisations also wrote to the EU requesting that the derogation not be extended in order to promote more railfreight.

CIÉ Group Finances In December, the Minister for Transport Mr Noel Dempsey TD told the Dáil that the CIÉ group of companies would have to pursue some rationalisation of services to improve its finances. This is due to a drop in demand for services and increases in fuel costs in the earlier part of the year with an overall CIÉ deficit of €39.5m forecast for 2008 compared with €1.47m in 2007. ‘I have requested that, in deciding on service reductions, the group should aim to maintain rail services, peak-time bus services and services to developing areas. Service reductions should be a last resort in the group's efforts to maintain financial stability’. Media reports suggested cuts in bus fleet sizes and staff numbers, but also a deferral of proposed rail improvements.

 

RAILWAY PROCUREMENT AGENCY (METRO WEST)

ROUTE

The RPA has refined the preferred route for Metro West to include indicative stop, depot and Park & Ride locations. The route has now been determined in those areas where options remained and in particular at Huntstown, Blanchardstown and Liffey Valley.

The line would start at Tallaght East, on Belgard Rd, close to its junction with Blessington Rd. The possibility of physical connections with the Luas Red Line, either along Blessington Rd or at the Embankment Rd junction is being considered. In Clondalkin, Metro West would serve Clondalkin Town Centre beside the existing Mill Shopping Centre, before turning northward to cross the IÉ mainline out of Heuston at Clondalkin/Fonthill station. It is intended that the existing P+R site here would be shared with Metro West.

A new bridge would be provided where Metro West crosses the Royal Canal and the Sligo rail line. It is intended that a new stop would be provided on both lines to facilitate interchange between Metro West and IÉ services. The line would then continue to a stop at Millennium Park before turning eastwards to serve Blanchardstown Town Centre. It is intended that P+R will be provided as part of a redevelopment of adjacent lands at Blanchardstown. At Huntstown, Metro West would crosses the N2 immediately to the north of the N2/M50 interchange. At Dardistown, where a delta (triangular) junction would be provided, Metro West would connect with the proposed Metro North line from the city centre to Swords.

It is proposed to site the Metro West depot at Sillogue.

Belgard Stop The RPA held a public consultation evening at the end of September to put forward its proposals for the alignment of the Metro West through the Belgard Rd/Embankment Rd intersection and the situation of the Belgard stop. The two options proposed by the Agency were for either a bridge or an underpass.

Both options would have pros and cons. The bridge would be easier to construct, cause less disruption to underground utilities and be less expensive, but would also have a high visual intrusion, the Metro stop would be slightly further from the existing Red Line stop and have the potential for overlooking of properties. The underpass, on the other hand, would have less of a visual impact on existing environment, be closer to Red Line stop and have noise more contained in the cutting, but would cause large scale disruption to adjacent properties, cause disruption to underground services, generate the potential for anti-social gathering at the stop and result in a less favourable passenger experience.

St Brigid’s Well Following an extensive public consultation process, the RPA is now pursuing a design solution which will keep the well in its present location.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 168, published February 2009.