LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2022

DUBLIN’S PLANNED METROLINK project promises trains every three minutes at peak times in new plans unveiled by the Government this afternoon.

Initial details of the project have been released following confirmation from Transport Minister Eamon Ryan that a planning submission for the public transport ‘megaproject’ will be lodged this September – with services anticipated to be in operation in the early 2030s.

The MetroLink has been proposed by successive governments and has been subject to successive delays but Ryan yesterday secured agreement from Cabinet to move forward with the project.

Operating mostly underground, the MetroLink, is set to run from Swords in north Dublin and terminate at Charlemont near Ranelagh in the south of the city, with an end-to-end journey of 25 minutes.

It will serve residential areas including Swords, Ballymun and Glasnevin as well as the City Centre and Dublin Airport, and will link to Irish Rail, Luas and bus services.

The service aims to run trains every three minutes at peak times, with frequency between trains likely to drop to every 90 seconds as demand increases, and carry up to 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. By comparison, the Luas Green Line carries 9,000 passengers per hour.

Ireland remains one of only a small number of countries in Europe without a metro in its biggest city or a rail connection to its main international airport, making the proposed MetroLink service the first of its kind.

The Department of Transport received approval from the Government for the preliminary business case for the project as submitted by the National Transport Authority (NTA) yesterday.

The post-Cabinet briefing stated that Metrolink will represent the largest rail investment the country has made since the 19th century and that it will serve as a major transport spine for Dublin City and also for rail and bus connections from cities and towns across the country.

Minister Ryan has said that 175,000 people will be able to access the proposed stations by foot and that routes will serve 250,000 jobs.

Announcing the decision today, he said: “MetroLink is a once in a generation project that is going to massively transform the public transport system in our capital city.

“This project in various guises has been on the table now for two decades, but the Government’s decision on the MetroLink Preliminary Business Case marks a significant milestone.

“Now this exciting transport megaproject starts to become a reality,” he said, adding that the service “will contribute to a shift from the private car to more sustainable travel, helping to decarbonise the transport sector in line with Government policy”.

CEO of the NTA, Anne Graham, hailed today as “an important day for Irish public transport”.

“MetroLink is about providing a frequent, reliable, sustainable alternative as part of an integrated system, so that we can encourage more people to get out of their cars and on to public transport,” she said.

While an official timeline for the project remains unclear, it is anticipated that construction will begin in 2025, with an anticipated delivery timeline of between 2031 and 2034.

The exact cost of the service to the taxpayer is also still unknown.

A Government spokesperson said: “It is too early at present to give a precise project cost as the project has yet to go through the planning and procurement stages. The Government will receive information on the precise cost of MetroLink in advance of its final decision on whether to proceed with the project.

“However, a credible, stress tested indicative cost is in the region of €9.5bn, which is the mid-point of a cost range of between €7bn to €12bn.”