WORK ON THE long-delayed Metro North could be accelerated by building the project in stages, a new report has said.

A new study from Engineers Ireland, titled ‘the state of Ireland 2017′, which examines the country’s infrastructure, said that the proposed Metro North line could be a major asset to the city.

The Metro North is a rail line that would link Dublin Airport to the city centre, and would also provide better transport for people living in north Dublin’s outlying suburbs.

As previously examined by Fora, the €2.4 billion project has been stuck in planning hell for over a decade. In 2015 the project was resurrected although amended slightly so that it would be a mix of underground and above-ground lines.

Construction is due to start in 2021 and finish in 2026, however Engineers Ireland has said that this timeline should be sped up.

One of the report’s two-year recommendations was to “accelerate the development of New Metro North from its current delivery date”.

“All European cities with which Dublin is competing have rail links to the airport and, of the top 20 busiest airports in Europe, only Dublin and Palma de Mallorca do not have a rail link,” it said.

Benefits

It also pointed out the potential benefits for north-side residents, as well as travellers going through Dublin Airport.

The line would link the city and the airport Laura Hutton / RollingNews.ie Laura Hutton / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

“With airport passengers and workers accounting for approximately 20% of all the new Metro North trips, the airport is an extremely important stop on the line. However, 80% of trips will board and alight at other locations,” it said.

“Metro North has been designed to ultimately accommodate up to 20,000 passengers per direction per hour.

“(It) will provide significant journey time savings such as shortening the journey time from Swords to the city centre from an average of 50 minutes by bus to 25 minutes by metro.”

It added that development should be accelerated “faster than the current delivery date to avoid congestion and ultimately, an adverse effect on the economy”.

“This could also be achieved, in the case of funding limitations, by implementing the system in different functional phases, ensuring the initial benefits are achieved sooner.”

The calls echo those recently made by the mayor of Fingal, councillor Darragh Butler, who called for the Metro North plan to be fast-tracked.

New infrastructure unit

The Engineers Ireland report also made several other key recommendations, including:

• Accelerating the development of the M20 Cork to Limerick motorway
• The contract for the National Broadband Plan, an initiative to provide rural homes and businesses with high-speed broadband, “should be awarded without further delay”
• Incentivise consumers and private-car operators to purchase electric vehicles.

Engineers Ireland President Kieran Feighan also called on the government to establish a single infrastructure unit as soon as possible to support the new 10-year capital spending plan.

“As things stand, planning and delivery in these areas are spread across government departments, each competing for finite funding, with multiple layers of decision-making and little central oversight,” he said.

“A single infrastructure unit, as in the UK and Switzerland, could work with experts to identify priority infrastructure projects, speed up project delivery, and explore innovative financing and funding mechanisms.”

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Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie