Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2006
144 Mr. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the criteria of selection for the proposed route of the Metro; the way each of the alternative lines, central, western and eastern performed under each of the criteria; and the scoring weight given to each of the criteria. [35091/06]
View answerThe selection of the preferred route for Metro North is a matter for the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA). The preferred route for Metro North, which I announced last week, was approved by the Board of the RPA recently following a rigorous assessment of the options against a number of criteria which were published in February 2006 as part of the public consultation process. The selection process encompassed one of the most comprehensive public consultation exercises ever undertaken. A total of 100,000 newsletters were issued to residents along the potential routes and over 2,000 written submissions were received by the RPA. The public consultation exercise had a significant impact on the eventual route selected and on the location of stations.
The RPA has informed me that it evaluated each route with respect to seven published criteria: compliance with transport and land-use strategy, minimising environmental impacts including congestion and associated pollution problems, generating social and economic benefits, delivering good quality transport integration, optimising capital and operating costs, delivering a safe and operationally efficient system and achieving efficiency and minimising risk during construction. No percentage weightings were given to the seven criteria as it was considered that the seven published criteria were of a generally equal importance. The Preferred Route performed best against a majority of the assessment criteria. The West Route performed poorly against most assessment criteria. The Preferred Route attracted considerable local support along its route, albeit with concerns about elevated structures. Conversely, there was considerable local opposition to the East Route due to the impact of further major construction following on from the Dublin Port Tunnel works, which have adversely affected the area for the last five years.
The Preferred Route serves key facilities and institutions including hospitals, universities, sports venues leisure amenities, shopping districts and employment centres. The Preferred Route, serving Ballymun, is compliant with the relevant County Development Plans and is supported by the local authorities. The Preferred Route was evaluated the strongest in terms of environmental impacts including, congestion and air pollution. The Preferred Route has the highest benefit to cost ratio. The Preferred Route offers excellent interchange with the Maynooth Railway Line and with the Luas Red and Green lines, which are important strategic objectives. The Preferred Route has the highest forecast patronage. The Preferred Route facilitates interoperability with the planned Metro West — the East Route does not facilitate this connection. The Preferred Route has the lowest capital cost. All three routes performed similarly in terms of safety and operational efficiency, though the East Route would have a negative impact on journey times from Metro West to the city centre. The Preferred Route has advantages in terms of reducing construction impacts, the East Route would require significant mitigation measures during construction where it crosses the alignment of the Dublin Port Tunnel.
145 Mr. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the assessment carried out of the transport needs of the north side which led to the removal from Transport 21 of the LUAS network outlined in a Platform for Change that was to interconnect the western line through Drumcondra, the northern line and DART through Howth Junction and the Metro line to Swords via the airport and serving Whitehall, Beaumont, Artane and Coolock. [35092/06]
View answerTransport 21 provides a Government commitment to deliver an extensive Luas and Metro network for Dublin in the period up to 2015. While Transport 21 involves a very large commitment of financial resources, those resources are also finite. It was necessary therefore, to prioritise the investments to be made over the ten year period. Although the Dublin Transportation Office strategy of 2001 did suggest a number of other projects across the Greater Dublin Area, including a Luas line servicing the Whitehall to Kilbarrack area, this project was not included in Transport 21. However, the Dublin Transportation Office's Platform for Change remains the longer term vision for transport in Dublin and funding is provided in Transport 21 for feasibility studies on those elements of it not included in the current 10 year programme.
