Dublin Metro North and Metro West, Republic of Ireland

Heavy investment is being made in the transport systems of Irish capital, Dublin including an entirely new metro network. It will complement the already successful and expanding Luas tram network, and the Iarnród Éireann/Irish Railways DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) routes which share tracks with main line trains.

The new metro will use dedicated new routes for, initially, two lines: Metro North and Metro West. The system will allow fast, frequent and reliable services for Dublin commuters, and create a fast direct connection to Dublin Airport. The link is crucial to the Metro's success, as the airport already handles 20 million passengers per year, forecast to rise to 30 million by 2017.

As well as providing extra capacity, the Metro lines could remove 110 million vehicle kilometres from Dublin's crowded roads.

The project

The Metro project is part of Transport 21, the Irish 2006–2015 infrastructure plan published in late 2005.

The first of the two proposals to be tackled is Metro North, with the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) publishing route details in October 2006.

It will start at St Stephen's Green to the south of the city centre, also current terminus of Luas Green Line and a stop on the projected Interconnector (DART Underground), and run to the Lissenhall area in the north via Dublin Airport and Swords.

Metro North was initially expected to cost €2.4bn to put into operation, although that is now thought to have increased substantially. A 2012 opening date was originally indicated in Transport 21.

The RPA published the Metro West 'Emerging Preferred Route' in July 2007. The start and end points were established as Tallaght, a rapidly expanding community to the south west of Dublin and the western Luas Red Line terminus, and Metropark station near the airport where it will link with Metro North. Construction is planned to start in 2010 with trains running by 2014.

Infrastructure

Metro North will broadly follow established intensively used traffic flows to best serve a mixed market, including commuters and visitors.

Like LUAS, both metro lines will have exclusive track use, albeit interconnecting at many locations to provide journeys using a mixture of trams, bus, metro, DART and main line rail services. Contrasting with Irish heavy rail's 1,600mm gauge, Dublin Metro will use 1,435mm.

Most of Metro North is likely to be underground, with the final section to Ballymun and the airport at ground level or above. The RPA proposes to use a combination of cut and cover and tunnel boring machines, 24-hour tunnelling to complete the project in a reasonable timescale, as deployed for the Madrid Metro.

About half of Metro North would be underground (mainly at the southern end) with the remainder running at ground level or on elevated structures. It will have 15 stations including Dublin City University, O'Connell Bridge (for transfer to Luas Red Line Abbey Street), Mater (Hospital), Swords and Dublin Airport.

A 20-minute running time is projected from St Stephen's Green to the airport, with a further ten minutes to Swords. In response to public consultation, in 2007 it was decided to add a station at Parnell Square north of the city centre. To further encourage use of public transport, park-and-ride sites where road corridors intersect with metro lines are an integral part of the plan.

Metro West's crescent route around the western edge of the city will offset obstacles created by Dublin's largely radial pattern of routes for those who do not otherwise need to travel via the centre.

Designed to allow for longer-term upgrade to resemble Metro North, it will be approximately 24km (14.9 miles) long, with around 20 stops that are expected to resemble those of the Luas lines. Again the RPA envisages park and ride sites by busy commuter roads such as the N2 (Ashbourne) at Huntstown, N3 (Navan) at Blanchardstown and N4 (Lucan) at Liffey Valley.

The long-term vision is evident with Metro West's future proposed stop – contrasting with 'initial proposed' stops as at the opening – Harristown being sited to serve a possible future third airport terminal (the other two are on the north side of the airport). Similarly, Belgard stop will enable transfer to the proposed Luas Red Line A1 Citywest extension near Tallaght. With peak time 4min headways and promising end-to end journeys from Tallaght to Dublin Airport in under an hour, projected ridership is 20 million per year.

Rolling stock

The RPA identifies the nature of Metro North as faster and with higher capacity than Luas, referring to existing systems in Porto and Köln, although some artist impressions are based on Rotterdam. Metro West rolling stock is likely to be more of a light rail/tram nature.

Both lines will feature high-density vehicle types to cope with the large volumes of passengers expected, and cater for disabled access. Services are expected at 4–5min intervals, with the capacity to increase frequency as passenger numbers grow. Plans have been published for a Metro North depot beyond the Lissenhall terminus. Metro West will need one depot, with Abbotstown and Silloge cited as possible locations.

Signalling and communications

With the projects at the planning stage, the signalling system has not yet been chosen. However, with trains running at 4min intervals – and less in the future – some form of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) may be required for the metro lines in connection with a signalling system. In addition, public address, and platform displays will be installed to keep passengers informed of train movements.

The future

The originally projected 2012 and 2014 openings of Metro North and West respectively represented another big step towards decreased reliance upon a road system clearly unable to cope in terms of volume, speed or controlling pollution. This move towards a more comprehensive urban transit system will be further promoted by the Integrated Ticketing System and the Dublin Interconnector line projects.

The RPA confirmed four qualified bidding groups for the Metro North Public Private Partnership who will design, build, fund, maintain and operate the line over a 35-year period. These include representatives of Irish and overseas companies drawn from the fields of infrastructure, operations and rolling stock.

The would-be suppliers (operators in brackets) are Cathró/Siemens (Veolia), Celtic Metro Group/CAF (MTR), Dublin Express Link/Alstom (Keolis) and MetroExpress/Bombardier (Transdev/RATP).

The RPA is expected to make an application with the required Environmental Impact Statement for a Railway Order, which it would expect to receive in 2009. Budget cuts required by the Irish Finance Minister for 2009 may cause delay for the Metro and Dublin's other urban rail projects. The government has already intimated that some RPA Transport 21 targets may have to move beyond their original timeframe. Metro West is considered to be more at risk than Metro North in the event of project amendments.