The European Investment Bank (EIB) has decided to provide a loan of €150m to the Irish Government to construct a new connection between the Red and Green lines on Dublin’s LUAS light rail tram system.
The National Treasury Management Agency has borrowed the loan from EIB on behalf of the Irish Government.
The project will be implemented by the National Transport Authority and Railway Procurement Agency. The National Development Finance Agency is advising on certain aspects of the new LUAS link.
Built with a total project budget of €368m, the new LUAS link will connect the existing Green Line terminus at St Stephen’s Green to Broombridge Station, Dublin, Ireland.
Related
The investment will be used to build a new 5.6km link, additional stations and a new depot. The funding will also be used to purchase ten new trams.
Construction on the new link will include 13 new stations, with 53m long platforms. The new line is currently under construction and is expected to offer the first tram services by the end of 2017.
Irish Transport, Tourism and Sport Minister Leo Varadkar said: "Luas Cross City really transforms rail transport in the Greater Dublin area and makes all sorts of new journeys possible, like Maynooth to Dundrum or Sandyford to the O2.
"It will add up to ten million journeys a year, take around three million car journeys off the road, create 60 new jobs when up and running and support 800 jobs during construction."
Image: A LUAS tram stop. Photo: courtesy of William Murphy.
Related Companies
