Speech by Noel Dempsey, T.D., Minister for Transport, Announcement of Route Alignment for Metro West

Date: 05 July 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Government investment framework, Transport 21, is designed to give Ireland a world-class transport infrastructure. Our goal with Transport 21 is to make sure that Ireland is successful not just today but also in the years ahead. I am pleased to be here today to announce another significant step towards this goal - the route alignment for Metro West.

Metro West will be a modern, attractive and highly accessible mass transit system for the commuters of Dublin. It will be similar in concept to urban transit systems in many European cities of similar size to Dublin.

Metro West will run every few minutes from early in the morning to late in the evening. The service is likely to commence at a peak frequency of around one tram every four to five minutes and increase as demand builds up.

The intense growth in housing and other development in west Dublin in the last decades has resulted in large demand for travel to, from and within the area. Metro West has been designed to offer attractive journey times and a high quality public transport alternative to the M50 for the increasing number of people travelling along the orbital corridor between Tallaght and the Airport and for those commuting across the M50.

One of the most important aspects of Metro West will be the step change in the level of connectivity that it will introduce to the transport system. As an orbital system, it will provide a high level of integration connectivity between the existing and future radial transport links into the city centre. It will link the Tallaght Luas line, the Kildare and Maynooth rail lines, the proposed Lucan Luas, Metro North and many bus routes. Because of this high level of integration, it will open up a huge number of additional travel possibilities with minimal interchange for the commuters of West Dublin and for people from many regions of the country to the city and airport.

Metro West can also be a catalyst for urban and suburban regeneration similar to the experience on Luas. Investment will be attracted into the areas served by Metro West and the potential will open for the development of new commercial and service facilities.

The provision of Park and Ride sites will be considered in more detail during the design phase, but the intention is to provide Park and Ride facilities at key points, particularly where the route meets major roads such as the Huntstown Stop, linking with the N2 to Ashbourne, the Blanchardstown Stop, for the N3 to Navan and the Liffey Valley Stop linking with N4 to Lucan. This should encourage car drivers from beyond its immediate catchment area to transfer to Metro, removing considerable volumes of car journeys from the road network each year.

It will reduce travel times and congestion and improve the reliability, availability and quality of public transport. Metro also offers state-of-the-art audio and visual passenger information systems, providing a more accessible mode of transport for people with impaired mobility.

Preliminary forecasts suggest that Metro West will carry up to 20 million passengers per year. Up to half of these are forecast to come from cars. Fewer car journeys will contribute to fewer accidents on the road, improve the air quality in Dublin and contribute to meeting our greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

Construction of Metro West is due to be complete in 2014, subject to the successful obtaining of a Railway Order. It is estimated that the construction of Metro West will take four to five years.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chairman, the Board, the Chief Executive and staff of the RPA for their work on and dedication to delivering Transport 21 Luas and Metro projects to date. Huge progress has been made to date Work has started on the Cherrywood and Docklands extensions, the route for Metro North is selected and extended trams are in operation on the Tallaght. Today is another important step in the onward progress of Transport 21.

ENDS