Infrastructure giants ATM and Alstom are jointly bidding for the €1.75 billion contract to run Dublin’s Luas light rail network, the pair confirmed on Tuesday.
State agency Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is tendering for the contract, currently held by French group, Transdev, to operate, maintain and overhaul the Luas from next year.
Italy’s ATM Group – for Azienda Transporti Milanesi – and French-listed Alstom, said on Tuesday that they have formed a joint venture to bid for the contract, which TII values at €1.75 billion.
The new deal will run from late 2026 for an initial seven years with an option to renew from five to seven more years.
The work will involve operating the system, on which locals and visitors completed 54 million journeys in 2024, along with maintaining and overhauling it.
Its €1.75 billion price tag covers the cost of all those elements, including rolling stock overhauls, expensive work that must done every four years.
Alstom is already active in the Republic. It built the entire Luas fleet and is supplying battery electric trains for Dublin’s DART network.
The group, which employs 86,000 people across 63 countries, makes high-speed trains, metros, monorails, trams and signalling systems.
Owned by the Municipality of Milan, ATM has been running public transport systems in the Italian city for almost a century, operating trams and light rail. It also works in Copenhagen, Denmark and Thessaloniki, Greece.
The company recently won a contract to manage 18 bus lines in the Croix du Sud area in the south west of French capitol, Paris. ATM employs 11,000 people.
Paolo Marchetti, ATM’s business development director, predicted the joint venture would blend technical expertise with operational excellence.
Piers Wood, Alstom’s managing director for Ireland, said the venture was committed to reliability, sustainability and innovation.
The Luas is one of the Republic’s more successful public transport services, carrying more passengers than the nearest comparable system, in Manchester, England, which covers 103 KM versus the Dublin network’s 43 KM.
TII is waiting on a decision on the railway order, a planning permission request, to State body, An Bord Pleanála, to extend the Luas green line from Broombridge to Finglas.
That decision is likely in coming months. If it goes ahead, the green line would ultimately link Charlestown, Finglas, in the city’s northern suburbs, with Bride’s Glen on its southern edge.
