CIE has made a submission to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, outlining a variety of public transport projects which could be funded from the £114 million in EU aid now lost to Dublin's Luas light rail system, The Irish Times has learned.
Fears have been expressed by Opposition politicians that much of the EU aid pledged for Luas would end up being diverted into road schemes. By submitting its latest list of projects, CIE is obviously seeking to ensure that it will be saved for public transport. It is understood that the projects include major upgrading of DART and other suburban rail services in the capital as well as track and signalling renewal on the mainline rail network. The total cost of the investment proposed by CIE is in the region of £230 million.
Planning and design work on the extended Luas light rail network approved by the Government - including a tunnel in the city centre and extensions to Connolly Station, Finglas, Ballymun and Cabinteely - is estimated at £34 million over the next two years.
CIE is also believed to be seeking a further eight two-carriage DART sets, in addition to the 10 already ordered, at a cost of £24 million. These would relieve peak-period congestion on a service which has seen a 75 per cent increase in passengers since it started in 1984.
The package is also understood to include proposals to upgrade the Western Suburban line, serving Maynooth and Mullingar, as well as the Northern Suburban line, which runs as far as Dundalk. Some 20 new Arrow-type railcars would cost around £20 million.
Installing a double track at least as far as Maynooth and upgrading the antiquated signalling along the line to provide a faster, more frequent service also forms part of the package, with a price tag of £11 million. At present, there is only a single track beyond Clonsilla.
Another major element in CIE's proposals is believed to be a £20 million investment in upgrading the track and signalling at Heuston Station. Its defective status has been highlighted in a still-unpublished consultancy report by Arthur D. Little on the safety of the railways.
Other projects proposed include an allocation of £8.5 million to Dublin Bus for the acquisition of 50 extra buses to augment the fleet which will be serving a proposed network of 11 quality bus corridors between the main suburban areas and the city centre.
This falls short of CIE's target for Dublin Bus, under which it would be permitted to buy 150 new double-deck buses and expand its garage facilities at a cost of £27.5 million, as well as getting an annual subsidy of £9 million (currently, it receives none).
Figures show that over a quarter of the company's fleet of 900 buses is more than 12 years old - the average age of the entire fleet being eight years.
