Metrolink Line

In 2000, one of the centrepieces of the government's Platform For Change document was a metro line from Swords in the north down to Bray in the south of Dublin. Over the years, this project has been on the boil and off it numerous times. Due to its status as Ireland's first full metro line, its high cost has repeatedly caused the government, the public, and the press, to balk at the idea. It would be the single largest public transport project in the history of the state, with a multi-billion euro price tag.

In the Transport 21 (T21) plan, the line would start in the northern town of Swords, run south under the airport, then through the very middle of the city under O'Connell Street before terminating at St. Stephen's Green. Eventually, after 2015, this would be extended south using what is now Luas Green Line to get to the south of the city at Bray. This latter section would be created by upgrading the Green Line to metro standard.

Progress on building the Metro North line, as it is called, has been very slow. In 2000, the public was told that the line could be in service by 2006; by 2005, however, practically no progress had been made, as the government continued to dither. The same year, when T21 was published, the new opening date for the Metro was 2012. By 2007, with little progress made, this had slipped to 2013.

In September 2008, the railway order (planning permission) for the line was finally published. Permission took an exasperating 25 months to be granted and was not secured until October 2010. In 2013, enabling works (demolition of properties, cutting down trees, etc.) were to take place throughout 2011, starting in April, with tunnelling commencing in 2012. This meant that the expected opening date would not be until 2016.

However, the country's ongoing economic crisis saw all infrastructural works nationwide coming to a complete halt for many years. Finally, in October 2015, a new Capital Spending Plan was announced. A scaled-down Metro North would start construction in 2021 and open in 2026. So many changes were proposed that new planning permission would need to be sought. The main change was that the section from Glasnevin to south of the Airport would now be at street level instead of underground, and there would only be one station on O'Connell street instead of one under the bridge and another on Parnell Square.

Controversially, the city centre's St. Stephen's Green would have its entrance and surrounding area completely dug up to create a construction zone right next to the busy shopping precinct. This would entail having to cut down a number of venerable trees and dismantle, block by block, the park's imposing archway entrance. All this would be restored afterwards, with the exception of the old trees.

As design progressed, further changes were revealed. The project was renamed Metro Link. The line would no longer interface with heavy rail/DART at Drumcondra, but further west at a new DART station at Glasnevin. Since Maynooth and Hazelhatch services converge here, this is clearly a better choice. The station at O'Connell bridge was removed and replaced by one at the old Carlton Cinema site on Upper O'Connell Street West. The line would deviate east south of the Liffey to interface with Tara Street DART station. The line would continue south past Stephen's Green station to an underground station at Charlemont. At first, the routing was intended to encompass taking over the Luas Green Line as far as Sandyford, with this section upgraded to Metro.

In 2021, the southern section was dropped from the project and deferred to later. The details of this element are not yet worked out. This truncated the scheme to Charlemont, where passengers could transfer to the Luas Green Line to continue their journey south if desired. The timeline was greatly pushed out; it would not open now until well into the 2030s. In fact the Minister for Transport at the time described the 2027 opening date as "never achievable"!

Other changes have been made in the relaunched version of the scheme: the trains would be driverless, with platform screen doors. The system would not have ticket barriers, working on an honour system instead. Trains would be very frequent, eventually every 2 minutes at peak.

Metro Link has not had a colour assigned yet, but it has always appeared blue in maps and design documents.

Update 21/04/2021: The new line is now called Metrolink and will end at Charlemont, not Stephen's Green.
Planning permission for the line is expected to be requested by late summer.

Update 30/09/2022: Planning permission has been lodged 1 year late for the scheme. Officially a decision is due by 10th April 2023 but more likely to be December 2023.

Update 01/10/2023: Due to chronic delays and lack of capacity in the planning system, it is now indicated that a decision on the application will not be made until December 2024.

Update 01/08/2024: An Oral Hearing took place from 19th Feb to 27th March of this year. This summer, further information was released to the public for consultation. It is still expected a decision will be forthcoming by year end or early 2025.

Update 21/12/2024: The Metrolink project team have put out an end of 2024 update. It reiterates their desire to get the project ready for construction as quickly as possible. It provides an update on the submissions received on the latest round of public consultation. Here is a summary:

"As we approach the end of a busy 2024 for MetroLink, we are pleased to share an update on our programme’s progress. Under the leadership of our newly appointed Programme Director, Dr. Sean Sweeney, MetroLink continues to mobilise a team of industry experts to complement and bolster our current delivery team. Dr. Sweeney brings a wealth of experience and a strong vision for Ireland’s first-ever mega project, and his expertise will be instrumental in delivering this project.

MetroLink will be a game changer for the Irish people, a programme that will reshape public transport in Ireland.

This month (December) we responded to a second round of public consultations, with a total of 43 submissions received by An Bord Pleanála (ABP), a significant reduction from the 317 received during the first round. We will continue to update you on the progress of this process however, ultimately this is a matter for ABP and is outside of the programme's control.

Over the course of the past 12 months, TII has continued to enhance and grow the MetroLink delivery team, mobilising over 700 personnel who are now working exclusively on the preparation and delivery of the tender designs, the advanced and enabling works contracts and stakeholder engagement, amongst other related activities."

Update 06/04/2025: The Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien has reaffirmed total Government commitment to Metrolink, stating that it will be built even if there is a trade war - which could cause an economic recession. He states that it is expected that a planning decision will be received by October - the planning application has had numerous false dawns before, so it remains to be seen if this target will be met either. If it is, it will have taken 3 years and 2 months for the application to be decided, surely a new record and evidence that the system progresses excessively slowly.

Update 17/05/2025: The Sunday Business Post has interviewed Sean Sweeney, the New Zealand-born head of the Metrolink project. The article is behind a paywall and is titled MetroLink boss Sean Sweeney: 'Grievous impact from mega build will be worth it'. He is refreshingly honest about the project and it is not all good news:

[He] said the most recent 2021 cost estimates of €9.6bn will have risen due to construction inflation and that the 2035 deadline is likely to be missed. "Now since 2021 we have had well north of 20 per cent construction escalation. So do the math," Sweeney said.

Sweeney said the government will have to face down fierce public opposition to Dublin's MetroLink as it impacts on communities. "I deliver what I call 'nation-building projects', which make countries better. You leave the country better off. But that doesn't mean everyone is untouched. Some people get touched. Some people get grievously impacted. But the nation or the city is better off," Sweeney said. However, he said in his experience, public opposition to major projects like this disappears once they open, meaning political courage will be needed to get to that point.

"The thing that's concerning me the most at the moment is getting an adequate response from the international construction market. Because if we don't, we're dead in the water," he said. "Now, at the moment, the international construction market is not sure about this project. It's been cancelled once. The government looks like it's been treating this as a business-as-usual project, which it's not. So international firms look at that and ask are we going to spend money and effort chasing this or not?"

Wikipedia page on Metro

PICTURES OF METROLINK LINE: (none yet)