Action group report says Luas is `substantially on schedule'

Dublin's Luas light rail project is substantially on schedule, although there has been "some slippage" on the proposed underground section in the city centre, according to the first report of the Light Rail Advisory Action Group.

The seven-member group, set up last November by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has recommended against procuring the £400 million-plus project by means of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) as this would mean more delay.

Given Dublin's worsening traffic congestion, the group is also examining the possibility of introducing "interim services" on sections of the Luas network as they are completed. Alsthom, the French company, is due to start delivering the trams in October 2001.

The group, chaired by Mr Padraic White, former managing director of the IDA, has a mandate to "assist in keeping up the momentum so that Dublin will have a light rail network within as short a time-scale as possible", as the Minister put it.

Its first progress report, published yesterday, notes that the introduction of a light rail transit (LRT) system was originally proposed in 1994 in the Dublin Transportation Initiative's final report and that this was followed by four years of public consultation.

Against this background, culminating in the Government's decision in May 1998 to put part of it underground, Mr White said it was little wonder there was widespread scepticism about Luas. However, he said, the good news was that the project was on schedule. Work would start on the Tallaght-Middle Abbey Street line in October, underlining the transition from planning to implementation, and it would be open by February 2003.

Judge Sean O'Leary's report on the public inquiry into Line B, from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green, had been sent to the Minister, and her decision was imminent, Mr White said. Work could start on this line even earlier than the autumn 2000 target in the indicative timetable.

Preliminary public consultation on Line C, from Middle Abbey Street to Connolly Station, is progressing. It is expected that the application to the Minister for an light rail order will be made at the beginning of September, also in accordance with the Government's timetable.

The action group's report notes that public consultation on the surface section from Broadstone to Dublin Airport is continuing. However, there has been "some slippage" on the timetable for completion of consultancy studies on the underground section in the city centre.

W.S. Atkins, the British consultancy firm which recommended against running Luas undergound, has - somewhat ironically - been selected as the consultant for the detailed underground study for the St Stephen's Green to Broadstone alignment.

A detailed site investigation and test borehole drilling programme by geotechnical consultants are to start soon, with December as the scheduled completion date. This would be two months later than the target in the indicative timetable for delivery of the results.

Following a consultancy report by Arthur Andersen and Steer Da vies Gleave on the feasibility of a PPP approach to funding Luas, the action group concluded this could entail a risk of delay due to the need for new legislation and procedures that have to be developed.

Mr White said future reports at six-month intervals would "chart the progress of the LRT network".