Old transport plans 'rehashed'

The Government's new €34.4bn transport plan is visionary, but the public won't be holding its breath, given the number of such projects that have failed to materialise. By Eoin Ó Murchú

The Government has robustly rejected Opposition claims that the €34.4bn transport plan, unveiled in Dublin Castle on Tuesday (1 November), is a rehash of existing projects against a background of consistent failure to deliver projects on time and within budget.

Finance Minister, Brian Cowen, asserts that there has been a quick learning curve in recent years in relation to managing such projects, and that since 2001, for example, major road developments, such as the Monasterevin bypass and the near-completed Fermoy bypass have come in on time and within budget.

Recent experience shows, he says, that the Government can deliver because it is delivering. However, he conceded that some €10 billion of the total investment proposed was already agreed under the National Development Plan and current roads programme, but pointed out that the extra €24bn outlined this week was new, substantial and raised the issue of transport development to a new level.

Transport Minister, Martin Cullen defended the inclusion of such already announced projects by claiming that this was an integrated plan, joining the dots between existing proposals and building a complete programme for transport infrastructure.

In this regard, the Minister was dismissive of criticisms that this, that or the other project was left out of the plan, arguing that he had had to decide priorities on the basis of the maximum economic benefit to the state, and boasted that the final plan was indeed a fully comprehensive one.

Transport 21 was launched with major fanfare in Dublin Castle with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Tánaiste, Mary Harney, in attendance. It inevitably drew comparisons with the launch of the health strategy in 2001, which had an equal amount of razzmatazz, but which, Labour transport spokesperson Róisín Shortall argued, had failed to materialise.

However, Brian Cowen responded again by saying that this was a necessary plan, to which the Government was committing visible investment, and he asked what alternative the Opposition proposed.

The plan envisages an extra 175 million public transport users and 75 million extra suburban rail passengers, thereby reducing considerably the need to use private cars. Trains from Dublin to Cork on the hour at peak time (and every two hours outside that) from Dublin to Limerick and Galway and increased services to Sligo, Ballina, Westport and Rosslare will provide a real inter-city alternative to driving to the capital, it was claimed.

Completion of current road projects, expected by 2010, would significantly cut journey times for those using roads.

New commuter train services from Athenry to Galway, and from Mallow and Midleton to Cork would, Martin Cullen claimed, substantially improve access to those employment centres for people living outside.

But development activists in the west are extremely disappointed that the Western rail corridor is only to be half provided. The idea of this project was that it would give a modern infrastructure to the west not oriented to Dublin and so allow independent economic development to help close the gap between the western and eastern halves of the country.

Thus the re-opening of the line between Ennis and Claremorris (due for completion in 2014) has been welcomed, but the completion of the line to Collooney and Sligo is not promised at all.

Euro MEP Marian Harkin called this a terrible missed opportunity. She claims there is €200m unspent from the National Development Planning which had been earmarked for transport infrastructure in the west and that this money should be used now to complete the Claremorris-Collooney part of the project and so make it whole.

She also wondered why the Atlantic road corridor, from Letterkenny to Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford was the only road project for which no completion date had been given.

But if there were criticisms in the west, Meath was more welcoming of the news to develop the rail line to Navan. This was a key demand in the recent by-election, particularly articulated by Sinn Féin's Joe Reilly, but it remains to be seen whether he gets any benefit from the Government's announcement or whether Fianna Fáil can now copper-fasten their two seats in Meath West.

The main investment plank, however, is once again Dublin. Congestion in the capital is a major political issue, and the Government hopes that its announcement of two Metro lines (from Tallaght to Swords via the airport, and from the city centre hub at St Stephen's Green to Swords and the airport) will catch the public imagination. Luas is to be significantly expanded: the two existing lines will be connected in the city centre, there will be extensions to the Docklands, to Liffey Junction, to Bray and to City West, and a new line from Lucan will be built.

Dart services and improved rail will be provided in the west of the city to Celbridge Hazelhatch and Maynooth.

This is, indeed, a visionary plan, and it is a strong part of the Government's case that it is necessary and that there is no alternative. It will be funded primarily from the public purse, and is therefore dependent on continued economic prosperity, but it is envisaged that some €8 billion or so will come from public private partnerships (PPPs).

The Government's problem, however, is that we have had numerous announcements of projects which have either failed to materialise or have ended up as much less than originally envisaged, and voters will probably hold their counsel on this one until they see the physical results.

But the plan is on the table. The job now is to deliver.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity