Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal has said the announcement that ‘New Metro North’ has been chosen as the transport option to serve Swords and Dublin Airport is great news for the North County.
“I am delighted that ‘New Metro North’ has been chosen as the transport option to serve the transport needs of Swords, Dublin Airport, and the surrounding areas in the long-term. Out of all of the options available, Metro was the most sensible solution to sustainably serve the long-term needs of the Airport and Swords. Providing a rail link to Dublin Airport is of the utmost importance in terms of increasing tourism and promoting further investment in Swords and throughout Dublin Fingal.
“Finally we have certainty in relation to the future of public transport to serve the North County. The precursor to Metro North was first proposed by An Foras Forbartha in 1972. Having met with the Minister for Transport, Paschal Donohoe TD, numerous times in relation to the transport needs of Dublin Fingal, I continuously emphasised that a travel time of 35 minutes or less, and a capacity which would adequately cater for the increasing levels of demand as the North County continues to grow were of the utmost importance. I believe that ‘New Metro North’ will deliver this.
“Such a significant piece of transport infrastructure will involve a construction period of 5 to 6 years, commencing in 2021. ‘New Metro North’ will comprise of 14 stations between Swords and St. Stephen’s Green and will travel through a tunnel 8.5km in length, allowing residents in the North County to travel from Swords to O’Connell St. in 31 minutes and from Dublin Airport to O’Connell St. in 19 minutes. ‘New Metro North’ will have an initial capacity of 9,900 passengers per direction per hour and it will meet all capacity needs of Swords and Dublin Airport into the future.
“A Metro system had previously been put forward by the last government at a time when it was simply unaffordable; however, in contrast to this, the ‘New Metro North’ system announced by the Minister for Transport will be cheaper than the previous proposal, costing €2.4 billion, and will have funding allocated from the current capital plan in order to allow the development process to begin as soon as possible.”