€30m Luas ramp outlay 'unnecessary'

At least €30 million being spent on the acquisition and demolition of a ramp at Dublin's Connolly Station to facilitate the light rail system, was unnecessary and could have been avoided, it has emerged.

Announcing the route options for the extension of the Luas service from Connolly Station to the Point Theatre yesterday, the chief executive of the Railway Procurement Agency, Mr Frank Allen, accepted that the acquisition of the ramp at Connolly Station, and its demolition, was unnecessary in the light of the overall scheme to the dockland.

Mr Allen refused to speculate on the final costs for the ramp which is still the subject of negotiations within the compulsory purchase system.

It is understood, however, that the owner, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, is holding out for the full commercial cost of land in the financial services sector, a sum believed to be in the region of €30 million. Additional costs will be incurred in excavating the ramp and installing a Luas terminus at Connolly, due for completion next year.

Yesterday, however, as the agency outlined its three options for the extension of the tram system, it emerged that two of the three options pass within yards of Connolly Station concourse and that it is proposed to site a tram stop adjacent to the rear entrance to the station.

Because the tram route into the ramp's "footprint" is a cul-de sac, a complex manoeuvre will now have to be made by trams serving Connolly Station.

Trams coming from Store Street will drive into position where the old ramp was, the driver will then alight and walk to the end of the tram, which will retrace its path out of the station before travelling the final 1.6 km to the dockland terminus.

Two of the options (A and B) involve the Luas line running alongside the station between Harbourmaster Place and the station concourse.

These two options also envisage a Luas stop outside the rear entrance to Connolly Station at Sheriff Street.

Either one could serve Connolly without recourse to buying the ramp.

The chairman of the Railway Procurement Agency, Mr Padraic White, yesterday said the acquisition and demolition of the ramp was part of the Tallaght to Connolly Light Rail Order and was already under way. It was a separate issue to what was now being planned, he said.

When asked to consider the Tallaght to Docklands scheme in its entirety, Mr Allen accepted that "with foresight" it would not have been necessary to acquire and demolish the ramp.

However, Mr Allen pointed out that the railway inspector's report into the Tallaght to Connolly Station line had specifically forbidden a terminus at Harbourmaster Place and had recommended a stop in the footprint of the ramp. But he accepted that the inspector had been looking at the Tallaght to Connolly line in isolation and had not been asked to consider the extension to the dockland.

Mr Allen said the acquisition of the ramp had been planned more than four years ago, before the extension to the dockland was realistically assessed.