Cullen signals Luas extension support

Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has said he would approve a public inquiry into a Cherrywood extension of Luas "within seconds" of it being placed in front of him.

Mr Cullen, who will cut a cake at a first birthday party for Luas in St Stephen's Green this morning, said he was "well disposed" towards the Cherrywood extension - an indication that the line is very likely to be included in the imminent 10-year strategic transport plan.

However, The Irish Times has established that the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) is not yet ready to apply for a railway order as a significant number of private developers who are required to fund the public-private partnership are still not signed up.

Under the funding arrangement about half the total cost of the 7km extension would be provided by developers who own sites within one kilometre of the line.

With a cost of up to €200 million, the property developers' contribution could be €100 million.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which is collecting the developers' contributions in the form of special development levies, was this week unable to say how much money was committed to the project.

Last October the amount collected was just €20 million.

Yesterday the RPA confirmed that a number of contracts with individual property developers had yet to be agreed. While the RPA said it was hopeful it would be in a position to make an application for a railway order in the near future, it could not put a specific timetable in place.

However a spokesman for the RPA said while an application was not imminent, "things are going very well, and we are very hopeful that it would be made before the end of the year. A lot of work has been done."

Should the application be lodged by the end of the year, it would still be possible to build the line by 2008, a revised deadline mentioned by the RPA last year.

Route selection for the line has already been completed. However, this would have to be confirmed by the public inquiry.