LUAS completion date pushed back until 2004

The deadline for completion of Dublin's LUAS railway has been pushed back from this autumn until the summer of 2004 at the earliest, it was announced today.

The line from Sandyford to the city centre will not be completed until March next year, with passenger services beginning in June. It was originally supposed to be operational by October this year.

And the Tallaght line, which was due to be completed in December, will not now be carrying passengers until August of 2004.

The cost of building the two routes has also risen to €691 million from estimates in February last year of €675 million. This extra expenditure was attributed to work on the LUAS facilities at Connolly Station.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, made the announcement as he attended the first trial run of the tram along the line from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green. He rode in a 40-metre tram on a specially-designated section of track at the Sandyford depot.

The tram will have a capacity of over 300 passengers. The last trams to serve the capital ceased running in 1959.

He also announced he was introducing stringent new cost controls for major infrastructural projects.

Mr Brennan said he had ordered monthly progress reports on projects that involved significant funding by his department. These will published to ally public concerns at over-runs in the cost of major projects, he said.

"Considering the billions of euro that will be invested in major infrastructure projects over the next few years, it is absolutely critical that we now get fully on top of the budgets, timing and delivery of these projects," he said.

Projects for which the reports have been ordered include the LUAS, the Dublin Port Tunnel and several roads, including the M50 South Eastern Motorway, the M1 Northern Motorway and the M7 Kildare by-pass.