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MADRID Amey PLC and Bechtel Group Inc. have agreed to sell Tube Lines Ltd. for GBP310.2 million, Amey parent Grupo Ferrovial SA (FER.MC) said late Friday.

In a Spanish regulatory filing, Ferrovial said TLL, which is tasked with the maintenance of three London Underground lines, will be purchased by the U.K. state-owned Transport for London.

Company website: http://www.ferrovial.es

Boris the great freemarketeer has taken tube lines back in house to Transport for London in a clear indication that state is far better equiped to run urban transport projects.

EIB may give €500m to Dublin Metro project
Monday, 22 March 2010 15:07
The European Investment Bank has agreed in principle to contribute €500m to the Dublin Metro project.

The planned Metro would provide a 19km link from Dublin city centre, via the airport, to Swords in the north of the county.

The EIB said today that it sees the Metro as a key infrastructure project for the country. Its total cost is estimated at around €6 billion.

The funds are subject to full board approval, and a decision of the Government here to go ahead with the scheme.

The bank is also currently considering two other public-private partnership projects in Ireland, which would form part of a second western transport corridor between Cork, Limerick and Galway – the N17-N18 Gort to Tuam motorway link and the N11-N7 motorway.

Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank today reiterated its commitment to Ireland and said it would continue to support projects in the transport, energy and education sectors.

It also said it would reinforce support for small and medium sized businesses in close co-operation with local banks.

Funding of €1.02 billion for Ireland last year

The EIB last year provided €1.02 billion for six projects here – the largest ever amount secured by the country.

Funding for recent energy projects included €300m for the Eirgrid East West Interconnector and €200m for wind farms under the ESB’s renewables programme. €300m was also given to Dublin airport for its new terminal.

The EIB also gave a total of €260m to AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank for credit for small and medium sized enterprises during the year.

‘We are confident that industry, transport, social infrastructure, health and education will continue to benefit from EIB support in coming years,’the bank’s vice president Plutarchos Sakellaris said at the start of a visit to Ireland.

Mr Sakellaris met Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, the Governor the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey as well as officials from the Financial Regulatory Authority during his visit to Dublin.

EIB’s report written by DLA at page 253; an utter shambles.

That report was not written by the EIB it was written by DLA Piper a large law firm known for their decentralisation of work to regional offices versus being magic circle. They list Metro North as costing €700m whilst Lucan Luas was listed as costing €1bn; they must have talked to Marmajam to get their costings. The article posted above is from RTE and it begs the question why did the RPA not seek a retraction from RTE if it is so wide of the mark.

The €1bn pricetag for the Tuam Mororway is even more bizarre as Tuam in an urban sense has a population of less than 3,000 people.

More tough budgets needed – Sutherland
Sunday, 9 May 2010 23:17
Former EU Commissioner Peter Sutherland has said Ireland had successfully differentiated its economic situation from that of Greece, having shown a real intent to deal with the deficit.

Speaking on RTE’s This Week programme to be broadcast tonight, Mr Sutherland said the public finances will have to be continually reviewed over the next three years.

He said the Government will need to introduce even more difficult budget measures over the next three years in light of the Greek debt crisis.

However, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey said the Government does not plan to bring forward the budget but will continue to implement spending cuts.

You obviously didnt read the document which you provided the link to, hoping the rest of us wouldnt read it also. It says “The campus will be student-centred and resourced to meet the multiple needs of the Institute’s current student population of 20,500 students with the potential to accommodate a further 1,000 full time students when completed and a further potential increase of 30% in the decades ahead. ” So thats 21,500 when its built and potentially 28,000. It also says, regarding student accomodation, DIT seek “distinct identifiable groupings of 300-400 beds maximum for ease of management and a sense of community”. As a current student in DIT Bolton Street I can only think of 6 out of my class of 60 who can walk to college without getting public transport. Luas BXD will be needed when the new campus is built.

The current popluation is 20,500 of which half are most likely apprentices; that equates to 10,250 total full time students assuming usage of 40% and attendance of users of 60% the numbers would dwindle down very quickly as many will be in local accomodation, many more will cycle, others will get lifts from neighbours and family and others will take Luas to Smithfield rather than get off a train at Heuston and change at Abbey St; the campus is not in City West it is about 10-15 mins walk from Smithfield.

If metro and BXD were built, work on the section where they share the same alignment (Westmoreland Street and O’Connell Street) could be combined, meaning less distruption in city centre and less overall cost. These two projects make more sense then a double decker Interconnector and numerous Dart/Intercity/Suburban lines along the east cost which would create a mess that would have to be cleaned up in 10 years time, probably by a metro… Plus you would also have to built that Luas Ballymun line you were on about, and extend it to Finglas and Swords, which would be needed to connect all these Dart/Intercity/Suburban lines which is another couple of hundred million on top.

Nope the interconnector will increase capacity to 100m journeys as is; Luas to Fibglas from DCU would add 1km and Swords can be accessed from the Northern line along the proven Metro North route terminating at Estuary for a few hundred million. With grade seperation to Swords routing would in fact add capacity to the Northern line as Darts would no longer have to cross at Malahide.

There are no current plans to extend metro south but this could happen in the future. As skytalk informed me on another thread “The metro trains will ‘turnback’ at St Stephen’s Green by continuing on a tunnell loop under the park (they won’t terminate with the driver switching to the other end). This means that when MN is extended (and it certainly will be) it will be possible to insert the TBMs without very serious upheaval.”. Metro also provides for futuer expansion which is another advantage.

I believe metro is a much better option and will make Dublina better connected city at a lower long run cost.

Shytalk is deranged and has already been banned from this site once; if Phase 1 of Metro costs €6bn what would the wider network cost?

EIB may give €500m to Dublin Metro project
Monday, 22 March 2010 15:07
The European Investment Bank has agreed in principle to contribute €500m to the Dublin Metro project.

The planned Metro would provide a 19km link from Dublin city centre, via the airport, to Swords in the north of the county.

The EIB said today that it sees the Metro as a key infrastructure project for the country. Its total cost is estimated at around €6 billion.

The funds are subject to full board approval, and a decision of the Government here to go ahead with the scheme.

The bank is also currently considering two other public-private partnership projects in Ireland, which would form part of a second western transport corridor between Cork, Limerick and Galway – the N17-N18 Gort to Tuam motorway link and the N11-N7 motorway.

Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank today reiterated its commitment to Ireland and said it would continue to support projects in the transport, energy and education sectors.

It also said it would reinforce support for small and medium sized businesses in close co-operation with local banks.

Funding of €1.02 billion for Ireland last year

The EIB last year provided €1.02 billion for six projects here – the largest ever amount secured by the country.

Funding for recent energy projects included €300m for the Eirgrid East West Interconnector and €200m for wind farms under the ESB’s renewables programme. €300m was also given to Dublin airport for its new terminal.

The EIB also gave a total of €260m to AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank for credit for small and medium sized enterprises during the year.

‘We are confident that industry, transport, social infrastructure, health and education will continue to benefit from EIB support in coming years,’the bank’s vice president Plutarchos Sakellaris said at the start of a visit to Ireland.

Mr Sakellaris met Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, the Governor the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey as well as officials from the Financial Regulatory Authority during his visit to Dublin.

Its bedfellows such as a Motorway to Tuam and another Motorway from the N7 to the N11 accross the Wicklow Mountains show just how unneccesary this project is. The country is clearly not in a position to fund this; where in God’s name will the country get €5.5bn from to build one light railway? Bondmarkets would kill the NTMA

If I understand this correctly you had an arrangement with an engineer to submit a planning application based on plans that he was to prepare. Said engineer dropped off the face of the earth and is now demanding to be re-appointed to the project team.

First point would be clarifying if you did in fact formally instruct him; this would be in writing setting out the obligations of both sides; if not documented it would be more difficult for the engineer to prove that a formal instruction was in place however it may be worth contacting the institute of engineers for their views.

What you need going forward are the cad files on a disc so that you can transfer the plans you have in a format that can be adapted versus started again. I would hope that a local architect would read this and send you a personal message to extricate you from sounds like a brush with a very unprofessional consultant who regardless of the manner in which you contacted them should have contacted you as soon as the agreed planning submission date was missed. I would also ask the local planners if the consultant conducted any pre-planning meetings on your behalf.

That’s fairly irrevelant seeing as ho in 2009(the heart of the recession) passenger levels were just below 21 million.That’s a vast amount of people, most seeking access to Dublin city and environs.

The predictions for Metro North involved predictions of Dublin Airport passenger numbers being c25m p.a.x. this year on the basis of 8% yoy growth from 2005 and rising at 8% p.a. to 2020 to be close to 40m p.a.x. The reality is that passenger numbers at 3% growth will only hit 28.2m p.a.x. by 2020 applying a very generous 3% growth rate from the 2009 figures. Those missing passenger numbers would destroy the operational viability of the proposal in isolation.

Secondly to state that all passengers will seek access to Dublin City which is all the routing would serve is rubbish; Dublin is the only real International airport on the Island and draws the bulk of its passengers from the Midlands, West and North of the country. The vast majority of journeys will continue to be by car regardless if you built Metro North and or Monorails to Galway, Belfast and Bellmullet.

And about the stand alone project thing-Just because its trains are a different colour dosn’t make it a stand alone project.It connects with 2 proposed DART lines and 2 LUAS lines..Or in other words-THE ENTIRE DUBLIN RAIL NETWORK. Hardly stand alone.

The proposals for Metro West are gone and the prioposed extension to Tallaght via Terenure never made it past an article written by Frank McDonald a number of years ago. This is clearly a stand alone line as there is one difference between Metro North and Dart which is fatal; they operate on different track gauges.

The IE proposal of a Dart spur to Dublin Airport would also interact with all the networks you have described but more critically would involve no change for passengers with heavy cases to either the Belfast line (assuming an additional stop were added at an existing station say the new station at Clongriffin) and to Heuston the main rail hub for the South and West of the Country.

You have never supplied costings referenced to one document. For funding cost guidance read the dow newswire below; if tier 1 Government costs are 5.50% which they are at present the costs for subordinate debt which this project would be would be well in excess of that figure.

AT A GLANCE: Europe Bank, Insurer Exposure To Weak Economies

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

THE EVENT: European financial stocks have been hit by mounting worries over their exposure to weak economies in the region since ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt by one notch, reduced Greece to junk status and cut Portugal to A-minus.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have since agreed a three-year EUR110 billion loan package for Greece intended to help restore the country’s economy but has done little to assuage market concerns that debt problems could spread.

Below is a list of exposures declared by individual banks and insurance companies:

FRANCE:

*Credit Agricole (ACA.FR): Greek government bonds EUR850 million, of which its Emporiki Bank of Greece (TEMP.AT) unit accounts for EUR600 million. Greece commercial commitments EUR2.4 billion, mainly secured lending against ships and trading transactions. Greek interbank risk EUR180 million. Holds minority stakes in Banco Espirito Santo (BES.LB) of Portugal and Bankinter (BKT.MC) of Spain.

*Societe Generale (GLE.FR): Greek state exposure of EUR3 billion at end-April. Overall exposure to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain around EUR13 billion. SocGen owns a majority stake in Greek bank Geniki.

*BNP Paribas (BNP.FR): Exposure to Greek sovereign debt around EUR5 billion, commercial sector exposure around EUR3 billion, mainly in the shipping sector with loans secured by assets.

*Natixis (KN.FR): Greek exposure at end-April EUR882 million. Greek sovereign debt EUR160 million. Commercial exposure EUR618 million, mainly international shipping sector companies, project finance. Greek bank exposure EUR104 million.

*BPCE: Greek exposure at end-April EUR2.1 billion, includes EUR1.4 billion sovereign debt.

*AXA (AXA): At end March, government bond exposure EUR5.2 billion for Italy, EUR3.8 billion for Spain, EUR800 million for Portugal, EUR500 million for Greece and EUR400 million for Ireland.

*CNP Assurances (CNP.FR): Net of policyholder participation and tax, Greece EUR113 million, Portugal EUR154 million, Spain EUR241 million, Ireland EUR103 million, Italy EUR438 million.

GERMANY:

*Deutsche Bank (DB): Greece very limited, no comment on others.

*Deutsche Postbank AG (DPB.XE): Greece EUR1.3 billion. Portugal EUR50 million, Spain EUR1.2 billion, Ireland EUR350 million, Italy EUR4.7 billion.

*Commerzbank (CBK.XE): Greece EUR3.1 billion, total of EUR26.5 billion public finance exposure to Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

*Munich Re AG (MUV2.XE): Greece EUR2.1 billion, Portugal EUR800 million, Spain EUR2.1 billion, Italy EUR5.1 billion.

*Hannover Re (HNR1.XE): Greek exposure EUR35 million.

*Allianz (ALV.XE): Greece EUR900 million, Portugal EUR500 million, Spain EUR1.8 billion, Italy EUR7.6 billion.

*Hypo Real Estate: Greece EUR7.9 billion, Portugal EUR1.7 billion, Spain EUR2.7 billion, Italy EUR26.5 billion.

Metro North is a stand alone route; there are no live plans to extend it as you well know.

This white elephant is dead; the economy will survive precisely because projects like this are being shelved.

@Pete wrote:

Building a Luas out to Ballymun would be very expensive becuase it would require digging up the main roads from the city centre to anywhere north, Dorset Street, Drumcondra Road and Ballymun Road. I cant imagine how a traffic management plan would work if you were to do this. I agree the metro would be many times more expensive but at least much of the traffic distruption would be avoided. I live in Drumcondra and this Luas would be of huge benefit to me but I dont think it would get enough passengers if it didnt carry people to and from the airport.

The costings would be similar to the Red line and there would be an element of prioritising Luas over road users as is the case on a section of James’ Street.Pressure is now off Dorset Street as the main freight route for M1, N2 since the port tunnel opened the space exists for bus lanes so the space exists for a shared Luas/Bus lane. Cars could suffer but journey times would be cut dramatically from Ballymun, Glasnevin and Drumcoundra.

@Pete wrote:

Apart from serving Ballymun and DCU, this luas would not be of any real benefit as Drumcondra is close enough to city centre and buses are sufficient. But as you say, DIT does not warrent a luas, then neither does DCU which has less students. So your line only really serves Ballymun. At least the metro goes to the airport, where 20.9 million passengers passed through in 2009, with that number going to increase when the new terminal, capable of handling 15 million passengers, is open. Most of these would use the metro if it was built and it would also attract more tourists to Dublin.

Tourists are not attracted to cities because of their airport terminals or connections to the city centre from same. Congrats to the DAA on terminal 2 and the improved management of terminal 1 of late but they have so much spare capacity that its only rational use is to try to encourage a major US carrier to code share with Aer Lingus developing a trans- Atlantic hub. Very few of those passengers will visit the City Centre. Dublin Airport will be a pleasure to use for many years to come because Ireland bound passenger numbers will at best grow very slowly from the current level which has declined 12.6% on the previous year; this trend could persist as clearly much of the travel in the previous years was based on a booming consumer credit market which will continue to tighten at least into the medium term.

@Pete wrote:

Just because the metro and BXD share the same alignment, very briefly, does not mean it is a waste of resources. They will bring people for different parts of the city into the city centre which is where most people want to go. If the metro is not built soon it will never be built. The metro will only be a white elephant if Dublin does not expand and develop but the only way this will happen is if the metro is not built.

If you were talking about New York or Paris that argument would be sustainable but one of Dublin’s major advantages is the compact nature of its City Centre. If you walk from Parnell Square to Baggot Street you have pretty much crossed the City Centre in less than half an hour.

@Pete wrote:

DIT has 22,000 students and over 1,100 staff, plus the Grangegorman campus will also have a HSE Primary Care Unit, do you really think all these people should just get the bus? The campus will gaurantee thousands of passengers each day on BXD, not to mention those travelling from Broombridge station to city centre and locals as well. BXD is a lot more viable than a luas to Ballymun. Both Oxford and Cambridge Universities have huge on campus accomodation which the limited Grangegorman site can not provide so most people will have to commute.

DIT has a student population of 20,500 and of these many are on part time and evening courses and even more are apprentices such as mechanics, sparks etc who are in a day a week at most. The vast bulk of DIT students live close to campus i.e. people in Cathal Brugha St will get a flat in Mountjoy Sq or those in Bolton Street will gravitiate towards Smithfield. The situation in Oxford and Cambridge is little different as it is mainly International students who use the limited on campus accomodation which is astronomically priced in comparison to the private rental sector. I have a feeling that NAMA will be looking at companies such as Unite the student housing specialisists as their loanbook is seriously overweight on D7.

@Pete wrote:

A spur to the airport would necessitate quad tracking to Malahide (very very expensive) and still overload this corridor. Under the Dublin Rail Plan this line from Spencer Dock to Malahide would have to accomodate three different train routes, Heuston to Airport DART, Kildare to Drogheda DART and the Northern commuter line trains. Also taking passengers from the airport to Malahide/Clontraff/Spencer Dock before eventually getting into St Stephens Green via Interconnector would take a long time. Of course that means the Interconnector would have to be built first which adds another €2billion to your proposal. Still think its cheaper?

IE costed this element as costing sub €500m; the rationale for Dart in 1984 was that the switch fom diesel to electric trains removed acceleration/deceleration time by 1 minute per station. When the outer commuter section is electrified that will allow shorter gap times between services. The current arrnagement where all Darts stop at all stations and all outer commuter trains skip all stations to Howth Junction this could be reviewed to all outer commuter trains serving say Harmonstown and Kilbarrick which would no longer be served by existing Dart routes; this would even up journey times by making existing Dart faster and outer commuter slower; outer commuters would not complain as they would have received the 1 minute per station improvement on all stations.

@Pete wrote:

Drumcondra does not need a luas and neither does Ballymun. The airport needs a metro and the fact that it passes through these places is a bonus. Grangegorman and Broombridge need a luas link and so does Finglas, although that will take a while… I still think BXD should be priority over projects like Lucan Luas which connects with nothing now that Interconnector has been put back. At least BXD links with Maynooth/Pace rail and goes through the city centre which is always agood thing (I’m sure there will be plenty of examples where it is not a good thing but anyway).

The airport needs a rail connection but Dublin does not need a line from Ballymun to the airport; how many bus services currently serve this route? Money is tight and spending in excess of €2bn to connect the airport via light rail simply does not deliver value for money. Interest bill alone €110m p.a.

Post Dublin Rail plan the interconnector will deliver an additional capacity of c 65 p.a.x. it can do so because it enhances 100 miles plus of existing track by connecting the western suburbs and removing crippling capacity constriants on the other three lines.

@shytalk wrote:

But extensions to Sandyford and other localities won’t cause any major issues.

Where would you extend it to? The highest density corridors south of the river are already served by Dart and Luas. Are you really proposing the route serving areas predominently comprising empty nest households via Terenure to Tallaght?

Jimg wrote an excellent post on the subject of the Luas line to Lucan

Experience elsewhere suggests that trams have a very valuable role in City Centres but are clearly not suited to longer journeys. Reconsider Luas again and ask the question would the existing scenario of Luas or the scenario below be better

Green Line Heavy Rail Cherrywood to Charlemont surface and Underground to Connolly via College Green.

Red Line Luas from the Point Depot to St James Hospital

Heavy Rail spur from existing rail line at Clondalkin to Tallaght

It is too late to retrofit the Green line as mass aprtment and retail development added since construction commenced has made it too important to take out of service for more than a couple of days at a time so all you can do is extend it.

Looking at Finglas the question is do you want a meandering Luas line to the City Centre via Broombridge or a more direct spur from a Luas Line serving Ballymun and connecting with heavy rail at Drumcoundra and connecting on to Stephens Green and Cherrywood. Realisitically neither the Finglas or Lucan routes will be built in the next 10 years wheras a Luas to Ballymun and Finglas could probably be delivered within 5 years as the savings from MN would be so significant and the extension costs to Finglas cost a fraction of the BXD routing.

To illustrate how flawed BXD is you need to realise that Broombridge is on a rail line; the NCR/Cabra Road is a high volume bus route and much of the proposed Luas Route travels through 3 bed semi land which will not deliver the ridership required. You mention the new DIT campus which seems mired but assuming it is built (it has my support) the Campus is less than 1 kilometer from Dorset Street where a Luas stop could be built on a shorter and more viable routing.

If I didn’t have an urgent appointment with the Central and Jubilee Lines I’d go through BXD’s crayonic properties in more detail. No doubt you will reply