Procurement Process For Dart Underground Begins

Date: 09 February 2010

PROCUREMENT PROCESS FOR DART UNDERGROUND BEGINS

EU JOURNAL NOTICE INFORMING INTERESTED PARTIES & INVITING MARKET SOUNDINGS

The procurement process for the DART Underground rail project has commenced with the publication today of a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) informing interested parties of the project and inviting market soundings from participants.

It is the first major phase in what is set to be a year of major significance in the development of DART Underground, with the application for a Railway Order also due to be lodged next month.

DART Underground will run underground through the heart of Dublin City Centre. The tunnel will be approximately 7.6 Km in length and will connect the Northern & Kildare rail lines, with underground stations at Docklands, Pearse, St. Stephen’s Green, Christchurch and Heuston as well as a new surface station at Inchicore. It will, for the first time, link all rail systems together into an integrated and cohesive network – DART, Commuter, Intercity, Luas and Metro.

With capacity for DART services to operate up to every 3 minutes, DART Underground will complete the transformation of the Greater Dublin Area’s rail service capacity from 33 million passenger journeys annually now to over 100 million passenger journeys. The project is a central part of the Government’s Transport 21 investment plan and will be the single most important piece of infrastructure in the state to ensure a modal shift from private to public transport.

Procurement – Periodic Indicative Notice

The DART Underground Project will be procured as a public private partnership (PPP), and the publication in the OJEU of the Periodic Indicative Notice (PIN) is the first stage of the competitive process to select a private partner for its delivery.

The PIN informs interested parties, such as potential contractors, of the proposed scope and duration of the PPP contract. It also states that DART Underground intends to publish a Contract Notice in the Official Journal of the EU in the second quarter of 2010, which will set out a process to pre-qualify potential private partners who will be invited to tender and negotiate for award of the PPP contract through a competitive process.

Under the PPP contract the successful private partner will be responsible for the design, construction, financing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the tunnel, stations and associated facilities over the period of the PPP contract. At this stage, the contract is envisaged to last for between 25 and 35 years, including the design and construction stages. In return the private partner will receive an annual availability and performance based payment.

Iarnród Éireann will at all times retain responsibility for the operation of DART services through the tunnel, which will be handed back to Iarnród Éireann at the end of the concession period.

The PIN also alerts interested parties, principally potential contractors, to Iarnród Éireann’s market sounding exercise. Interested parties who register their interest will receive the DART Underground Market Consultation brochure, which includes a questionnaire and invites views on the scope and procurement of the contract. Replies are due by 4 March 2010.

In the interim Iarnród Éireann has prepared a reference design to support its application for a Railway Order at the end of March 2010. By addressing regulatory and planning issues early in the procurement process, Iarnród Éireann expects to provide greater certainty to its stakeholders, bidders and funders as to safety, cost and the potential to attract significant private finance.

DART Underground

DART Underground will facilitate two high capacity DART lines, proposed as Drogheda/Howth to Hazelhatch and Maynooth to Greystones. DART trains on the Northern line will by-pass Connolly Station, enter the tunnel at Docklands and continue on to underground stations at Pearse, St. Stephen’s Green, Christchurch and Heuston. Trains will emerge from the tunnel past Heuston Station at Inchicore, enabling future DART services onward to all stations to Hazelhatch in Co. Kildare. This in turn frees up Connolly Station and facilitates a new high frequency DART line with greatly increased capacity from Maynooth through Connolly and all the way to Greystones.

It provides the missing link that that will connect all rail services together into an integrated and cohesive network – DART, Commuter, Intercity, Luas and Metro:

· Docklands Station with the expanded Luas Red Line

· Pearse Station will become a central transport hub as both DART lines interchange there, opening up a web of new rail connections. Pearse will also link with outer Commuter services.

· St. Stephen’s Green will have convenient access to the Luas Green Line and the proposed Metro North to the Airport and Swords.

· Christchurch with future Luas City Centre-Lucan line.

· Heuston Station links to Intercity services from the South and the West, outer Commuter trains and the Luas Red Line.

Trains will emerge from the tunnel at Inchicore, where there will be a new surface DART station to benefit the local community.

It is set to be developed with a capacity for up to 20 trains each direction per hour, allowing up to 64,000 commuters to use the line hourly.

Two tunnels, each containing a single track, will be excavated using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM’s). The tunnel entrances will be on Iarnród Éireann land at Inchicore and in the Docklands, and the average depth of the tunnel is estimated at 24 metres, over 80 feet, below ground level. There is potential for more than 75% of the spoil to be removed by rail.

The Docklands to Inchicore DART Underground line will deliver:

- a second high capacity DART line through the heart of the city centre

- dramatically increased frequency and capacity for services on the Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines – the three fastest growing population corridors in the country – and relieving the current congestion at Connolly Station.

- a fully integrated rail network for the Greater Dublin area, linking all modes and ensuring that suburb to suburb as well as suburb to city centre journeys can be made by a frequent, high capacity public transport network

- two high capacity DART lines proposed as Drogheda/Howth to Hazelhatch and Maynooth to Greystones, with DART extensions to some routes likely to be delivered in advance of DART Underground

- a critical piece of urban, regional and national infrastructure

- between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs directly in each year of the construction phase, with many thousands more jobs indirectly

Further information is available on Irish Rail’s website at;

http://http://www.irishrail.ie/dartunderground