Another day, another infrastructure project ballooning in cost while the people footing the bill are stuck in traffic. The long-delayed Metrolink projec has now hit an estimated price tag of up to €23 billion, according to briefing documents given to Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien. That’s nearly triple the original estimate. And no, it’s not Google or Apple coughing up the cash. It’s us.
The reasons for the spiralling costs read like a greatest hits album of Irish public transport failures: endless delays, political dithering, a planning process so slow it makes dial-up internet look efficient, and, of course, construction costs that have shot up by over 30 percent since 2021. Back then, the Metrolink was projected to cost between €7 billion and €12.25 billion. But years of doing absolutely nothing mean we’re now staring down the barrel of a bill that’s just ridiculous.
The project was first floated back in 2002, back when the Nokia 3310 was cutting-edge technology. Since then, it has survived multiple governments, a financial crash, and at least one global pandemic, all without so much as a shovel hitting the ground. A planning decision was supposed to happen last year, but guess what? More delays. Transport Infrastructure Ireland added new documents, oral hearings were required, and now we’re looking at a start date sometime in the 2030s. If it even gets off the ground.
Meanwhile, senior officials are already flagging that there isn’t enough money in the 2026-2030 public transport budget to cover the cost. So, where’s it coming from? It won’t be the multinationals raking in billions while paying a fraction of their fair share in taxes. It’ll be us, again, watching another transport project disappear into the abyss while we squeeze onto overcrowded buses.
At this rate, we’ll get teleportation before we get a metro.
