Cork could have Luas running within a decade, as cost more than doubles to €2.5bn

Cork could have its Luas within a decade, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has said, but the cost will now be closer to €2.5bn, having more than doubled in price since initial estimates.

Speaking last Friday at the launch of the preferred route for the Cork light rail system, Paolo Carbone, TII’s head of light rail projects, said that - “subject to funding and permission” - the first trains could run by 2036.

Mr Carbone said he was hoping ground would be broken on Luas Cork before the 100th anniversary of the last trams running in Cork on September 30, 1931.

“Public consultation on the preferred route will run until June 12, after that we will consider the feedback and refine the revised route, and it is envisaged that we will submit a railway order, which is our planning, in early 2028,” he said.

Allowing a year for An Coimisiún Pleanála to grant planning, he said the project would then go to tender, and construction should begin by 2031.

“Typically, a project of this scale takes five years to build, so I hope to welcome you all in 2036 on the first tram.”

 When the emerging preferred route (EPR) for Luas Cork was published last year, unofficial estimates put its likely cost at '€1bn-plus', but construction inflation has affected those figures adversely.

“Currently we are budgeting in the region of €90m to €120m per kilometre for light rail,” Mr Carbone said.

With the preferred route now running at just over 20km, that would mean Luas Cork might currently cost between €1.8bn and €2.5bn.

Heavy lifting

It is the first time anything approaching a definitive timeline has been offered for what Taoiseach Micheál Martin has predicted will be a “transformational project” for Cork.

However, one observer at the preferred route launch at 1 Lapps Quay yesterday suggested that the phrase “subject to funding and permission” was doing a lot of heavy lifting at a time of growing economic uncertainty.

Separately, Lorcan O’Connor, TII CEO, said Luas Cork will not be a 24-hour service, but rather will probably run from 6am to 1am each day.

“It’s unlikely to be a 24-hour service, as you need to be able to service the track, and that would be common to all rail services around the world,” he said.

With the latest round of non-statutory public consultation running until Friday June 12, Mr Carbone said he had one request of the people of Cork between now and then: “Engage, engage, engage.”