Ryanair calls For scrapping of airport metro as port tunnel costs €800m – a 50% overrun
28-Mar-2011 Ryanair today (28th Mar) called on the new Fine Gael/Labour Government to demonstrate its commitment to ‘change and reform’, by scrapping the €5bn Dublin Airport Metro, which the airport doesn’t need, passengers won’t use, and which is another vanity infrastructure project of the failed Fianna Fáil Government, who blew the Port Tunnel budget by 50% to over €800m.
Ryanair believes that the Dublin Airport Metro was never justified on economic or cost benefit grounds. There is no demand from airport passengers for a Metro to Dublin when the airport is already well served by competing bus operators, the €800m Port Tunnel and the expensively upgraded M50 motorway. Equally passengers travelling to Dublin Airport for early morning flights will never use a Metro in Stephen's Green when it will be quicker and cheaper to drive to Dublin Airport and park there.
Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said:
"Today's latest cost overruns on the €800m Port Tunnel proves yet again that the previous Government and NRA were incapable of delivering infrastructure projects at a reasonable cost to the Irish taxpayer. At a time when Ireland is borrowing billions just to meet day-to-day expenditure, the new Government should signal its commitment to real 'change and reform' by scrapping the Airport Metro, a Fianna Fail vanity project, and saving hard pressed Irish taxpayers over €5bn in capital commitments. Given the record of previous public sector expenditure, this Metro will probably finish up costing €7bn or €8bn if it proceeds.
The €1.2bn white elephant T2, which is currently empty, proves yet again that the Department of Transport cannot be trusted to deliver infrastructure either efficiently or to meet users' needs."