DURING the first quarter of this year, Irish Rail (IÉ) is due to begin tendering for the €1.75bn Dart+ Programme, a major investment project which aims to triple the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (Dart) network from its current length of 50km to 150km.

This will involve electrifying at 1.5kV dc diesel-operated commuter routes to the west and southwest of the city, extending the current Dart route at its northern end from Malahide to Drogheda, and carrying out capacity enhancements at its southern end between Bray and Greystones. Passenger capacity will be more than doubled on most lines, and for its expanding Dart network IÉ has so far ordered 185 EMU and BEMU cars from Alstom under a framework contract for up to 750, which it describes as the largest single investment ever made in a public transport fleet in Ireland.

This is “a hugely exciting time for rail in Ireland,” according to IÉ CEO, Mr Jim Meade. The national railway is expecting total passenger traffic to reach 50.5 million passenger-journeys this year, beating the previous record of 50.1 million set in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic, and then rise to 53 million in 2025.

To meet rising demand and help achieve its climate change targets, the Irish government has allocated €35bn to transport from the €165bn to be invested under the National Development Plan for 2021-2030. “For every euro spent on the roads, two euros are spent on public transport,” says Mr Gary O’Halloran, commercial and planning manager for Dart+ at IÉ. “These are not just concepts.”

To help deliver its ambitious investment programme, IÉ is turning to the supply industry beyond Ireland, conducting market consultation as it refines its procurement strategy through a series of roadshows held in Dublin, Madrid, Lisbon and London. A programme briefing held in London on November 13 2023, hosted by the Railway Industry Association (RIA), attracted over 130 attendees. The interest from potential suppliers in Britain was such that RIA was obliged to move the event to a larger venue.

Four route upgrades

Following the completion of tendering this year, work is due to start in January 2025 on the first phase of the programme, Dart+ West, which is expected to cost a total of €1.5bn.

As IÉ Dart+ programme manager, Mr Michael Finan, explained to the briefing in London, Dart+ West will involve electrifying the line from Dublin Connolly station to Maynooth, the branch from Clonsilla to M3 Parkway, and the section from Glasnevin to a new station at Spencer Dock that will replace IÉ’s Docklands station. Spencer Dock will have four tracks and two island platforms, and will provide interchange with Dublin’s Luas light rail network. An interchange between Dart+ West and the future MetroLink north-south automated metro is planned at Glasnevin.

A total of 40km of OHLE will be installed, requiring track to be lowered at 16 locations and six overbridges modified to provide sufficient clearance. Electrification work will also include building 12 traction supply substations. Six level crossings will be closed. A new EMU depot will be built on a greenfield site west of Maynooth, covering 56ha and featuring an eight-road maintenance building as well as 15 stabling tracks. “Its scale and size reflect its national importance,” Finan says.

The new train fleet that it will maintain and infrastructure work to support more frequent services should enable capacity on Dart+ West to be increased from six trains and 4500 passengers per hour per direction to 12 trains and 14000 passengers per hour per direction when the project is completed in December 2028.

Construction is due to start in April 2025 on the second phase of the project, Dart+ South West, which will involve 20km of electrification, including the 16km from Dublin Heuston station to Hazelhatch & Celbridge, and the line from Islandbridge Junction that runs under Phoenix Park to Glasnevin Junction on the Dart+ West line. Six new substations will be required, as well as widening a 4km section of the Dublin - Cork main line to four tracks and rebuilding five road overbridges. Slab track will be installed in Phoenix Park Tunnel and a new station is proposed at Heuston West on the line to Glasnevin. When completed in July 2029 at an estimated cost of €1bn, Dart+ South West will increase capacity to 23 trains and 20,000 passengers per hour per direction, up from 12 trains and 5000 passengers now.

“We need to develop a collaborative partnering ethos for the delivery of this project.”

Tom Carey, an advisory consultant from Ernst & Young

The project’s third phase, Dart+ Coastal North, will extend Dart services from Malahide to Drogheda, and involves electrification of 37km of the Dublin - Belfast main line and the construction of eight new substations. A new platform and station concourse will be built at Drogheda, where the existing DMU depot will be electrified. At Howth Junction & Donaghmede station, the layout will be modified to enable the Howth branch to be operated with a shuttle service. New turnback facilities will be provided at Malahide and Clongriffin.

Costing €600m, Dart+ Coastal North will increase capacity over the three-hour peak between Malahide and Drogheda from 11 to 24 trains and the number of passengers from 12,500 to 26,600. The new turnback facilities and other enhancements will enable capacity between Dublin Connolly and Howth Junction to be increased from 29 to 36 trains over the three-hour peak, and total passenger capacity from 34,100 to 41,000. Work is due to start in March 2026 for completion in December 2029.

The fourth and final phase of the Dart+ Programme is Dart+ Coastal South, which comprises an upgrade of the line between Dublin Connolly and Greystones, where new housing development is driving increased demand. Separately from the Dart+ Programme, contractor John Cradock has started main construction work on a new station at Woodbrook, between Bray and Shankill, which is expected to open in summer 2025. Funded by Ireland’s National Transport Authority, the station will be at the centre of a new residential area with up to 2300 homes.

Dart+ Coastal South is currently at a less advanced stage of development than the three other projects within the programme, and IÉ expects to apply for a Railway Order granting powers to undertake work in November 2025. The project aims to increase capacity between Dublin Connolly and Bray from six to up to 12 trains per hour per direction, raising the total number of passengers that can be carried from 7200 to 14,400 per hour per direction.

Between Bray and Greystones, the single track running along the coast through four tunnels will be partially doubled, including a 500m section between Rathdown and Greystones. This will require new retaining structures as well as upgrades to OHLE, signalling and telecommunications systems, and substations and switchgear. Upon completion, capacity will be increased from two to three Dart trains per hour per direction, and from 2400 to 3600 passengers per hour per direction.

Dart+ Coastal South also includes the construction of turnback facilities at Bray and Greystones, and the closure of seven level crossings in total between Dublin Connolly and Greystones. IÉ says that the construction of replacement pedestrian and cycle infrastructure at all locations, including a road, cycle and pedestrian underpass at Merrion Gates, will involve major civil and structural engineering work in an urban environment as well as utility diversion on a major scale.

Procurement strategy

“This is a pretty complex programme of work,” says Mr Tom Carey, an advisory consultant from Ernst & Young working on the Dart+ Programme, who highlights the large amount of work that will need to be undertaken on an operational railway. “We need to develop a collaborative partnering ethos for the delivery of this project.”

IÉ’s emerging preferred packaging strategy would see three framework contracts awarded for work across the Dart+ Programme, and two separate contracts for elements of Dart+ West. The programme-wide signalling, telecommunications and electrification framework contract has an approximate value of €750m, excluding risk, contingency and VAT, and comprises packages for the West (€300m), South West (€150m) and Coastal North (€300m) projects. IÉ is looking to appoint a contractor for the framework plus a reserve.

This framework will interface with two separate, national signalling contracts, including one to supply computer-based interlocking (CBI) to replace solid-state interlockings (SSI) that IÉ expects to award in the first or second quarter of this year. The second interface will be with Indra, which in 2020 was awarded a €32m contract to supply IÉ with a traffic management system (TMS) and the new National Train Control Centre (NTCC) at Dublin Heuston, also including maintenance over 15 years.

“Value for money does not mean the cheapest price. We need to get the right team at the right price.”

Gavin English, Dart+ procurement lead

The second programme-wide framework contract covers civil and structural work with a total value of €600m.

IÉ is looking to appoint three contractors here to undertake work on a design and build basis and under more traditional arrangements. Within this framework, civil and structural work will be divided into four packages, covering West (€165m), South West (€230m), Coastal North (€75m) and Coastal South (€135m). Other discrete packages of work may also be awarded. With an estimated total value of €150m, the final framework covers permanent way. IÉ is again looking to appoint a contractor plus a reserve to undertake work divided into three packages: West (€20m), South West (€120m) and Coastal North (€10m).

On Dart+ West, a separate contract worth €150m will be tendered to design and build the new rolling stock maintenance depot at Maynooth. IÉ has already begun the process of appointing a depot design consultant. Similarly, a €100m design and build contract will be awarded for the new station at Spencer Dock. In addition, a Dart+ Programme client delivery partner will also be appointed. “IÉ will need a significant amount of support on the client side,” Carey says.

For all disciplines, IÉ has selected as its preferred contract model NEC4 2017, which it says is an internationally-recognised, progressive and collaborative form of contract. For engineering and construction contracts, NEC4 2017 has six pricing options, which enable the client to select the most appropriate to provide them with the best certainty over project cost and value for money. These options are:

  • priced contract with activity schedule
  • priced contract with bill of quantities
  • target contract with activity schedule
  • target contract with bill of quantities
  • a cost-reimbursable contract; and
  • a management contract.

Dart+ procurement lead, Mr Gavin English, says that tendering would be conducted under a two-stage process, with bidders first invited to prequalify and then shortlisted to proceed to the invitation to tender (ITT) stage. All contracts will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender. “Value for money is a pillar of the IÉ procurement strategy,” English explains. “Value for money does not mean the cheapest price. We need to get the right team at the right price.” He adds that sustainability is also a key feature of the Dart+ Programme and will inform the criteria for both shortlisting bidders and awarding contracts.

Concluding the briefing in London, Dart+ programme management office and systems lead, Mr Hilton Sanders, pointed out that the significant programme of works that IÉ is preparing to undertake is backed by all national and regional strategic plans with both political support and financial commitment. Healthy bidding for the contracts that IÉ is preparing to tender would help ensure that public money is well spent. “Value for money is important to us,” he says. “We believe we can achieve this through strong competition.”