The joint venture will develop the project from the concept through to the Railway Order stage, providing multi-disciplinary consultancy services, including project management, preliminary design, and preparation for the Railway Order.
The Kildare Line upgrade includes track quadrupling from Park West to Heuston and associated structural works to bridges; electrification and resignalling from Hazelhatch to Heuston and through the Phoenix Park Tunnel to Glasnevin; and realignment works to accommodate the segregation of Dart and IE inter-city services.
The European Commission (EC) awarded Ireland a €8.8m grant to fund the design phase of the Kildare Line upgrade through its Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in February.
The project is part of the €2.6bn Dart Expansion Programme, which aims to increase train frequency to five minutes from 10 minutes and capacity by operating eight-car trains. The project involves electrification from Drogheda, Maynooth and Celbridge to Dublin city centre as well as upgraded signalling systems, which will help to double capacity from 26,000 passengers per hour per direction to 52,000 by 2027-2028, with capacity to increase to 70,000 subject to further fleet procurement.
