Ireland Advances Landmark Dublin MetroLink Megaproject to Formal Procurement Tender Following Railway Order Approval

A Historic Leap Forward for Irish Mass Rapid Transit

DUBLIN, Ireland — Marking the most consequential milestone in the modern history of Irish transport infrastructure, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) have officially advanced the multi-billion-euro Dublin MetroLink megaproject to the formal market procurement tender stage. Supported by the Irish Government’s €24.3 billion Sectoral Investment Plan for Transport, the formal tendering phase follows the legal enactment of the Railway Order granted by An Bord Pleanála, authorizing full property acquisition and enabling works across the alignment.

Dublin MetroLink is a transformative 18.8-kilometre high-capacity rapid rail line that will, for the first time in Irish history, connect Swords in north County Dublin and Dublin Airport directly through Ballymun, Glasnevin, and the Mater Hospital into the heart of Dublin City Centre at O’Connell Street, Tara Street, and Charlemont.

Fully Automated Driverless Technology and Underground Engineering

Designed to operate under Grade of Automation 4 (GoA4) standards, MetroLink will introduce fully automated, driverless electric trainsets capable of achieving operational speeds up to 90 km/h with peak headways of just 90 seconds. Over 12 kilometres of the 18.8-kilometre route will run entirely underground in single-bore twin-track tunnels excavated by high-tech Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) deep beneath Dublin's dense historic urban fabric.

All 16 modern stations—including 11 newly engineered underground terminals—will feature full-height automated platform screen doors (PSDs), barrier-free step-free boarding, high-speed elevators, and integrated smart ticketing gates. The journey time from Dublin Airport to central Dublin will be slashed to less than 20 minutes, offering a lightning-fast, traffic-free alternative for millions of international air travelers and regional commuters.

Seamless Multi-Modal Integration Across Dublin’s Transport Grid

MetroLink is engineered as the central spinal cord of Dublin's interconnected public transport ecosystem. Strategic interchange hubs will enable seamless transfers between MetroLink, the heavy-rail Iarnród Éireann / DART network at Glasnevin and Tara Street, the Luas Green and Red light rail lines at Charlemont and O'Connell Street, and dozens of high-frequency BusConnects radial corridors.

To oversee the complex delivery phase, TII has appointed an AECOM-Jacobs engineering joint venture as Program Delivery Partner, managing specialized contracts for civil tunneling, rolling stock procurement, computerized Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signaling, and depot maintenance facilities north of Dublin Airport.

Decarbonizing the Greater Dublin Area and Powering Regional Growth

Irish transport ministers and Dublin civic leaders emphasized that MetroLink is indispensable to fulfilling Ireland’s legally binding Climate Action Plan, which mandates significant greenhouse gas reductions across the transport sector by 2030. Projected to carry up to 50 million passenger journeys annually, the electrified metro line will remove tens of thousands of private automobile journeys from the heavily congested M1 and M50 motorway corridors daily.

Furthermore, MetroLink serves as a major engine of transit-oriented economic vitality, unlocking the sustainable construction of tens of thousands of high-density homes, retail hubs, and research clusters along the Swords and Ballymun corridors, securing Dublin's stature as a dynamic, green European capital.