Gavan Reilly: Navan’s not on track. And, at this rate, it’ll never be

Speaking of big projects: no doubt the majority of Chronicle readers would want the proposed rail link from Dublin to Navan to get built as soon as possible. It remains a disaster of suburban planning that so many people in Meath commute into the capital for work so regularly, and yet there is no passenger rail link to service the route.

There isn’t much good news on that front. A curious element of the latest Transport Investment Plan is that it seems to commit to so much spending, and yet seems destined to achieve less than had been guaranteed previously.

Here’s some context. Only last year, Eamon Ryan told the Dáil that the railway order (the planning permission) for the line could be offered by the year 2027, and the actual construction work would take three or four years. By that estimate, therefore, an operational trail line would be ready by 2031.

Right? Apparently not. The blueprint released last week, and seems to slip back again. The only commitment to the Navan line – in a document that outlines €24 billion in transport spending over just five years – is to bring the project to ‘railway order’ level.

So where the previous minister was promising a working line early in the next decade, the current one is now promising merely to get planning permission, and not necessarily ringfence any money to build the line itself.

There’s money to build the stations along the line – which is welcome, and hopefully an affirmation of commitments to come – but not to build the line itself.

No doubt the estimates for building the line are now much higher than they were. That’s the nature of construction. But the same will be true in future: the cheapest time to build the thing is now. It’s only ever going to get dearer.

And imagine if the railway order, whenever it comes, is subject to a judicial review…