Irish Rail train control centre could run €57m over budget
Gordon Deegan
Irish Rail's National Train Control Centre (NTCC) project, which includes a new traffic management system, is now projected to come up to €57 million over budget.
The projected overspend on the controversial project has drawn the attention of public spending watchdog Seamus McCarthy in his report attached to the National Transport Authority’s 2025 annual financial statements.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, McCarthy, states that the original plan was that the whole project, including the new traffic management system and back-up facility, would be completed by March 2025, and the original project budget was €148 million.
Based on the NTA's current estimates, he says the forecast project cost is now expected to be in the range of €175 million to €205 million.
A note attached to the NTA accounts states that the projected increase primarily reflects delays and issues associated with the delivery of the traffic management system element, which has resulted in an extension of the delivery period for the system.
McCarthy states that a note attached to the NTA accounts discloses that expenditure on the project to end 2025 totalled €148.3 million, with a further €12.2 million committed for subsequent periods of account.
Earlier this year, the board of Irish Rail wrote down by €50 million the value of its investment in a new national train control centre and much of the impairment related to spending on the traffic management system.
McCarthy’s report comes seven years after the NTA in July 2019 approved Irish Rail’s plans to develop a National Train Control Centre (NTCC) to manage and regulate all train movements on the national rail network.
The project includes the construction of a new train control centre building at Heuston Station, the refurbishment of the existing central train control centre at Connolly Station, and the development of a new train traffic management system and back-up facility.
The centre at Heuston Station was completed in 2022.
Elsewhere in his report, McCarthy highlights that the NTA accounts disclose costs of €6.96 million incurred between 2022 and 2025 for storage and servicing of new electric buses not yet in use.
He said the deployment of the stored buses into the operational fleet was delayed due to a requirement to provide charging infrastructure.
The note points out that the electric bus fleet is procured under a competitively tendered multi-annual framework agreement. The price paid is based on the tendered price adjusted by an indexation factor.
It states that had the bus fleet purchase been delayed until the charger installation was complete, the purchase cost of the fleet would have been significantly higher due to inflation. It estimated that if the bus purchases were deferred by one year from their actual order placement dates, the additional purchase cost of the buses would be approximately €12 million.
The overall spend by the NTA in 2025 increased by 17 per cent to €2.56 billion.
The report states that the spend on Metrolink, including commitments, was €427.6 million as at December 31st, 2025, and the main expenditure items include design and tender documentation development, including legal and other services.
On Bus Connects Dublin, a note states that expenditure during 2025 was €90.6m, giving a total expenditure to date of €330.3 million.
