In Dublin, our team of designers and engineers are taking on a globally significant challenge: building a brand-new metro system from scratch. 

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Location

  • Dublin, Ireland

Client

  • Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), Turner & Townsend, O’Connor Sutton Cronin and Wilkinson Eyre

Project Status

  • Ongoing

Serving up to 53 million passengers a year, MetroLink will transform travel across the city. The system will connect to the airport and to rail, bus and tram services – creating a fully integrated public transport network. It will support the economy, help Ireland meet its climate change targets and make Dublin a more liveable and sustainable city.

 

Shaping Ireland’s largest-ever public transport project

MetroLink will consist of an 18.8km mainly underground route stretching from Swords to Charlemont, with 16 stations. Trains will run every three minutes during peak periods, with the potential to increase this to every 90-100 seconds by 2060. The fully automated, driverless system will be capable of carrying up to 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

WSP is a key member of a multidisciplinary partnership appointed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to deliver MetroLink, the largest-ever public transport project in Ireland. The partnership is led by Turner & Townsend, with WSP supported by O’Connor Sutton Cronin and Wilkinson Eyre. We’re providing wide-ranging design, engineering, environment and programme integration expertise to the project.

We took over the design after TII submitted the planning design. The initial concept had successfully outlined the stations and infrastructure. Our challenge was to turn this concept into a reference design for procurement by finding solutions to the challenges along the 12km of tunnels, 3km of subsurface route, 3.8km of at-grade line, and the 16 stations.

Length of network
18.8km
Passengers per year (max)
53 million
Number of stations
16

Innovating at pace to deliver a buildable design

Examining the details, we identified that many of the stations needed to be developed internally. In some cases we had to find ways to widen, lengthen or deepen the stations while staying within the planning requirements. In places, we also had to overcome issues that would have created significant problems during construction.

For example, Glasnevin station – a key station on the route – is sandwiched between the historic Royal Canal and two Irish Rail lines. A standard approach would have seen these main railway lines closed for up to two years during construction. This would be an unacceptably long time. So we worked with Irish Rail and Waterways Ireland to find a better option.

Our innovative solution involved shortening the station box to avoid tight clearance points beside the Royal Canal. At the same time, we made the box deeper to ensure we could accommodate all the station equipment whilst remaining true to the Railway Order. This will save 9-12 months of construction time and around 17,000m3 of excavation, cutting carbon emissions and leaving less soil to dispose of.

Combining technical expertise with collaboration and teamwork

Complex projects like MetroLink are about more than complex technical challenges. Bringing stakeholders into the decision-making process is vital to success. We have engaged with, among others, Dublin Airport, Waterways Ireland, grid operator EirGrid and Irish Rail.

We delivered 4,000 design documents, models, analyses and reports to TII right on schedule in December 2025. A single-minded focus on moving the project forward was essential to keep the programme on track. From day one, we had key staff in Dublin – all with experience of metro projects around the world. And in total, we mobilised WSP specialists from offices across Ireland, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Serbia and India. Together, they delivered work seamlessly across borders and time zones.

Reaching 2025’s design deadline was no small feat. The team showed real agility, resilience and commitment to excellence, overcoming technical challenges to deliver a high-quality, innovative design under pressure. They have set a standard of design that others will look up to on future MetroLink projects. This really is proof of what can be accomplished when we all work together as a team.

Adopting a problem-solving mindset to keep the project on track

A first-of-its-kind project like MetroLink is a blank slate. Unlike an extension to an existing system, there are no existing approaches to follow. So as soon as we won the work, we had to create the procedures and processes we’d use to deliver the design. We established these upfront in a series of documents that we could refer to as we tackled each challenge.

The next phase of MetroLink is the competitive tendering for the main civils and systems contracts, followed by construction. The project is expected to be completed in the early 2030s. TII expects MetroLink will create 8,000 jobs during construction and employ 300 permanent staff in operation.

 

It would have been easy to say eleven months wasn’t enough time to complete the design, that it wouldn’t be possible. But we asked ourselves what we needed to do as a team to hit our deadline. We adopted the mindset required to solve the issues and keep going, while TII trusted us to deliver what we promised on time.

Meet our team

prf-web-red-Paul-Winters
Paul Winters
Director, Rail Major Projects
United Kingdom
prf-web-red-Stuart-Dickson
Stuart Dickson
Service Delivery Leader for MetroLink
United Kingdom
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