A metro which includes a circle line linking Dublin's transport hubs would give the city the world class service that Transport 21 will fail to deliver, an Oireachtas committee heard today.
Civil engineer Cormac Rabitt of the Dublin Metro Group said the Government should franchise out a project for Private Public Partnership (PPP) as soon as possible.
And he told the Joint Transport Committee a focused group of around three people should be established to drive construction forward.
It could be advised and monitored by the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA), but he said a small group made up of a technical expert, a bureaucrat and a civil servant would be able to get things done far more quickly than a large number of consultants.
"The operation of a metro needs to be procured and done by the people who are going to run it as a PPP," he told the committee.
Mr Rabbitt said lessons could be learnt from the new underground lines built in Madrid, the construction of which was run by a team of six people and which cost a fraction of the price proposed for Dublin's system.
"Those who visited Madrid's new metro lines know that it is one of the best in the world," he said.
Mr Rabbitt proposed the Dargan project, which will include a circle line linking the city's main transport hubs such as the overground rail stations, with connections to the airport and a cross-centre line.
"It will give Dublin a world class transport system," he said.
"With Transport 21 - you won't have a world class system with a couple of lines going across the city. "You won't get integrated transport for people to plan their journeys like they do in cities such as Prague," he said.
According to Mr Rabbitt, 52 per cent of his proposed route already exists, while 80% of the new lines would go under public land which would cut the time and money devoted to settling disputes with private owners.
Independent senator David Norris welcomed the proposal, which he said looked like a good start in tackling traffic problems in the capital. "This represents joined-up thinking and a joined-up transport system," he said. Chairman John Ellis said the RPA should be brought before the Transport Committee in the New Year to discuss the proposals.
PA