Planning permission was rejected for a Metro North station with a large park-and-ride facility at Belinstown last week. While planning permission was approved for the St Stephen’s Green to Swords line the decision to reject planning permission for the Belinstown station has left one of the two final bidders on the project Metro Express considering pulling out of the process.

Metro Express includes AIB, construction firm Sisk and transport operator Transdev, while Celtic Metro comprises Spanish and Portuguese construction and engineering firms and is headed by Japanese investment group Mitsui.  Metro Express have described the planning permission rejection as ‘‘a pretty horrible outcome.”