When asked whether current work at the city's notorious Red Cow roundabout to separate the Luas from road traffic there was a recognition that the original design of that section of track was flawed, Allen responded robustly.

"Do you think that's got something to do with Luas? , " he asked. "Do you think that's got something to do with Luas?"

When it was suggested to him that the public perception was that it had, he replied: "Well, the perceptions are wrong. That is absolutely nothing to do with Luas. Absolutely nothing.

You're totally and utterly wrong".

It is hardly surprising that Allen feels the need to fight his corner so strongly. Prior to the launch of the Luas in June 2004, he had to deal with what he described as a "high degree of scepticism about whether we would attract real passenger numbers and whether the public would respond to it".

His situation was made all the more difficult by constant complaints from city traders that construction work on the project was destroying their businesses, and the intervention of then transport minister Seamus Brennan, who claimed that aspects of the Luas were a "mess", particularly around the Red Cow.

Three years later, Allen is in a far more comfortable position as he sits chatting in the RPA's headquarters at Parkgate Street in Dublin, just around the corner from Heuston station.

Luas passenger numbers hit 26 million last year, more than Irish Rail's Dart system, and the service made a surplus in the region of 5m. The RPA has been given responsibility for eight new projects under the state's Transport 21 plan and it has even made peace with the traders.

"The Dublin City Centre Business Association has told me that they would attribute an increase in footfall in areas within the catchment area of Luas of up to 25%. There are a very large number of additional people walking past front door of shops that weren't in the past, " explained Allen.

Developers who watched property values along the two Luas lines surge have also become fans of the system, including big names such as Treasury Holdings, Dunloe Ewart, Davy Hickey Properties and Harcourt Development. According to Allen, a large proportion of the RPA's Transport 21 projects are being partly funded by them.

Allen refers to this as "capturing development gain" and said, besides the well-known plan to extend the Luas to Citywest, developers would also cover approximately half of the cost of the Sandyford to Cherrywood extension and make a substantial contribution to the Tallaght to Docklands extension. In one case, the RPA has teamed with a local authority to seek developer contributions for a project.

"In Metro North, Swords was included because Fingal county council, with the full support of the RPA, went to government in the process of preparing Transport 21 and said 'we will assist the RPA in capturing the development gain and we'll put a levy scheme in place', " said Allen.

He makes no apology for adopting this approach, stating that the RPA worked "hand in glove" with developers and planning authorities to "make sure that the areas within the greater Dublin area where development takes place, it takes place in a sustainable way".

"One of the challenges for us in the greater Dublin area is that the footprint of Dublin, the space we occupy, gets bigger and bigger. For a very long time, there's been an acknowledgement that this is not a sustainable way for the city to continue to develop. That development has taken place because people need cars, " he said.

"By putting in high-quality, high-capacity public transport, in particular corridors, the intention is that the pattern of development that will take place in the catchment area of these corridors would be far less car-dependent."

Before that can happen, however, the RPA has to deliver the lines, and this is seen by many to be the organisation's Achilles heel. However, Allen denies this, stating that the widespread perception that the Luas lines were finished late and over-budget was wrong.

"When the government decided to authorise the original Luas team to enter into contracts and to proceed with the project, a certain budget was set for that and it was implemented well within that amount, " he said.

"What is equally true is that, in the early 1990s, some figures were thrown about at that stage and that those figures did not include any provision for the cost of property acquisition and no provision for escalation of costs over time."

"It's like if someone had said in 1993, you can buy a house in Dublin for 100,000, and then you buy it in 2004 for 200,000 and then someone claims that it's a massive cost overrun. It's not a cost overrun, it's an escalation of costs over that period."

Allen said that, like government transport agencies, the RPA would have to draw up detailed business cases for each project, containing a detailed route plan and estimates of how much each element would cost.

"Then the government can say to the RPA, 'we're holding you to that. You've put your feet in the fire and you better deliver', " he said.

The RPA's ability to deliver, however, may be compromised by an unlikely opponent: the state's largest transport agency, CIE, which operates Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail. The two agencies are involved in what some observers have described as a "turf war" over a disused railway line in Dublin which is crucial for the RPA's plans to link O'Connell Street with the Maynooth rail line.

Allen admits that the relationship between the RPA and CIE has been uneasy at times.

"In any environment where you have a number of operators in the same city, there'd be circumstances where there are tensions between these operators but I would say that we work together on a day-to-day basis, " he said.

"In general, we work well. If we don't, you read about it in the newspapers. If you go over to Heuston station and you look at the design of that whole platform at Heuston, the Luas project put a transport interchange there where people come off the Irish Rail train from Kildare or someplace and they have choice between a Dublin Bus or Luas service to the city centre, " he said.

"It's important to note that we are all working towards the same thing: we want to ensure that the public have a choice where they can leave their car at home and take public transport to work, to school, to other things and I think it works much better than what the public might perceive it to be."

CV
FRANK ALLEN

Age: 46
Family: married with two children
Background: 2002 to the present, chief executive of the RPA; 1996-2002, infrastructure finance for KBC Bank at IFSC, Dublin; previously worked for the World Bank in Washington
Interests: reading and outdoor activities
RPA
Founded: 2001
Task: development of state Luas and Metro projects
Estimated surplus (2006): 5 million
Luas passenger numbers (2006): 26 million
Employees: 120