Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am raising an issue with which the Minister of State will be familiar, namely the Rosslare rail line and the continued failure by Irish Rail to invest in the service. I appreciate the Minister of State is taking this on behalf of the Minister for Transport. The Minister of State will know only too well that the Rosslare rail line has suffered from a long period of under investment. The only positive change that has been made was the introduction of a later evening service recently, which does serve Gorey. If I get on the train in Gorey, there are only six trains to Dublin every day. If you get on in Enniscorthy, there are only five trains to Dublin every day.

Let us consider locations around the country that are a similar distance from the capital. Carlow has 11 services daily while Dundalk has 16 but if someone is getting the train in Portlaoise, which is roughly equidistant from Dublin, there are 32 services. Recently, there was a very welcome announcement of €165 million to enhance the Dublin to Belfast service, which I welcome. It is something that needs to be supported. However, it was stated that one of the objectives was to ensure that the Dublin-Belfast train would take less than two hours. The distance between Gorey and Dublin is approximately half that of Dublin and Belfast and I would love a commitment from Irish Rail that a train from Gorey to Dublin would take less than two hours. We continue to hear about the need to invest in our rail infrastructure but it does not happen on the Rosslare route. None of the new 40-plus carriages planned in rolling stock for Irish Rail will be provided for the Rosslare line and, therefore, we will continue to see people being driven to use the M11 rather than use the railway line.

Apart from the fact that anyone who travels on the trains will see that they are regularly overcrowded at peak times and passengers regularly will not get a seat, the National Transport Authority, NTA, recently decided that it will try a new wheeze and introduce an interchange on services at Wicklow and Greystones. If there are additional services to Wicklow and Greystones, that will be welcome, but there is no discussion of additional services further south along the line. Indeed, the NTA has been intimating that the only services that they will provide south of Greystones or Wicklow are where passengers will have to change. This is particularly annoying for commuters but for those with mobility difficulties or disabilities are expected to have to change trains at Wicklow or Greystones, particularly on a cold wet morning, it is not acceptable.

There are significant problems with coastal erosion. There has been much talk about investment to try to address that. However, I do not know why the Minister for Transport and the NTA cannot be more ambitious and I am disappointed that they have examined idea of double-tracking the track the whole way down from Dublin to Rosslare. I appreciate this is a long-term objective but if we are to get people out of their cars and onto the trains, this is the only long-term solution for the Rosslare rail line. I would be grateful to hear the Minister for Transport’s recommendations on improvements.