Mr. Jim Meade:

There are two key issues there. I am happy to report that there was a lot of close and detailed collaboration between us in Iarnród Éireann and Translink, which operates the services north of the Border. We have a group working between the two companies looking at enhancing the Enterprise service. We are working on plans to move to an hourly service and we have been talking to the Special EU Programmes Body, SEUPB. It has a funding pot and we have put to it a proposal as to how we would replace the Enterprise fleet and enhance the service. It currently consists of four trains delivering nine services a day. We are putting a plan to the SEUPB for a fleet of nine trains and proposing that the SEUPB fund it, which it is very interested in doing. It is still at the planning stage, but we expect the SEUPB to assist us with that funding in order to move to an hourly service along with the Weavers Cross development on Great Victoria Street in Belfast where a new transport hub will be delivered in 2024 or 2025. I am subject to correction on the date. We hope to deliver a complete new fleet in conjunction with Translink, probably in 2026 or 2027, to go to a full hourly service with reduced journey times. Our infrastructure south of the Border is in reasonably good shape. It is reasonably well maintained. The biggest issue for us is the level of congestion from Malahide into the city centre, with the ten-minute DART service as well, and finding slots to get services in. It slows it up a little, but we are also advanced with planning on that and starting to look at how we will improve it.

The pricing structure is very much an issue for the NTA, but we are looking at the issue with the NTA. We are already talking to it and discussions are ongoing about what the post-Covid travel patterns will be and what the pricing structure of tickets will be, moving away from the traditional monthly and annual tickets that were used heretofore. It is a work in progress between us and the NTA.