Mr. Jim Meade:

We expect to have the result of that study by about September-October. That will look at how best to increase the capacity on the line. To link in with the point about the Sunday trains, that capacity study will look at where we can best put in infrastructure that allows to put in a higher frequency on the whole route to Galway, not just the Limerick-Ennis part. The Limerick-Ennis part unlocks it because it is the longest section. It is a 40-minute section. Once a train enters it at either end, it is 40 minutes before you can do anything else. If we can cut that in half, it would increase the frequency significantly.

On the last part of the Deputy’s question, there are two issues: that of the western rail corridor but also that of platform lengths. One of Mr. Hendrick’s team is looking at that. As part of the study in that regard, four platforms, Sixmilebridge, one of the platforms in Gort, Craughwell and Ardrahan, will have to be extended. When the line was put in originally in 2007 or 2008, we placed the platforms in a position where we could extend them quite easily in the future. The study will identify what we need to do there. Then we need to see if we can get the funding to extend those platforms. The trains that are on it today are the longest trains we can operate on those. As we roll out the 41 ICRs which the Deputy mentioned, we cannot put any extra on that route because we can only put four-piece trains, or four carriages, because of the platform length. As we extend the platforms, we can add to that. We are looking at that maybe as a shorter term solution. If we get platform extensions we can get longer trains and in time we can add more passing loops to get the higher frequency into the route as a whole.

On the airport, as a young fellow in west Clare watching Moneypoint being built I would love to see a train going all the way back there. I am not sure if it will. The line to the airport certainly is an option. That is just how we do our planning. It is single track just beyond Limerick Station out to Ennis. You would be taking a single track off that, possibly. That would be part of the study to establish if we should do a double track into Shannon and where exactly do we come off, is it Cratloe or Sixmilebridge; do we go off at Cratloe and go through Bunratty because there is a very big tourist attraction there, Shannon town, Shannon industrial estate, the airport? How do you do that? The study process will identify those routes and where best to put them. Then for us it is just how we pass trains. From where you would be coming off at Sixmilebridge is about 15 or 18 minutes from Limerick. You would probably get the frequency you would want by leaving that single track and doing something double beyond it.