Dáil debates

Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Noel DempseyNoel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

A number of things must be done including, which I hope the Deputy will support, changed work practices and using the buses we have at present to their full potential. I look forward to the Deputy's support as we move on that in the next six to 12 months.

Construction of phase one of the Navan rail line and the Citywest Luas extension will get underway shortly, despite the doom and gloom preached in the House last night by Deputy Burton. In 2009 we will continue to work on the Luas extension from Sandyford to Cherrywood; the four-tracking of the Kildare rail line from Cherry Orchard to Hazelhatch, allowing the trebling of passenger capacity on that corridor; the roll-out of the 183 new intercity railcars; and the city centre resignalling project. The latter is vital to the provision of adequate services within the greater Dublin area. Expenditure will continue on a number of ongoing programmes, including the railway safety and accessibility programmes.

Increasing public transport capacity is one of my key priorities. Metro north and the DART interconnector are critical components of the strategy, set out in Transport 21, to transform the public transport system in the greater Dublin area. They will also provide for a great increase in public transport capacity. Metro north is expected to carry 34 million passengers per annum when it opens and will be able to carry more than 200 million passengers per year in the longer term as development occurs along the route. The interconnector will remove a major bottleneck in the Dublin rail system. When it is completed it will facilitate trebling of the passenger capacity of the suburban rail network to more than 100 million passengers per annum.

The Railway Procurement Agency, which is responsible for the project, applied last month to An Bord Pleanála for a railway order for metro north. The application clearly sets out the route alignment, underground and surface sections and station locations. The public private partnership tenders are due to be submitted to the Railway Procurement Agency in early February. Once the procurement and the statutory approval processes are complete, the Government will take a final decision on the project, based on a capital appraisal. This is a long-standing requirement for all very large projects under Transport 21. Once the railway order is in force, the Railway Procurement Agency will be in a position to commence enabling works for the public private partnership project, such as the relocation of utilities. The 2009 Estimates include substantial funding provision for these works.

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