Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and am grateful that he intends to raise these issues directly with the chief executive. All I ask is for the chief executive and Irish Rail to keep the commitment they made to commuters and the Minister of State on 9 September 2013, when they issued a press statement stating this capacity issue would only affect off-peak DART services. My colleagues and I are telling the Minister of State clearly that commuters in Greystones, Bray and all along the DART line to the north side have noticed this happening at peak times. While I note the Minister of State mentioned the NTA intends to carry out a survey, I have carried out my own online survey of commuters, which literally hundreds of people have completed thus far. People are telling me the 7 a.m. train and the peak-time train home in the evening are operating at a reduced capacity. A fortune was spent on increasing the platform lengths to facilitate longer DART trains and the Minister of State quite correctly tells Members that Irish Rail has the capacity and fleet for that time. It must carry out what the Minister of State called tweaking very quickly and I appreciate the Minister's view on that. As for the economic argument, Irish Rail can make money by getting people on the trains and by making the DART an attractive service and that is precisely what the company must do.

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