Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for acknowledging that. It certainly has been difficult to play catch-up, especially after the difficult period we had. As he is from the north side, the Deputy might be interested to learn that the main issue that arose concerned capacity around the north side of Dublin. The National Transport Authority, NTA, and Iarnród Éireann responded swiftly to customers' concerns by scheduling additional morning peak services from Portmarnock and Clongriffin. At Portmarnock, it provided an additional 7.29 a.m. service to Pearse Station and a 7.42 a.m. service to Bray and, from Clongriffin, it provided an additional 7.45 service to Bray. With these additional services, Portmarnock has the same number of peak morning services as it had before the timetable change and Clongriffin has one extra peak morning service. Iarnród Éireann has stated that it believes these changes will address the frequency concerns of passengers from Portmarnock and Clongriffin and the capacity issues that have arisen, particularly at DART stations such as Harmonstown and Killester. The NTA and Irish Rail are considering the potential of acquiring second-hand rail fleet through either lease or purchase. However, the Irish rail network operates on a different gauge, that is, the width between the two rails, from most other European countries, including the UK. This means that any second-hand vehicles would require modification.

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