Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. Deputy Browne is absolutely right that the current arrangements are not satisfactory. The timetables, journey times, lack of frequency, poor quality of the line and the fact that the carriages are left in Colbert Station in Limerick for the rest of the day are not satisfactory. Everyone recognises that. Deputy Browne is absolutely right that the services are very much analogous to the current services on the Waterford-Limerick line. In effect, we are maintaining the line but we are not really utilising it to the full extent.

We are at a point of change. The Government is committed very much to towns-first policy. One of the characteristics of the two rail lines I have mentioned is that they go through a series of towns that would benefit greatly from development, particularly close to their centres, where railway stations tend to be. Therefore, I do not disagree at all with the Deputy's intention. The question is how to get the numbers up to justify the investment we need to make to rectify the problem. It has partly to do with the poor service but even if there were an increase in that regard, we would have to remember that the number of passengers in the past four years on the Ballybrophy line, for example, has ranged from about 100 to 150 per day. This is very low.

I mentioned the question of whether it may be possible to start increasing patronage of the line for commuter rail services to Limerick. The Limerick metropolitan area transport strategy cited Castleconnell station, for example. One could go even further out and consider commuter numbers from Nenagh to Limerick and determine whether improving the service and providing new really high-quality electric battery trains would increase the volume of passengers. Would a metropolitan-type commuter service, in turn, start to turn around the prospects for the whole Ballybrophy line because it would start to see usage and patronage that might make it more viable?

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