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

I have responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport, including the rail network. The operation, maintenance and renewal of that rail network and stations, including the former stations at Cratloe and Crusheen, is a matter for Iarnród Éireann in the first instance.

The Deputy will be aware that the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future commits to a fundamental change in the nature of transport. Rail has an important role to play in achieving that change. It is important that we address constraints in the rail sector and deliver a network that allows rail to fulfil its potential in pursuit of decarbonisation priorities, rural connectivity objectives and as a generator of prosperity for people across Ireland. My Department has commissioned the all-island strategic rail review with the Northern Irish Department for Infrastructure. The review will establish the strategic context for investment in rail across the island in the coming decades. Work on the review is now at an advanced stage and a key consideration of the analysis is how the rail network can support regional and rural connectivity, including in the west.

Iarnród Éireann has advised that it will keep the case for a railway station at Crusheen under review in line with future passenger demand trends but that, at present, there is no provision for a station within the current funding profile. Similarly, a reopening of the station in Cratloe has not been included in the recently published Limerick Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy. In both cases, the local passenger demand is not deemed to be at the level that would warrant the opening of a train station in the immediate future. However, I will keep these issues under review given the importance of rail, to which I have referred. In this regard, I was pleased to read that passenger numbers on the Limerick-Galway line increased by more than the numbers on any other intercity service between 2019 and 2022.

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