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

Speed and frequency are the issues. More frequency gives better speeds. As the Deputy said, if someone has to wait from 7.30 a.m. until midday or 1.30 p.m. for the next train, that is very slow and a long time. There is a real case for looking at this proposal, which has been mentioned in public, to run shuttle services to Wicklow and then with an extension of the DART to Wicklow, to run very frequent DART services from Wicklow into the city. That would lead to significant improvement in the frequency and, therefore, the quality of the public transport service not just to Wexford but to all the towns along the route. That has not been decided and the matter is open for consideration. I believe that if we offered the travelling public in Wexford this regular service, they might well say it is a real improvement. If they had the same sort of services as are provided on other lines where there are very regular train services, that then improves connectivity. There are different views on this and people are perfectly entitled to their view but the current service is not serving the people of Wexford. We need to make a change. The suggestion of providing shuttle services and much more frequent services would be a significant improvement. We have to present all of the arguments and look at all the analysis. The matter is open for discussion and nothing has been decided but I think it could be a significant improvement and could result in a large increase in the use of the line.

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