James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Transport thanks the Deputy for her comments and I will bring them to his attention. In terms of current developments, design work is ongoing on the DART+ coastal south project to plan for the enhanced DART service level to Greystones and a public consultation for this project is planned to take place shortly.

The proposal to extend the DART to Wicklow town, which is currently under consideration by the NTA would allow an early DART service from Wicklow town to Dublin city centre, significantly enhancing the train service to and from Wicklow town.

At a later stage, when the infrastructural proposals are finalised and in development, detailed train operating timetables will be prepared. This timetabling exercise will consider both interchange services where passengers will change from diesel services to DART trains at Wicklow, and the potential for some direct non-DART services running to Dublin city centre.

As previously noted, I look forward to the rollout of the E-spine bus service as part of BusConnects, connecting Bray to the city centre next month and I await the outcome of the planning application for the Bray to city centre core bus corridor. This will help to provide a sustainable, frequent and reliable bus transport service for those living in Bray and along the corridor.

In the longer term, I also look forward to the progression of a Luas extension to Bray to provide for more sustainable transport options to the town in line with our current goals. I assure the Deputy projects will be progressed in line with the requirements of the infrastructure guidelines and that the public consultation processes will be undertaken at the appropriate stages as projects are progressed.

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