Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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9. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which it might be possible to ensure the availability of extra carriages to meet commuter demands affecting the towns of Kilcock, Maynooth, Leixlip, Confey and Celbridge, Hazelhatch, Sallins and Newbridge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43077/23]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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This question relates to the extent to which the existing commuter rail services can be improved by way of adding extra carriages in order to ensure that greater and effective methods are used to bring more passengers to their destinations in a quick and efficient way.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for the question. As he is aware, the Government continues to invest heavily in improving our rail network. This includes initiatives such as the DART+ programme and the previous Government's approval of the purchase of an additional 41 InterCity railcars, or ICRs. Looking ahead, the DART+ programme will extend and enhance the current DART system and services west to Maynooth and Celbridge-Hazelhatch. The DART+ fleet project will introduce electric and battery electric units to the DART network over time and may allow for the introduction of DART services in County Kildare in advance of the electrification of lines. More immediately, while the existing Iarnród Éireann operational fleet is already fully deployed on scheduled services, delivery of the additional 41 ICRs commenced late last year and I am pleased to confirm Iarnród Éireann took delivery of the final batch of these earlier this year. Once fully commissioned, these will serve to enhance customer capacity right across the rail network.

The NTA has advised that there are plans to utilise the 41 new ICRs to extend the length of multiple train sets operating on the current rail network and passengers can expect to see longer trains in operation from quarter 1 of next year, once the commissioning phase for the new carriages is complete. As part of ongoing work by the NTA and Iarnród Éireann with regard to the deployment of the ICRs, consideration is being given to providing new and additional carriages where passenger demand, available carriages and suitable infrastructure support such provision. Decisions on this will be made over the coming months.

I am sure the Deputy will agree these new carriages and the redeployment of existing carriages will greatly assist the NTA and Iarnród Éireann in addressing the issue of growing demand across the rail network.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. Might particular consideration be given to convenience for the commuter? That is a major consideration. I am referring to the length of time in which a number of passengers can be taken from point A to point B.

I also ask the Minister to consider the extent to which passengers boarding trains in the furthest region of the commute in the morning find that there is standing room only after only three or four stations. This can be dealt with in the short term by way of extra carriages.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I agree with the Deputy that this is the easiest, quickest and best available solution to us, helped by the fact that the carriages will be ready to go within a number of months. Iarnród Éireann will have to assess where the real bottlenecks lie. Deputy Durkan is suggesting there is a regular pattern of overcrowding in Kildare, which I can well imagine, as well as on the northern line, which was mentioned earlier. These are two areas of difficulty. In Dublin there are real problems with housing and lots of young people are now commuting to college, as well as people going to work. We need to make sure we have a sufficient number of carriages in place. Those 41 new inter-city rail cars will be coming on stream within months. They are here already but we just need to get them commissioned. They will make a significant enhancement to the capacity, particularly on those networks where people are standing on trains. That is not tolerable. We have to increase capacity and make sure the quality of the service meets people's expectations.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I also ask that there be a better level of co-ordination and co-operation between the road and rail services in order to ensure that commuters are transported from point A to point B in the most efficient and effective manner. I ask the Minister to be conscious of the need to ensure that passengers arrive on time. It should not be necessary for people to get up at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in order to get to a destination when their journey should only take one quarter of the time. In that regard, I ask for better management of the services available, whether they be road or rail. The services need to be co-ordinated in an effective and efficient manner to allow people to get to their destination in a shorter timeframe, which can be done. We must try to eliminate instances of trains stopping on the line which results in all of the passengers not getting to work on time. We must reduce the levels of conflagration caused by multitudes of traffic converging on the roads at a particular point, to which the Minister referred earlier.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Again, I agree with the Deputy. In terms of making sure that people get to their destination on time, the new carriages are key but the other key project, particularly for Deputy Durkan's constituents, is DART+, which cannot come quick enough. That project is very ambitious and involves a tripling of the carrying capacity of the DART network, an expansion of that network and a switch to battery-electric trains, as well as the existing electric system that the DART runs on. That is currently in planning and, like a lot of our transport projects, we have been waiting a long time for a decision on it. However, I expect a lot of these projects to start to come out of the planning process in the coming months. We are going to start to see An Bord Pleanála issuing judgments. Some may be delayed, some may not get full planning permission and some may be subject to further judicial review but the scale of transport projects that we have coming is beyond compare in the history of the State. The scale of investment we need to make is also beyond compare but it is the right investment because it is the only way we can guarantee the fast, regular and reliable journey times that Deputy Durkan's constituents rightly demand.