Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Curaim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I again wish to raise the issue of underinvestment in the Dublin to Rosslare rail line. I do so because of growing traffic volumes along the N11. Many car users in Wexford and Wicklow would quite happily transfer to the train if they knew they had a regular and reliable service. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for quite a long time.

The Minister of State is quite fortunate to live in north Dublin, which is very well served by trains. Indeed, there are plans to expand the number of rail lines in north Dublin even further, from two to four. In fact, the objective is now to have trains running between Dublin and Belfast in under two hours. My home town of Gorey is only half the distance to Dublin as Belfast is but I would love to be guaranteed that I could get on a train that would take under two hours to reach the city centre. Of the 14 new rail carriages coming into the system, none is being provided to the Rosslare rail line. The only additional service is one later-evening service that was provided earlier this year. If we are to achieve our objective of having more people use rail, in the context of sustainable transport models, it has to be realistic for them to do it. At the moment, it is not realistic for many people from Wexford and Wicklow to travel to Dublin by train. Along the rail line into Dublin, there are six level crossings which slow down trains coming into the city centre. It is a slow service. The mainline service obviously gets held up behind the DART because there are no additional lines.

There is a great deal of money being spent on trying to tackle coastal erosion, but is there not a need for a far more ambitious plan to serve the Rosslare route? If we had more rail lines, we would have a much faster rail service operating. That means double-tracking the line. I commend the fact that going north out of the city, we are moving towards having four tracks. If we could even move to two tracks the whole way along the Rosslare line in order to allow for additional services, that would certainly be welcome. While also welcome, the only proposal right now is the possibility of extending the DART to Wicklow. However, there is an expectation that passengers travelling from places further south, including Rathdrum, Arklow, and Gorey, will have to change at either Wicklow or Greystones. On cold, wet and wintry mornings, people will be expected to get off the train, hang around the station and then get onto another train. That is not going to incentivise people to use the rail service. It will also be incredibly unfair to wheelchair users and those with mobility difficulties.

I am sorry to say that there seems to be no commitment to investing in the Dublin to Rosslare rail line. It is something I have raised constantly in this House. What we are now seeing is further traffic build-up on the N11. Anyone who uses the N11 knows how busy it is. The problem is that there is no viable alternative. I would encourage people to use the rail line but they cannot rely on a regular and efficient service at the moment.