Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for attending today to answer the very serious concerns we all have regarding the public transport system throughout the country. I welcome that the Minister touched on one of my first queries, which is the delay on adding my home town of Drogheda to the Dublin commuter rail pay zone. For years Drogheda and east Meath commuters have been hit with much higher rates than those closer to the capital. It is often double the fare for what is just a few minutes down the track. Being included in the fair fare scheme would significantly reduce travel costs, by up to half in many cases. As we know, commuters, students and all sorts of workers and families are in dire need of some financial relief and this really will go a long way. A start date has been promised many times in the past. The latest was in September last year. I welcome the fact we are hearing it will be imminent as commuters may have already purchased their monthly or annual tickets.

As we are also discussing accessibility, I must say the train station in Drogheda is under serious pressure. The DART+ works are very welcome and I am glad to hear the commencement and completion dates for this Drogheda service are coming along. The hourly Enterprise trains between Dublin and Belfast have been a real bonus but I must say there is a serious lack of parking for commuters at MacBride Station. It is completely full by 6.45 a.m. Laytown, which is the next station, is not really any better. All this does is force people to go back on roads. The town centre location of the railway station in Drogheda means the roads are completely clogged with traffic crossing at peak times. My house on the north side of the town should be a 13-minute car journey from the station. This may happen at 4 a.m. It is also a 42-minute walk. At peak times it can be a 45-minute drive in a car. Once it took me 52 minutes on the bus link. People do not make it on time. It would be faster to walk and probably healthier.

Between the lack of parking spaces and heavy traffic congestion, this is the ideal time to examine the possibility of opening a second railway station for Drogheda, based on the northside of the town. I realise I am being a little bit greedy. Senator Nelson Murray is looking for just one train station while I am looking for two but I ask the Minister of State to bear with me. A second rail station for Drogheda was included in one of the national plans a number of years ago but it was excluded from subsequent plans.

The Minister is very familiar with Drogheda and how it is expanding, and how we really are in need of more infrastructure to go along with the amount of housing. Northern Drogheda will have an extra 20,000 people living there within the next decade. The ideal location for the northside rail station would be adjacent to the port access link road. The second phase involving the construction of a tunnel and overpass is due to begin fairly soon, and the reopening of the rail line would coincide perfectly with the third phase of the port access route. Its location would also assist in routing port traffic and heavy goods vehicles away from the centre of town. It would encourage new users to the port facility, generating new industry and jobs for the locality.

A new IDA Ireland business park is ready to open close to the link road, Drogheda United is planning state-of-the-art football ground, and it would also be the ideal place for a much-needed hotel for Drogheda, our largest one still being used to house international protection applicants and asylum seekers. The location on the northside would open up easy access to the M1 and has the potential for thousands of new rail users from the entire north east and midlands area on a daily basis. It could become a transport hub, serving thousands of commuters, residents and students in south and mid Louth and parts of Meath, as well as tourists to Louth and the Boyne Valley area. During the week I met Brian Hanratty and Kevin Enright of the commuter north rail users group in Drogheda to discuss this possibility. There is huge support from local chambers and business communities throughout the county. I hope this is something that can be seriously looked at as a plan ahead of the third phase of the northern cross route, and that this vital and valuable opportunity is not missed.