Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I am raising an issue with which the Minister of State will be familiar, namely the Rosslare rail line and the continued failure by Irish Rail to invest in the service. I appreciate the Minister of State is taking this on behalf of the Minister for Transport. The Minister of State will know only too well that the Rosslare rail line has suffered from a long period of under investment. The only positive change that has been made was the introduction of a later evening service recently, which does serve Gorey. If I get on the train in Gorey, there are only six trains to Dublin every day. If you get on in Enniscorthy, there are only five trains to Dublin every day.

Let us consider locations around the country that are a similar distance from the capital. Carlow has 11 services daily while Dundalk has 16 but if someone is getting the train in Portlaoise, which is roughly equidistant from Dublin, there are 32 services. Recently, there was a very welcome announcement of €165 million to enhance the Dublin to Belfast service, which I welcome. It is something that needs to be supported. However, it was stated that one of the objectives was to ensure that the Dublin-Belfast train would take less than two hours. The distance between Gorey and Dublin is approximately half that of Dublin and Belfast and I would love a commitment from Irish Rail that a train from Gorey to Dublin would take less than two hours. We continue to hear about the need to invest in our rail infrastructure but it does not happen on the Rosslare route. None of the new 40-plus carriages planned in rolling stock for Irish Rail will be provided for the Rosslare line and, therefore, we will continue to see people being driven to use the M11 rather than use the railway line.

Apart from the fact that anyone who travels on the trains will see that they are regularly overcrowded at peak times and passengers regularly will not get a seat, the National Transport Authority, NTA, recently decided that it will try a new wheeze and introduce an interchange on services at Wicklow and Greystones. If there are additional services to Wicklow and Greystones, that will be welcome, but there is no discussion of additional services further south along the line. Indeed, the NTA has been intimating that the only services that they will provide south of Greystones or Wicklow are where passengers will have to change. This is particularly annoying for commuters but for those with mobility difficulties or disabilities are expected to have to change trains at Wicklow or Greystones, particularly on a cold wet morning, it is not acceptable.

There are significant problems with coastal erosion. There has been much talk about investment to try to address that. However, I do not know why the Minister for Transport and the NTA cannot be more ambitious and I am disappointed that they have examined idea of double-tracking the track the whole way down from Dublin to Rosslare. I appreciate this is a long-term objective but if we are to get people out of their cars and onto the trains, this is the only long-term solution for the Rosslare rail line. I would be grateful to hear the Minister for Transport’s recommendations on improvements.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I apologise to Senator Byrne. I prematurely hit the bell during his contribution.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Transport sends his apologies. He would like to thank the Senator for the opportunity to address this issue.

Improving public transport services and infrastructure is central to improving citizens' quality of life and addressing our climate action challenge, and this Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. The Minister for Transport has seen the media reports of recent weeks with regard to a planned proposal related to the DART+ coastal south project and considers it useful to clarify what the current position is with the proposal.

Modelling undertaken by the National Transport Authority for the DART+ programme is related to facilitating increased rail services on the Rosslare to Dublin line. This includes an option to be considered that would allow Rosslare services interchanging at Wicklow or Greystones to connect seamlessly to DART services into the heart of Dublin. It must be stressed that this was an infrastructural modelling exercise. The NTA has advised that no decision has been made to alter services on the Rosslare line.

The Government has to provide more options to people so they can make the switch to sustainable mobility and within the greater Dublin area, GDA, work on the DART+ programme is continuing so it can become part of those options. As the Senator may be aware, under the Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy 2022-2042, which was adopted last year, it is intended to further expand the DART system to Wicklow town. Design work is ongoing at present on the DART+ coastal south project to plan for the enhanced DART service level to Greystones. A public consultation will be undertaken with regard to those proposals later this year.

In addition, initial planning and design work is currently ongoing by the NTA to establish the feasibility of operating an hourly DART service to Wicklow town using battery electric train sets that could operate along the unelectrified section of the railway between Greystones and Wicklow. Under this arrangement, one DART per hour arriving at Greystones would be a battery electric train, which would be able to continue further south along the unelectrified line and terminate at Wicklow town train station, with the same approach in the opposite direction. South of Wicklow, the provision of a diesel train shuttle service between Rosslare and Wicklow would provide the potential for a much more frequent train service along the southern sections of the south-east line.

With regard to the issue of coastal erosion, coastal railway construction and maintenance has always been challenging. Throughout its history, interventions have been required to protect the east coast railway line from impacts on embankments, water coming over the line and coastal erosion. The Minister for Transport understands that Iarnród Éireann has over many years managed the coastal defence of the east coast Dublin to Rosslare line and monitors the coastline erosion rates at key points along the railway on an ongoing basis. The east coast railway infrastructure protection project was established to deliver the necessary enhanced coastal protections. The primary focus of this project is to address and implement protection of the existing railway and coastal infrastructure against the further effects of coastal erosion due to climate change. The Minister for Transport assures the Senator that this matter is taken seriously and that appropriate remedial action will be under way.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. I really am disappointed at the lack of ambition in the long-term development of the Rosslare rail line. There is no discussion here around a significant number of additional services going from Wicklow south. There is no discussion around new rolling stock being made available on the existing line. While it is a very beautiful train line - one of the most spectacular in the world - it is critical for commuters that there is a reliable and quick service and we do not have that at the moment. I really ask the Minister of State to take this back to the Minister for Transport. If he is serious about getting people to continue to use the Rosslare rail line, particularly from points south of Wicklow, Rathdrum, Arklow, Gorey, Enniscorthy and so on, we have to have investment in that space. If, in the long term, he wants to get people out of the cars transferring on the M11, however, then we really need to have an enhanced service.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Byrne very much. As somebody who uses the trains on a regular basis, including this morning, the train from Limerick to Dublin was absolutely overflowing by the time it got to Heuston station. Investment in railways is, therefore, extremely important. The Senator is right; it is one of the most beautiful railways in the worlds. A very beautiful television programme was made on that particular line. Well done to the Senator for raising the issue. I am sure the people of Gorey will be delighted with that.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the Minister for Transport, I thank the Senator again for his comments. As mentioned, no decisions have yet been made to alter services on the Rosslare line. Currently, three train services run from Wicklow to Dublin during weekday morning hours.There are gaps of up to approximately five hours between consecutive services in the daytime. Instead of the current train pattern, the DART extension arrangements under consideration by the NTA would allow an hourly DART service from Wicklow town into Dublin city centre and significantly enhance the train service to and from Wicklow town. I am not sure that gives much succour to the people of Gorey, however. At a later stage, when infrastructure proposals are finalised and in development, detailed train operating timetables will be prepared. This timetabling exercise will consider both interchange services where passengers would change from diesel services to DART trains at Wicklow and the potential for some direct non-DART services running into Dublin city centre. The Minister for Transport assures the Senator that there will be a public consultation process undertaken at the relevant stage in relation to any new timetabling proposals and, as set out in the opening statement, Iarnród Éireann has been monitoring the east coast rail line and the effects of coastal erosion on it for many years.