Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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240. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on plans to upgrade the Dublin-Cork railway line; if he will further provide an update on plans to upgrade the Dublin-Belfast line; if it will be possible to separate the operation of the DART from this line; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7133/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The capital plan to 2016 prioritises protecting existing assets and maintaining safety standards. As a result the bulk of the funding for rail under the plan goes towards  asset renewal and maintenance across the rail network. There is limited funding for enhancements and upgrades but some  funding has been allocated for projects such as the Dublin City Centre Resignalling (which improves capacity and throughput at Connolly station), removal of level crossings and for  new ticketing and  customer information systems.    

My Department is also pursuing opportunities for funding rail infrastructure under EU programmes such as INTERREG, which  even if limited,  would be additional to existing resources.   

I understand from Irish Rail that there  are currently no plans to fully separate the operation of the DART and Enterprise services on the Northern line.