Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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470. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to hold discussions with Iarnród Éireann to progress the re-opening of Killucan railway station in County Westmeath, which can be made fully functional for an outlay of €1.3 million and which would qualify for funding under the new capital plan for transport, the new rural investment plan and Border, midland and western region funding, given that trains that travel from Sligo to Dublin already stop at this station but do not allow persons to embark or disembark there; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35722/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​​As Minister for Transport Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport.  Matters relating to the re-opening of railway stations, such as at Killucan, are a matter for Iarnród Eireann in the first instance.

As the Deputy will be aware, Iarnród Éireann remains in a challenging position financially and it has no resources of its own available to fund new projects.  The company has not made any proposal to my Department to re-open Killucan station.

The Government recently published its new Capital Plan "Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021". The re-opening of Killucan Station has not been included under the new Capital Plan. In view of the constraints on availability of funding, the priority for the heavy rail network under the new Plan is to improve efficiency and maintain safety standards, rather than expanding the network or re-opening new stations.  

If additional funds become available during the lifetime of the new Capital Plan, and this is not certain, there will be many competing demands between the opening of new lines, the improvement of existing lines, rolling stock and station upgrades, as well as the opening of new stations across the country. All of these competing demands will be subject to robust analysis and will require strong business cases justifying their value and demonstrating how they would significantly increase patronage on the rail network.

When opening a new station on an existing line, consideration must also be given to both the benefits of gaining new passengers and also the downsides of the cost of constructing and running the new station, as well as the risk of losing other passengers due to increased journey times.