Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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263. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status on the proposed bus rapid transit for the Swords to Drumcondra corridor; the funding that has been provided; and the time frame for completion. [38912/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​Following consideration of the Fingal/North Dublin Transport study and the recommendations of the National Transport Authority (NTA) arising from this study, the Government has decided that a light rail link is the optimum long term public transport solution on the City Centre/Airport/Swords corridor. Accordingly, funding will be made available under the new Capital Plan (2016-2022) for planning, design and construction of a new Metro North scheme, as detailed in the Fingal/North Dublin Transport Study, with a view to delivering the link by 2026/2027.

The NTA has recently published a draft Transport Strategy for Greater Dublin Area (GDA) which provides a framework for the planning and delivery of transport infrastructure and services in the GDA for the next two decades. For the purposes of the NTA transport strategy, Swords and Drumcondra are both located within a wider transport corridor which also includes Drogheda and Balbriggan in North Dublin. In addition to the new Metro North project the eastern part of this transport corridor will benefit from the extension of the Dart to Balbriggan, which will also progress to construction stage under the new Capital Plan.

Given the demand projections in the corridor overall, I have requested the NTA to keep the capacity issues on the Swords/Airport/City Centre route under review.  In the draft GDA strategy the NTA indicates that bus-based measures will be considered for this part of the corridor with any final arrangement designed to be complementary to the new Metro North Project.  The question of funding does not arise until the proposed solution has been fully considered and decided on.​

The draft transport strategy for the GDA is subject to a statutory public consultation and all interested parties are invited to review the proposals, and the supporting documentation, on the NTA's website () and to make submissions to the Authority, before the deadline of Friday November 13 2015.