Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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1776. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 812 of 21 July 2016, the status of the delivery of a bus rapid transit, BRT, service along the Swords/Dublin Airport route; if the planned BRT service for this route will only be developed in the context of the delivery of Metro North; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25184/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for the development and implementation of public transport infrastructure in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA).

The new Metro North Project is scheduled to commence construction in 2021 with a view to delivery in 2026/2027.  When the decision was made to proceed with Metro North, the NTA was also asked to keep the interim public transport requirements of the Swords/Airport corridor over the next 10 years under review with a view to ensuring adequate capacity to meet demand and to address constraints arising along the corridor pending delivery of new Metro North.

The NTA's Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) 2016-2035has addressed this point and indicates that it may be necessary to provide a higher level of public transport capacity along the corridor linking Swords and the Airport to the city centre in advance of new Metro North being delivered. It has indicated that this could take the form of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service or a BRT type service, or a conventional Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) type upgrade along the route or parts of the route and any final arrangement would be designed to be complementary to the new Metro North project.  If it is determined that additional capacity is required on the corridor in advance of the delivery of new Meto North, an assessment of the various service options would be carried out to determine the appropriate approach.