Vol. 399 No. 10
22 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the amount of route kilometres of railway lines which are owned and operated by Iarnród Éireann; the amount of kilometres which are controlled by modern signalling of a type that he has satisfied himself can provide adequate safety; the plans which exist to modernise railway signalling; and the plans which exist for signalling on lightly used lines.
38 Mr. G. O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the level of investment which is needed to bring the signalling system up to a standard commensurate with the flow of traffic and proportion of this which will be funded from (1) EC (2) Exchequer (3) borrowing and (4) CIE sources.
50 Mr. Kavanagh asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the amount which has been invested in renewal and upgrading of signalling by Iarnród Éireann over the past ten years and the amount of this which has been funded each year from (1) EC sources (2) the Exchequer (3) borrowing and (4) internal CIE sources.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 22, 38 and 50 together.
Iarnród Éireann operates a route network of 2,000 kilometres of railway which can be apportioned on the basis of 700 kilometres of primary trunk routes, largely double track, and 1,300 kilometres of secondary or lightly used lines, exclusively single track.
To date the company's resignalling programme has concentrated on the primary trunk routes, of which some 500 route kilometres are already controlled by modern signalling equipment. A further 200 kilometres of primary track is scheduled for completion on this basis as soon as possible under Iarnód Éireann's programme for mainline resignalling. I have been advised by the board that the amount invested in the upgrading and replacement of signalling in the ten years up to the end of 1989 was £49.9 million. This investment has been funded by the board through a combination of own resources and commercial borrowings.
