Vol. 502 No. 3
170 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the plans, if any, her Department has in association with CIE to develop the Dublin to Navan rail line; the preparatory work carried out to date on the proposal; if the cost of the project has been estimated; if passenger numbers to use the service have been estimated; and the amount of funding approved for the project by the Government, the European Union and the CIÉ group. [8063/99]
I announced on 4 March that I had been given Government approval to arrange for the carrying out of costing and feasibility work on a suburban rail development plan. The plan comprises two elements: a short-term programme based on making more intensive use of the existing rail corridors and a longer term programme based on certain conceptual suggestions for improving the suburban rail network contained in the strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area. One of the suggestions in the guidelines, to be published later this week, is a possible new inland rail link to Navan.
My Department has asked CIE to arrange for the carrying out of the necessary costing and feasibility work on the programme without delay. I am aware that Iarnród Éireann and Meath County Council have carried out some preliminary feasibility work on the Navan rail link proposal which included broad estimates of the likely capital cost and passenger usage. However, a more detailed feasibility study, with firm cost and passenger demand estimates, will be required.
