I welcome the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I knew he would be delighted to come in to deal with this topic. I call the Minister.
Rail Network: Statements
I thank the Acting Chair. He is right, I am very privileged and pleased to be here. I will use my time to reflect on some evolving developments and I look forward to hearing the Senators' perspectives afterwards.
There are many different aspects to this subject. We have our national development plan.
We are rolling out the national planning framework. We are at the cusp, subject to getting an Administration back in Northern Ireland, of a strategic all-island rail review. This may be very useful in this very wide context. Our debate is about the bigger picture in the sense of the rail network and where it is going.
I will give two or three perspectives that are quite broad and inform thinking in government and the investment decisions we need to make. We cannot ignore the climate imperative which is dominating everything in transport. It is an incredible challenge. We must halve our emissions in eight years and they grew 5% last year. It is seemingly impossible but we will do it by reducing demand for transport, shifting to public transport and improving technology through the use of electricity and other measures. It has to be moved towards a better system so it will be possible. This modal shift will drive us towards rail investment. A range of projects are already in train, if Senators will excuse the pun. These include the DART+ programme in Dublin, the metropolitan rail network in Dublin and major developments in metropolitan rail in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.
We should refer to the national planning framework that states we may need more balanced regional development, compact development and low-carbon development. Rail investment gives us all three, particularly rail investment in some of the cities outside Dublin to get balanced regional development. Next week we will go down to Waterford to turn the sod on a major development to move the train station down the Suir to the North Quays and put in place a new sustainability bridge. This will transform Waterford for the better.
Our priority investment in the European recovery and resilience fund was investment in the metropolitan rail system in Cork. The numbers there are taking off even before we increase the frequency. We have just put out a tender contract for the Glounthaune to Midleton twin-tracking upgrade. This will allow us to get from a frequency of approximately every 30 minutes to every ten minutes. We are doing works at Kent Station. We will start to have a Cork metropolitan service from Midleton or Cobh to Mallow. I am very keen that we use our new battery electric trains in this. It will start to create a world-class metropolitan rail system for Cork that will transform the city and create great opportunities to develop housing in areas such as Tivoli, Monard, Blarney and all of the stations that we will open.
It is the same in Limerick. We are steaming ahead, if Senators will excuse another pun, on the reopening of the line to Shannon Foynes Port. We have committed in a pathfinder project to investing in a station in Moyross. We can deliver this in the next three years. This is not on the never-never. There are hundreds of acres of State land around Moyross, where the community needs better connectivity. This could be transformative.
It is the same in Galway. We are working around Ceannt Station and Oranmore station and looking at the upgrade of Athenry to Galway section. It would give us real enhanced capability and capacity for metropolitan rail in Galway. Our first priority should be development in the regions. I am not anti-Dublin - far from it - but Dublin will not cope if all of the development is on the east coast, which is what is happening at present. In fairness it is not all of it, but half the development taking place in the country is there.
I want to look at two other strategic developments without pre-empting the rail review or the decisions that have to be made on a joint basis North and South. This is looking at the long term. It started by looking at a high-speed Cork to Belfast service but broadened out and began to look at the north west. One of the very interesting prospects is a potential new rail line. We have been discussing this in the Dáil. It might spur from Portadown to Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane and Derry with a connection to Letterkenny. This blue-sky thinking, going back to where we were in the early part of the 20th century, could be transformative for the rail network for the entire island and particularly for Donegal which does not have the connectivity and public transport service it needs. It is one of the projects I will be looking to see if we can promote and work with our colleagues in the North to make sure it is in the rail review. It would give us the potential to be transformative in our approach. It is a big long-term project.
The other broad strategic project I will spend time discussing because it is important is to consider whether we are using the existing lines we have to their full potential. Lord knows we have closed enough lines over the past 50 to 60 years. We would really question whether we should keep cutting those that remain or whether we turn it around. The Department's investment strategy is based on trying to use existing assets rather than always building new ones to enhance existing services. It is better in carbon terms and cost terms. It is critically important and good policy.
I keep coming back to a particular example because it is an obvious one. This is the existing line from Waterford to Limerick, Ennis and onwards, particularly the Waterford to Limerick section. It is completely underutilised. The services are so infrequent and the journeys so slow that it is quicker by car. In effect, it is not used. There is only a small number of freight trains running south from Ballina. The infrastructure is not being used. If we were to build it new it would probably cost between €10 billion and €20 billion. It is very expensive to build new rail lines. The strategic question we have is whether we close the line in the same way as we have closed so many lines in the past 50 to 60 years. To my mind, the answer is surely "No". If we are going to keep it, we must ask how we will use it. This draws us into the slightly bigger picture and bigger thinking on what we might do.
There has been a lot of discussion about the western rail corridor in the past five to ten years. There have been surveys and I believe EY did a study last year. Some very good historical analysis was presented recently. The questions that have been asked about that line have been too narrow in their focus. These are questions such as whether enough people from Tuam or Claremorris would be going to Galway to justify building a section from Athenry to Claremorris. Understandably the answer came back that there would not because it would be faster to get the bus directly into Galway and the numbers would not be that large. We should think of it differently, in the context of a longer western rail corridor that runs from Westport or Ballina through Claremorris, Athenry, Ennis, Limerick, Tipperary town, Bansha, Cahir, Carrick-on-Suir, Waterford and Wexford. Then we would have a very different question. I would call this the western Atlantic rail corridor. We should look at it in a big State perspective. What would that line have? It would have a lot of our industries, including all of our biomedical industries in Galway and up the west coast, and all of the big foreign direct investment plants in Mayo. There is a big industrial quarter in the Limerick and mid-west region. At present reaching these involves driving through Tipperary town, Cahir, Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Waterford and on to Rosslare and France. If we told these industries we would provide them with an alternative that is lower carbon, reliable and does not involve trucks but instead uses the rail line, and we also told them they could choose to go out via Shannon Foynes, Marino Point in Cork, Waterford or Rosslare Port, this big strategic thinking would have a market.
It is very hard to switch to rail freight. All of the experts say that if it is not 300 km, it will not work. However, they are not thinking about climate or congestion or how to get all of the drivers for all of the trucks. We have an existing asset which is being underutilised. The new sections between Rosslare and Waterford would have a relatively very low cost because the line is pretty much still intact. The section from Athenry to Claremorris would be slightly trickier because it would have to cross the N17. This development would have a relatively low cost given that there is route alignment. It would give the State a strategic option for the west, north west, mid-west, south and east and connect them together. We would have to do the same with Dublin Port. We would have inland freight connecting yards to marshal the container and other traffic.
That is a strategic bet we should be willing to make. It is an investment decision I hope to see contained in the strategic rail review, and we could do it reasonably quickly because we are using existing infrastructure and assets. We as a country were brilliant at rail. If we go for it and think strategically in that way, we would see rail freight coming back, as well as passenger services. The advantage of rail freight is it re-opens lines, improves infrastructure and then one can build the passenger services on the back of it. That is one of the most interesting prospects for us. I am keen to hear Senators' views. As part of the strategic rail review it is one of the projects I would like to see us take on. We are going to have to discuss and consider it in the coming weeks. I hope Stormont is restored soon. As soon as it is, this issue will be on the table.
I thank the Minister for coming in. I thank him also for being the first Minister for Transport to invest in rail transport in about 70 years. It has been going rapidly downhill for a long time. There had been little meaningful difference made, and I can say that as someone who has been using the train for the last 30 years to travel to Dublin, Limerick and Galway from Clare. I have been an advocate of the modal shift and lessening car use for many years. My experience has completely changed in the two and half years since the Minister took office.
Huge moves like reducing the fare for young people means we have young people taking turns buying each other tickets for the train instead of taking turns driving. I have a 23-year-old son. The 18- to 24-year-old cohort is, unfortunately, the most famous one for crashing cars. The more I see young people on trains the happier I am because they are safer. That is a really important thing. I see trains every day that are full of young people having a good time and being relaxed.
Everybody is arriving into stations less stressed than they would have been had they tried to drive. I met a colleague today who drove for years to Dublin and has just switched to taking the train. He cannot believe he did not do it years ago because sitting in traffic is so stressful. I have driven to Dublin three times in the last two and a half years and I would prefer to never do it again. I got from the Mater to Heuston Station in 12 minutes and got the train home completely stress-free. If I had driven it would have taken me about five hours, given the day I was leaving.
We cannot underestimate the value trains can bring. The Minister touched on it when he talked about how land can be redeveloped around the trains. I was talking to the chief executive, Jim Meade, another great Clare person, a few weeks ago. He was talking about the difference it makes to places like Midleton and Mallow. When we build good rail infrastructure it re-awakens the entire town around it in so many positive ways. It is so great to see this happening in Moyross, where it is badly-needed, and in Foynes.
The more people use trains the fewer car accidents we will have, there will be less traffic congestion, less air pollution and people will be less stressed in general. There are some real positives there. It is also proving to be cheaper now in many cases because, for the first time in 70 years, we had a reduction in the price of rail travel for all people and not just those aged under 24 years or who are students. People still do not realise you do not need to be a student to get 50% off as you just need to be aged under 24 years. I will keep saying that. For adults it is 20% cheaper and if you book in advance it is cheaper again.
The Leap card is something we must work on a bit more because we want it to be workable on trains as well. The other issue is around OAPs who are not great at being online trying to book tickets. I do not find the Irish Rail website the easiest to use anyway but it would be helpful if older people could book their tickets at the stations through the ticket machines that the rest of us can use. Older people have free travel passes so they are able to use the trains, but some struggle to book tickets online. Many older people have been in contact with me about that.
It is very exciting that we are to have 41 new rail carriages. When was the last time we had new rail carriages? We will have to have a big ribbon wrapped around them and have a big scissors. These carriages will be hugely important because they will allow trains, which are now bursting at the seams due to the great moves on price reduction, to be longer. We will have five-carriage trains becoming six-carriage ones, which is really positive. We will also be able to increase frequency. I know from talking to the chief executive of Irish Rail and working with the Minister that if we can make the platforms longer then we can have longer trains arriving.
Coming from the west, it is great to be able to get a train from Ennis to Galway and Ennis to Limerick. However, the frequency is definitely an issue. I hope that will be in some way resolved when these new carriages come into operation. I am also very excited about the 90 battery-electric carriages that have been ordered. They will be delivered in 2026 which, the way the years go, is not that far away at all. These electric carriages will enable us to increase the number of people getting the train from 250,000 to 650,000. Think of how many cars that will take off the road.
Car congestion is one of the biggest challenges we face. This is not just the case in cities. Every town has huge congestion issues. From Ennis to Ennistymon, every town and village with a street has traffic congestion issues and the sooner we can get people out of cars and onto trains the better. To that end, we need to push for this Connecting Ireland piece, whereby we ensure that rural buses, which have also increased, coming into stations are not arriving five minutes after the train has left. There is still a missing piece of the puzzle there and we need Irish Rail and Bus Éireann in the room together looking at timetabling. In Ennis the bus will arrive five minutes after the train has departed 16 times a day. There has been much work done. I appreciate Irish Rail is very busy in its silo and Bus Éireann is busy in its silo. The latter has been expanding its abilities for the last two and a half years thanks to increased funding. However, we now need to get both companies in the room to connect things. Then I will be able to cycle to the end of my road, get on the bus into Ennis, get on the train and head to Dublin without having to wait 45 minutes or two hours because the train has just left the station. That is a missing piece I want to see more work on.
It is not perfect, but many more stations have got new lifts and better wheelchair access. That is important not just for wheelchair users but for people with disabilities and physical ailments.
Overcrowding on the trains is a new problem but in some ways it shows how well we are doing when it comes to the pricing of trains and increasing frequencies. People might give out about it being a problem, but it is a good problem to have in that the demand is there for an increase in train capacity.
I live 17 km from the train station, as do many in rural Ireland. With the back roads I could get an e-bike into town. I will not be able to bring that on the train but I do not need to as we have bikes in Dublin. Where do we put our e-bikes so it is safe? They are not cheap; you cannot just leave them in the same place you would other bikes. We need to look at the Connecting Ireland piece and ensure safe places are provided at stations for stowing e-bikes and ordinary bikes, so people going up to Dublin for a few days can leave them to charge and will not have to worry about them. I have parked bikes at the station but have never felt very confident about it. There are five private lockers at Ennis Station but that was not instigated by Irish Rail or anybody else.
There is also a piece there around parking. If people are constantly parking and are frequent users of the train, maybe there should be something like a frequent flyer programme to reward them for using the train more and more.
I think that is everything. Overall, it is really positive. It is amazing the difference we have made in a short period of two and half years, especially given all the other things we have been dealing with, including Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine. We are seeing the passenger numbers increase. They have gone up by at least 15% on the Limerick to Galway route, which is positive, but we have much more to do. I mentioned ticketing, the timetables and Irish Rail's website, because I am sure somebody is getting paid well to design that. There is also the Leap card roll-out and connecting the trains and buses, which is vital. I really appreciate the work that has been done on improving rail in Ireland. The Minister is dedicated, the chief executive of Irish Rail is dedicated and the Minister's colleagues in the Department seem to be dedicated. I look forward to even more improvements in the future.
Before we move on, I welcome the students and teachers of Rockford Manor School. I understand this is transition year group 1, together with their teachers Kathy Behan and Aoife Doherty. We are discussing the rail network and we have the Minister, Deputy Ryan, here. I am conscious many young people have an interest in the rail network and the improvements taking place. On behalf of the Senators, the Minister and the staff, I hope the students have a wonderful day in Leinster House and thank them for visiting us.
I am sorry; I should have acknowledged Senator Ward. They are from his area as well.
I am sorry that I missed the opening part of the Minister’s presentation. I was down with the Ukrainian, but as I came through the door I thought “what a breath of fresh air”. He is speaking the language that I want to hear. I know that we differ on other things but not on this. I have longed for the day that I can get on a train in Dublin and change to a train that will bring me to Ballina, Donegal, Rosslare or wherever. I long to see long trains carrying freight across the country instead of 40 ft trailers everywhere. I think it is possible. The naysayers say that it cannot happen but it cannot happen if you believe that it cannot happen. However, let us go back to Henry Ford: if you believe you can, you can. It is as simple as that. I am thinking of industries I know along the western corridor. I drove trucks for a living at one stage, delivering to factories from Donegal to Cork and from Cork to Waterford and Waterford to Belfast. I drove every inch of this country and I know how horrendous a task it is in a 40 ft truck trying to get through some of its towns and villages.
Let us take my home town of Galway, for example. If a freight train could come into Galway and offload its cargo and have it distributed to smaller trucks for delivery around the city and county, it would make so much sense and would, first, reduce traffic on the road and, second, help with climate action. It would be far easier to run electric trucks short distances around the county. I am 100% with the Minister there.
I asked him at a committee meeting some time ago to facilitate an earlier train from Ballina because people want to commute to Dublin. That was done quickly after that engagement. I have now been asked to see if the Minister can facilitate a later train home in the evening because we are now in a situation where students are commuting from as far as the west to colleges in Dublin. The request is that there would be a later train home in the evening to Ballina. That is something the Department might examine with Irish Rail.
Quiet carriages were introduced recently. If people are commuting to work early in the morning, that couple of hours by train allows them to do something they cannot do in their car. They can deal with emails and various issues. I ask that this be expanded and that as far as possible that quiet carriages be provided on every rail service in the country. I know that might be a big ask but it would facilitate and encourage more people to use the rail service.
I used to love travelling by rail and I loved the dining car where I could go in and sit down and have a meal. That was largely done away with but even now on some services there is not even a trolley service where a passenger can get a cup of tea and a sandwich. I would love to see that sort of facility brought back. These are all things that make people want to travel. There was a ridiculous situation during the celtic Tiger era where people were flying from Galway to Dublin for meetings. It took them 40 minutes to get out of the city, get through the airport, fly up in 15 or 20 minutes to Dublin, and then another hour and a half to get back into the city centre to have their meeting. A brother of mine said to me it was lunacy because they could drive quicker. They could have taken a bus up and been here quicker than they could flying. I believe the Minister’s vision, or the last part of it that I heard, has huge potential. My colleague in Mayo, Cllr Mark Duffy, has been advocating for the use of rail but facilities such as the quiet carriage and dining experience for those who want it should be available on trains. If the Minister could get to that, it would be helpful.
On a more, almost jovial, note, my father used have to travel up and down to Dublin for treatment for cancer before he died. The first day he went to the train station, he handed in his travel pass and asked for a return ticket to Dublin. They told him it was a only a single ticket. He looked at the poor girl behind the counter and he said, “I know I have cancer; I hope I am not going to die in Dublin and someone would have to bring me home.” A return ticket should be considered. Apart from anything, elderly people having to queue is not right. We should give them their ticket from their home station and let them go back home. Let it be an open ticket of some sort or other.
There is also a slight difficulty with disabilities. Someone very close to me is in a wheelchair and not every service provides wheelchair access and that is something the Minister might look at.
I have an old bugbear, which the Minister and I have discussed before and he was very positive on it, namely, the light rail system for Galway. People travelling on the western rail corridor would be able to get off in Oranmore and use a light rail service to bring them to Ballybrit where many of the medical device companies are based. Most people are now saying that not only will the ring road for Galway not happen in their lifetimes but it will not happen during their grandchildren’s lives either. The people behind light rail believe that can be done quite quickly if the will is there.
The Minister asked whether there would be enough people travelling into Galway from Claremorris and Tuam? If the service was there, it would grow. I recall when the Luas started in my neck of the woods. Early in the morning it was quite easy to get on the Luas; there was no problem. Now I have to battle for my place to get onto the Luas. It is very much a question of, “If you build it, they will come”. We need to develop the rail network so that it is providing services to every corner of the country that it can.
Senator Conway mentioned Crusheen where the rail station is not being used. He made the point that since it is there, it would be very easy to go to the next stage and open it and have a rail stop there. We should do a little bit of thinking like that. Again on the rail service, the Minister and I spoke about the bridge over the Corrib where the old Clifden line was. Would it not be wonderful to have a train service going out to Clifden and the number of tourists it would bring? It would be a rail service that would join Clifden and Westport. I know that I am going way beyond where the plan is but it was done a couple of hundred years ago with the British. We had trains going all over this country and then we ripped them all out. Now thankfully someone with vision is putting back in as many as we can. I would love to see the Minister grow that and I support him in any way possible in his vision for that.
I will leave it there. I thank him, particularly in the area of transport where I appreciate what he is doing on the ground.
I would never pre-empt what the Minister, the Government or Iarnród Éireann would do. I think that the Senator’s cup of tea will be back on the trains before too long but we will leave that to the Minister.
Like others, I welcome the Minister and thank him for his commitment to public transport in general and rail in particular. I join Senator Garvey in giving due recognition to what he has achieved. However, I want to include in my comments decisions taken by Mary O’Rourke when she was Minister back in the late 1990s when she succeeded at a difficult time to effectively turn the train around because there had been a constant lack of investment which was just grinding down the service to a point where it was not even getting the care and maintenance and from a safety perspective, it would almost have to be discontinued and closed. In fairness to her, in her own inimitable way, she managed to cajole, browbeat and muscle up against some strong people at the time who did not want to spend the money on it because they did not see the benefit. It was all about the car and roads and motorways at the time. That was where the focus was. She succeeded in changing thinking at Government level on investing in key infrastructure and she made the point that you either invest in it or you close and she was not for closing. At a later stage, Seamus Brennan put a lot of effort into the Luas. We all know where that is at now. I recall being on a transport committee where there was a lot of criticism about the disruption being caused by laying the Luas tracks. I understood the concerns of small to medium enterprises but to scramble eggs, they have to be cracked first.
The Government at the time stood by that. The Minister has taken a very proactive approach. I really like his thinking when he talks about investing in infrastructure. I have had battles with Government Departments for far too long about the great cost-benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis is one of the greatest tools to prevent things happening. It just measures the benefit based on where things are at currently. If we just take a flat earth and run the slide rule over it, it makes no economic sense, but that is devoid of the appropriate thinking. If we invest in the infrastructure and bring it up to a standard, people will follow. Covid has taught us one of the great lessons that if we do not have to be in the capital city, many people will choose not to do so. They will work from home and commute a few days a week if they have to be in the office or whatever. We need to improve the journey times between some of our regions. From a Clare perspective, if you live close to Ennis, getting from Ennis to Dublin is slow, because there are issues with the connection between Limerick and Limerick Junction. I know there is work under way with a view to speeding that up or perhaps double-tracking part of the route. I hope that is not a decision that has to be dragged out forever. We have had the same issue with connecting Shannon with Limerick, by way of a rail corridor there. Going back 15 to 20 years, Booz Allen Hamilton produced a strategic report that effectively costed it into a place where it would never happen. The Minister has looked at it again. I think there are ways around making that happen. Opening up that facility in Moyross would open up opportunities for people to travel from other parts of County Clare to commute effectively to college, because it is in close proximity to Technological University of the Shannon, TUS, at the site of the former Limerick Institute of Technology. We have to look at how we move students from there over to the University of Limerick in a manner that makes it possible for them, in some cases, to live at home or to use Ennis, Sixmilebridge, Shannon or wherever as student accommodation. Not every kid lives on campus in UCD or Trinity College. They travel from all over the city. They come from other parts of the country. We should not be shoehorning people into tight areas when we can provide good-quality, low-carbon public transport. We have to get real about what it is that we are trying to do, and look at the consumer and how consumer choice might change and follow if the infrastructure is there.
I remember some time ago, going back a number of years, talking to Dick Fearn, who was the CEO of Iarnród Éireann. He made the point that often, rail companies focus on keeping the engines running. They are principally engineers that run rail companies because of the large-scale engineering operations that are involved. They do not always focus, or at that stage they were not focusing, on where the consumer is at. It speaks to what Senator Garvey has said. It was not about timing, it was about getting the train to and from a place and getting the engines running and all of that. I must say that Jimmy Meade is a breath of fresh of air from that perspective. The people around him, Barry Kenny and others, are very well focused on where the consumer demand is, how the service might be improved to meet the needs of the consumer, rather than saying the trains have to go to and from particular points and asking whether they have carriages and the engines, which of itself is a hugely difficult logistic and engineering problem.
That change has happened. The Government is now focused very intensively on providing the funds to put new infrastructure in place to open up stations. As my colleagues, Senators Craughwell, Conway and others, have been highlighting for a very long time, we need to open that station in Crusheen. Crusheen is to Ennis what Moyross is to Limerick. There is a lot of residential development taking place in that area. It is outside the town. If we put appropriate parking in place, people will come there from other parts of the county just to utilise the service and park their cars there.
Senator Garvey is right. She has talked about the extreme in terms of the electric bike and all of that. There are a lot of people who perhaps have not gone that far yet but would be happy to park their cars if there was appropriate parking. I think we have to look at that as a first step in achieving that modal shift. The issue of people driving to Dublin or parts of the country could be adequately addressed now through the rail network if we have appropriate parking for them. Where I live, if I have to drive to Limerick or to Ennis I have to have appropriate parking because it is too far to cycle or to take an electric bike. We have not been good at providing appropriate parking. The situation in Limerick was pretty difficult. People are advised not to leave their cars overnight but if I have to be in Dublin, where am I going to leave my car? We must put the necessary security systems in place. There were incidents of car theft in the past. We need to look at the whole journey from the time people leave home to when they get to their destination, and fix the pieces along the way. That is really important.
I have talked about making the modal shift in the past. The Minister is going in the right direction in reducing public transport fares. I think we should do what they did in Luxembourg, and eliminate fares all together for a period. I accept that it would be a costly measure and would put more pressure on rail but if we could do that and could set aside the money required, we could say there would be no fares for a five-year period and fares could be introduced gradually commensurate with pay or where people are at. If people get to see that they can operate without their cars, we will have made significant change.
I look to the students that are present, and I have an annoyance all the time with the way we deal with school transport. We set these limits. Students can access school transport if they live within 1 km or 2 km of the school and if they are closer than that, they cannot. We go through all this fuss every September. They are the next generation and we have to make it easy for them to get on a bus or public transport. We should be eliminating all those barriers. There should be a period of five years where there are no charges on public transport. If the Government does so, it will take away the incentive for the 19-, 20- or 21-year-old to even contemplate purchasing a car. It will get them into the mind-set of using public transport. There are probably old fogies like me and others who will hold onto the car for as long as we can and who will use public transport when it suits us or when it is appropriate but we are in a groove. While we need to move towards using electric vehicles and all of that, we should be looking to the next generation. We should be looking at the investment in infrastructure that makes it possible for people to move and change their behaviour in a way that will benefit the environment in the long run.
I will be brief because I only want to raise one issue with the Minister. At the beginning of last year, the NTA published the greater Dublin area transport strategy. It followed a public consultation that it had run for a number of months beforehand. There were 886 submissions received off the back of the Fairer Fares campaign, a campaign that was started by my party colleague, Councillor Sharon Tolan. The reason she is looking for it is that as the Minister is aware, the short hop zone extends to the north of my constituency to Balbriggan. It extends just to the tip of Meath and goes right down to Wicklow. There are towns that have train stations and access just outside of each of those counties. Senator Wall is here, and he will attest to that fact. The difference in the cost of between getting the train from Laytown, which is just north of Balbriggan, and Balbriggan is significant. An adult monthly ticket from Laytown costs €237, and minutes down the road in Balbriggan, it is €136. It is absolutely no wonder that people from Laytown and Gormanston are getting in their cars every morning and driving to Balbriggan, taking up the spaces in the Balbriggan train station car park in order that they can get the train at a much cheaper rate. It makes perfect sense to them, but it is absolutely illogical for any public policy to allow this to continue. The short hop zone fares need to be extended to Laytown, Gormanston and probably up to Drogheda, into Kildare and down to Wicklow. We must do that to make sure that all of those people who are using their cars every day and who we do not want on our roads, are not clogging up the roads and are availing of the public transport the Minister is heavily investing in and improving markedly. That needs to be said and has been shared by other colleagues.
What I want the Minister to have a look at is the 886 submissions and pleas to look at extending the short hop zone to Gormanston and Laytown, to the north of my constituency in Fingal, into Kildare and Meath and down to Wicklow. It would not cost an awful lot of money but would save thousands of needless journeys in the car every day for all of those people. As I said, my colleague, Councillor Sharon Tolan raised this and genuinely has enormous support in our neck of the woods. I am sure that it is also true that she would have support in Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. I ask the Minister to sincerely and seriously look at the extension of that in next year's budget.
I welcome the Minister and acknowledge his drive, ambition and interest in this area. I will confine my contribution to the western rail corridor.
I acknowledge the work of the West on Track campaign group which for a year has fought the fight for the western rail corridor. It was a difficult fight to maintain the line when alternative uses were being suggested for it. Part of that campaign on social media was quite nasty. In that vein, last week the Minister announced funding for the greenway between Tuam and Athenry. There is still confusion over whether that is a greenway on the railway line, which I do not believe is the intention but is certainly causing confusion in Galway. Some people in the west of Ireland seem to be of the view that we cannot have a rail line, a greenway and a motorway - that we could not have all three. Why should we not have all three in the west? I ask the Minister to confirm that the western rail corridor is to be protected for rail and that a greenway will be built alongside, in the vicinity or in a different area. I ask for that confirmation because there is confusion in the media in Galway on that.
The welcome figures for the increase in use of the rail corridor and the recovery post the Covid pandemic speak for themselves. We have seen a 56% increase from 2019 to 2022 on the Limerick-Ennis route and a 22% increase on the Ennis-Athenry route since 2019, which is all very welcome particularly as we have seen reductions by 26% in DART, 34% in commuter and 25% in intercity services in 2022. I hope those will continue to recover, but it puts into perspective the increase in use on the Galway to Limerick line, which is to be welcomed.
There are concerns about the journey times and I know Iarnród Éireann has a plan to rectify that by providing a passing loop at Sixmilebridge, and longer platforms at Craughwell and Ardrahan, all of which are necessary. There are ongoing problems at Ballycar and there is engagement between the local authority and the OPW. We need to get movement on that. Last week Jim Meade, the chief executive of Iarnród Éireann, informed Oireachtas Members that there is uncertainty over the lead authority on that and whether it is the OPW or the local authority. That needs to be resolved to improve the situation there. I welcome that URDF funding has been provided for a passing loop at Oranmore to improve commuter services, which is proceeding along with double-tracking from Athenry. All that is very positive.
I agree with the vision the Minister has expressed on the western rail corridor and interlinkages. I ask him to confirm that the line is for rail to ensure there is no ambiguity or uncertainty about that project.
I welcome the Minister to the House and I thank Senator Doherty for sharing her time with me. I love the Minister's thinking about freight and passenger rail. I concur with Senator Kyne on the western rail corridor. I thank the Minister for his commitment to that. He is one of the first Ministers who has really come out strongly in favour of the western rail corridor. At this point it would be no harm to remember the late Fr. Mícheál Mac Gréil, who passed away quite recently. He was one of the founders of the campaign to bring the western rail corridor to fruition.
I use the train quite frequently and I see a large volume of people using the train now compared with years ago. Whether it is a seven-carriage train or a four-carriage one, it always seems to be full. The problem in Mayo now is not having enough trains and the frequency is not adequate. The service to Galway, Limerick and Cork is every hour. We only have a service every two or three hours. If some trains from Westport and Ballina went to Athlone, passengers could join the Galway train at that stage which has a service every hour. Iarnród Éireann should consider that.
The journey time from Westport to Dublin is hardly any quicker than it was 100 years ago and it should be quicker. There are more than 11 stops on the Westport and Ballina lines to Dublin. If it takes two minutes to stop at each station, that is nearly half an hour in stops. A train coming from Westport or Ballina to Dublin should not have any stops after Athlone. Iarnród Éireann should consider having some trains from the west going to Athlone and joining the Galway service at that stage.
I welcome the Minister. It is good to hear such a positive conversation on rail across the Chamber. I am really curious to see what that strategic rail review looks like. It set out a number of really important goals in addition to contributing to decarbonisation, such as improving all-Ireland connectivity, enhancing regional rural accessibility, encouraging sustainable mobility and fostering economic activity.
My concern is that the Minister seems to be saying we will need to wait until the Assembly in the Six Counties is reconvened. That might be a while; I hope it is not. This rail review started at the end of November 2021. Realistically, this Government probably has about 18 months left. The longer we need to wait for the rail review to be published, the fewer projects can commence under this Government. I appeal to the Minister to look beyond that delay at the moment because frankly he may need to publish it. I call on him to consider that. I know that in an ideal world we would do it in conjunction with the North, but the political climate at the moment may not be conducive. I urge him to consider publishing the report anyway.
There have been a number of references to what the report might contain and some very welcome references to the routes between Letterkenny and Derry, Athenry and Claremorris, and Wexford and Waterford. I hope those are contained in the review. As someone from Limerick, I have particular concerns about how prominently Limerick will feature in the strategic review. As the Minister knows, Jim Meade has said that Limerick is particularly well suited to a local rail network because the track is still available. We need to see what can be delivered sooner rather than later. I acknowledge that after my raising it several times, the decision to complete the track work on the Ballybrophy line was rolled up. It was due to take three years and it has been rolled up into one year, which I welcome. The journey time from Limerick through Castleconnell to Ballybrophy has now been reduced by 15 minutes which is very welcome. I use that line regularly and I have seen the numbers begin to improve, which is very welcome.
The North Tipperary Community Rail Partnership deserves particular credit because it has been driving that campaign for a number of years. It has a number of other suggestions and I would like to see the Minister's response to these. As the journey time on that line has now improved - I know further work remains to be done removing some of the gates that continue to slow it down - what we really need is a service in the middle of the day. At the moment I can get into Limerick in the morning and can get home just after 5 o'clock. However, we need a middle-of-the-day service to encourage more people to come in and out who do not intend to spend the whole day in Limerick city. It has been requested for a number of years and I hope the Minister will be able to deliver it in the near future. Some people were expecting it this year but it did not happen. I hope the Minister will deliver it in the following 12 months.
We also need a late-night service on that train for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A number of us have spoken about the need to deliver a nighttime economy not just in Limerick but throughout the State. One key component is the ability to get home late at night by public transport.
We had a very positive announcement on BusConnects yesterday and I welcome a number of the announcements for Limerick city. However, key commuter towns outside Limerick city, such as Castleconnell, Murroe, Caherconlish and Newport in County Tipperary, were not included. It would take hundreds of cars off the road and enable many more people to get into and out of Limerick city if there were more regular bus services to those towns. At the moment, people need to wait in some instances between three and four hours for a bus. In this day and age that is just not acceptable. I was genuinely disappointed that the BusConnects group missed that opportunity. It was an obvious move to make which I had highlighted beforehand but it has not been done.
The Minister might look to revisit that with regard to the connectivity issue. I welcome the Limerick to Foynes work, which is significant. I will ask him about the fact that many locals in County Limerick are asking for a greenway to go alongside that rail line. I have written to him, Limerick County Council and Irish Rail about it. I did not get a response from him, but I understand that. He is very busy. However, the response I received from the others was that it was not their business. We need joined-up thinking. A greenway makes perfect sense on that line. It would be a shame to see all that work done and then have to redo it again in years to come, when we recognise a greenway should be there. If travelling throughout Europe, it is common to see greenways alongside motorways and railways. That is the model we should approach. I would welcome the Minister's thoughts on that point.
I wish to raise the Galway line, because it has improved. Passenger numbers have improved, but the service is still very slow. It takes two hours. I can drive there in one hour, from the wrong side of Limerick to Galway. I wonder what plans the Minister has for speeding up the service. I am very encouraged by what he said about the station in Moyross. To be clear, I still to believe the North Circular Road needs to be added to free up Moyross and really open it up. The Minister will not agree with me on that, but that has been our consistent line. Can he confirm that the Moyross station will open within the next three years? He has mentioned the pathfinder project. It would be welcome if he could confirm it.
What other stations across Limerick is he considering? Limerick to Limerick Junction has tremendous potential for suburban and other stations to open up. We used to have stations there in the past. It is an easy win for the Government to do that. We are not looking at high costs to reopen those stations. I wish to understand where Limerick will stand in this strategic rail review.
I will revisit the issue of the rail spur to Shannon which, as another Senator mentioned, was ruled out on a cost basis 20 years ago, incorrectly. Shannon Airport needs that rail link. It would be crucial in acting as a counterweight to Dublin. We should not have a situation where more than 90% of flights leave from Dublin. Shannon seems to be on the way back, which I welcome, but it would be great to see confidence shown by the Government in that rail spur. It should not be considerably costly. It is quite a short distance from the existing Galway line to run a spur into Shannon Airport. I would expect that to be part of the strategic review deliverables. It would be a huge miss, if it was not there. I do not know how much the Minister can comment on that. I wish to understand where the double-tracking project between Limerick and Limerick Junction is at. These are important points to make.
I have covered most of the important points I wanted to make. Let us get as much delivered as we can. There has been an awful lot of talk about rail. We wish to see that supported but we need deliverables and timelines.
I welcome the Minister to the House for this important debate. I also welcome his comments on rail freight, which are important. I look at pictures of the rail network going back 60 or 70 years and the way lines covered the country, compared to what we have now. It shows what we have lost and the potential we had in those times. Rail freight to take juggernauts, etc., out of our towns and villages should be invested in. I am glad the Minister mentioned it. However, I thank him for using one of those old railway lines for the new Athy inner relief street, which is almost built. It will relieve congestion in the town. It has been awaited in the town for 40 years. The street is on an old disused railway line. It will bring many advantages and take congestion out of town. However, we should develop and invest in rail freight. I am encouraged by the Minister's opening comments.
It is probably no surprise that I wish to talk about short hop zones. I have spoken to the Minister and the NTA about this previously. We need to extend the short hop zone to Newbridge. That will have a positive effect on the stations in Athy, Kildare town, Monasterevin and Portarlington. It is an issue the Labour Party in Newbridge and the people of south Kildare have been fighting for a long time. In the past number of years, we have gathered together more than 7,000 signatures from hard-pressed commuters, which we presented to the CEO of the NTA, Ms Anne Graham. At that meeting and at further meetings with the Minister, we have been told that the NTA is responsible for setting fares but, in the absence of appropriate Government funding to fund any fare reductions, the NTA's hands are tied.
It seems the same arguments were given to my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, in Mallow, who launched a similar campaign back in 2016. As the Minister will be aware, the Deputy succeeded in his campaign this year, by adding Mallow to the leap card scheme. The evidence, as the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks, told its own story. Passenger numbers from the station have almost doubled. Between May 2021 and the beginning of September 2021, they stood at 44,000, whereas the same figures for 2022 almost doubled to 77,000 commuters. As has been said, reduce the fares and they will come.
I will use the opportunity to acknowledge the work of the rail group, through Newbridge community development, which has been contact with the Minister about the short hop zone. It has had numerous conversations with Government officials and the NTA. I acknowledge Jennifer Caffrey, who continues to share information from hard-pressed commuters about the numerous times that they are struggling with costs and the costs of coming from the train stations in south Kildare. The fact remains that hard-pressed commuters are bypassing Newbridge and other Kildare stations and driving to Sallins. What makes that remarkable is that Government has invested in a new car park in Sallins. It has encouraged people to drive to Sallins, bypass Newbridge, Athy and Kildare and go for lower fares.
The issue has been mentioned by Senator Doherty. Who can blame them? I have seen the tickets used by some of those commuters. They are saving up to €200 per month. Who can blame them when they are paying mortgages, etc., having come to live in south Kildare? They can save €200 by getting in to their cars. However, the problem, which I experience three or four times per week, is that the N7 and the M7 are nothing more than car parks. Once people get to Kill every morning, they are stopped. A journey that should take ten minutes now takes 40 minutes. That is every morning of the week, no matter what time I leave, whether it is 7 a.m., 8 a.m., or 9 a.m. It does not ease up until after 10 each morning. There are no accidents. It is just the volume of traffic. People are using their cars and that is the problem.
The Minister has spoken about the climate crisis and we support him. My Labour Party colleagues in the Dáil and the Seanad have mentioned a €9 monthly ticket that other countries, such as Germany, are using. That is where we need to go. Luxembourg has been used as an example by Senator Dooley. We need to take that risk. We need to make sure that we offer people the potential to go there. I acknowledge the youth travel card. I pushed for it and I am glad that the Minister brought it in. The card has made a difference. We need to extend it. We need to go for the €9 monthly ticket or free travel. That will make the difference. It will take the pressure off the roads and improve everything that we are fighting for in climate action. I know that the Minister has looked at it, but we need to take that extra step.
There a couple of other issues I wish to raise with him. Toilet facilities are brought up with me on a regular basis, especially in Newbridge train station. I am dealing with a number of people who have various disabilities, cannot use the toilet facilities in Newbridge and are limited by the public transport they can take. The same is happening in other train stations throughout Kildare. I have mentioned Athy. When I speak to Irish Rail, I am told it is a staffing issue and that because appropriate staff are not in place, it cannot open the facilities. That is simply not good enough when we are trying to encourage people and those with disabilities, in particular, to take public transport. Those toilets need to be open at rail times. They need to be open constantly and staff need to be provided to have them open. I get phone calls from people who say they cannot use rail services, because they do not have the facilities. It is simply not good enough. The Government needs to sit down with Irish Rail, the NTA and whoever else is responsible for them and provide those staff. It is a very simple solution. This is going on too long. There is no regularity about when those facilities are open for people.
I am warmed by the Minister's comments on freight and I support them. However, at this stage, the short hop zone needs to be looked at.
There have been comments and proposals have been put together. I have submitted to the greater Dublin area transport strategy on this. I have spoken to the Minister numerous times before. Government needs to take action. It needs to extend the short-hop zone not just for Kildare but the other counties Senator Doherty spoke about today. We need to stop the N7 being a carpark every morning, as it is at the moment.
I welcome the Minister here to have this discussion on the rail network and, moreover, the all-island rail review. Following the formation of Government and the announcement of an all-island rail review, as party spokesperson on Northern Ireland, I went to Derry and met with the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, SDLP, Colum Eastwood. We discussed this on the back of that. The Minister then had negotiations with Minister Nichola Mallon. This became a two-way proposal on the all-island rail review. At that stage my interest in meeting the leader of the SDLP was particularly in relation to the north west, which, as the Minister knows, used to have reasonable rail coverage. However, it has lost it for many decades now. Proposals are afoot for high-speed rail from Belfast to Dublin and possibly on to Cork. However, infrastructure west of the Bann has been lacking over the past number of decades; moreover, there is a lack of infrastrcuture on the western seaboard as well and counties are continuously downgraded. The push and the argument was to have high-speed rail connectivity from Belfast to Derry and, on the back of that, it was the perfect opportunity to have rail connectivity back into Letterkenny and Donegal again.
Originally, the rail connectivity would have been from Letterkenny down through Strabane, Omagh, Tyrone, Monaghan and onto Dublin. Considering that footfall of population in Derry, Belfast, Newry and Dublin, there was an opportunity and we went for it. The Minister asked for submissions on the all-island rail review. I believe up to 40% of the submissions came from the north west on that connectivity, and we are delighted with that.
My point is in relation to that review. There is an impasse at the moment and the Minister has not been able to announce that review. Even if there was a protocol deal tomorrow, it would not mean Stormont would be up and running in the next two months. We may not even have Stormont up and running in the next six months, with all things falling in the right direction and everything going according to plan.
I listened to Alastair Campbell and Bertie Ahern at the IBEC event this morning. They both agreed that if the protocol is not agreed in the next two weeks, there probably will not be another go at it until the next government. That means that the Minister’s rail review will not be allowed to happen. I already raised this with our party leader, the Tánaiste. I ask the Minister to go to Northern Ireland, sit down with the political parties there and discuss his plans and their aspirations. The Minister’s original plan was a southern Government proposal. Given the impasse and situation we are in, he has the perfect opportunity to discuss it with them, take their views on board and go ahead and announce this plan. Otherwise, I fear that we will get to the end of this Government’s term and we will not have any work done on an all-island rail review and its implementation. That is my main call today.
I saw where, a couple of weeks ago, the The Journal.ie published an article that mentioned a couple of connectivity points and Letterkenny was mentioned. I was delighted to read that, but it is not enough without that high-speed rail from Derry to Belfast. The speed of the rail is too slow. It is imperative that the north west is looked at. I have been pushing this agenda from the point of view of the shared island funds. While the first tranche of funds may go towards the Belfast-Dublin line, the next Government should examine and put in place high-speed rail from Derry to Belfast and have connectivity to Donegal. It is the best opportunity for Donegal. If the Minister has plans for other connectivity from the South, we would absolutely take them with open arms. Moreover, it is time we got this plan and the discussions with political parties in Northern Ireland moving. It is a practical step and I think it is one they would welcome as well.
I wish to share my time with Senator Carrigy. The Minister is always welcome to the Seanad. I spoke with him many times over the years about travelling by train. I travel by train all the time out of necessity as I do not drive. I often describe myself as the original Green because I travel so much on public transport. I would say 80% of the travelling I do is on public transport. The staff in Iarnród Éireann are outstanding. Everyone from the ticket people to the hosts on the train, right up to Jim Meade, the managing director, are all great people and great public servants. Of course, they need investment, choice, more routes and more trains.
I know the Minister is committed to this agenda. Since he came into office, we have seen an absolute momentum behind train travelling. The initiative in the budget and the cost-of-living measures reducing the cost of travelling for under-25s and all of those measures have worked. I see the numbers travelling by train have ballooned in recent years. On a Thursday evening, returning from Leinster House to Ennis, it is heartening to see that there is only standing room on the train that goes from Limerick Junction at 6 p.m. that gets into Ennis at around 6.45 p.m.
However, we need more railway stations. I have spoken here about the Crusheen stop. I was disappointed in the response to a Commencement matter on Crusheen station yesterday because I truly believe that it would not take a huge amount. They do not need staff because most of these small railway stations, such as Oranmore, are automated anyway. The infrastructure is there and Iarnród Éireann owns the land and property, so it is not that difficult.
I know my time is limited. One issue that needs to be addressed urgently is an early morning train from Dublin to Cork. The first train from Dublin does not get into Cork until 9.50 a.m. That is too late for most people working and most people studying. If you wanted to go from Ennis to Cork, you will only get in at 9.50 a.m. We need, as opposed to a 7 a.m. train from Dublin to Cork, a 5.30 a.m. one that gets in before 9 a.m. that can then support the stations along the route and can be fed from Ennis and Limerick into Cork or into Limerick Junction and change and so on. The Minister needs to look at the route structure and the route times. We need more services and more frequency.
I will hone in on Senator Blaney’s point, which is the word “connectivity” and, in particular, the north west. Unfortunately, the north west and midlands are not served properly. We are the only area in the country that is serviced by our motorway. This is an issue I have raised with the Minister and it is disappointing that funding was not in place to progress the works with regard to putting in a proper, safe road that would continue from Mullingar and connect in with the works that were done farther west. We are entitled to it. The reality is we do not have a proper train line service either from the midlands back out. It is a single-line track for a majority of it and, therefore, we have infrequent service. There are a significant number of services from Mullingar or Maynooth, which I use when I travel particularly to rugby or football games in Croke Park or the Aviva. I would actually drive as far as Maynooth and take the train in. It is a fantastic service and it is great value. I compliment the Minister on the reductions that have been put in place there. People are using them more.
However, farther out from the city and into the regions is where we are lacking infrastructure. There is infrequent service.
I understand there is just one morning service at 5.30 a.m. coming from Longford for people who are working in Dublin. As I said, there is an infrequent timetable due to the fact it is a single carriageway in much of that area. I want to put those points on record. Any investment that goes into rail or otherwise must service the entire country.
The Minister is due to speak at 1.05 p.m. and three speakers are indicating. Is it agreed they will share the five minutes? Agreed. I call Senator Maria Byrne.
I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss this important issue. While I only have brief speaking time, I want to raise two issues. The first concerns the Limerick to Foynes railway line and the fact trees and shrubbery were removed overnight along the rail line to the detriment of houses in Kilteragh, Huntsfield, Cúl Crannagh, Lissanalta, Springfields and Glencairin. I stood in one person's bedroom recently and it was like a motorway in that it has now opened up the whole area, and the M20 and the rail line can be seen right beside people's back gardens. Transport Infrastructure Ireland says this has nothing to do with it and that it is the fault of the rail line. I know the rail company has met with the residents and it is to come back with a plan.
On a second point, I was contacted by a special school recently which tried to book tickets from Limerick to Dublin. It was told it could only have one disability place when there were three people travelling in wheelchairs. I contacted Irish Rail and the issue was resolved but it should not have to come to that. Those are the two issues I would like to raise. I am conscious I have to share time so I will hand over to Senator Ward.
I wish to raise a similar disability issue which relates to the DART line. A lot of public money was spent installing bridges over the DART line at stations like Blackrock and Booterstown. They are very effective and easy to use except when the lifts are not working. It seems that, from time to time, lifts go out of order and there is no urgency to fix them, which means people with mobility issues, in particular wheelchair users, are stuck when they get to the DART station and find they cannot get to the platform on the other side, or worse, they arrive at a DART station and then find they cannot leave the station. I ask the Minister to impress upon Iarnród Éireann the urgency of fixing lifts when they break because they are a vital component of providing accessible transport solutions for everyone.
With regard to the Luas, there has been a real missed opportunity. Maybe the ship has sailed but given there is a corridor for the Luas, there is ample opportunity to have a parallel cycle lane next to the Luas, particularly as it brings people from the suburbs into the city centre. If it is still possible to do that, it should be done throughout the network. We are not allowed to bring our bikes on the Luas, and I say that as somebody who has been thrown off the Luas for carrying a bike. It is a real shame that we cannot do that.
I thank the Senators for allowing me the time to come in. The Minister is aware I am based in Ballinasloe and that I am representing the west, which is why I am here to speak. We looked to speak with the Minister and, as I mentioned, we met briefly last week. There is a 6.25 a.m. train service from Galway to Dublin, stopping at Athenry, Athlone and Tullamore, but not at Ballinasloe. Ballinasloe has one train service leaving before 7.30 a.m. going east to Athlone, Tullamore and Dublin. In Athlone, there are five services that leave before 7.30 a.m. to bring people to Dublin. I ask for the Minister's support. We need to look at how we can include Ballinasloe as a stop on that line. Second, I believe food services on the trains are crucial, and the Minister might speak to when that is happening.
I apologise that I have to rush my contribution as time is short. I want to refer to one line that has delays. I know the Minister is looking at Ceannt Station and the line to Oranmore, but there is only single track and no dual track from Portarlington to Galway, which means there are delays on the line. Some of the teams on the train are excellent at speaking on the loudspeakers about the train service. However, people are smoking and each time they smoke, they are blocking the train doors, which is delaying the train. Each time the train is delayed, people are stuck and they wonder why it is stuck at, say, Woodlawn on the way from Galway to Dublin. Often, it has been delayed because it is a single line track. If the Minister could do something about that, it would be much appreciated. If we cannot have a dual line, then it is crucial we use staff to ensure people are not blocking doors and that they are considerate of others on the train who may be trying to get to a meeting. We also need to ensure we stick to the times that are indicated on the timetables for arrival and departure.
I appreciate all of the contributions from the Senators and I will try to reflect and respond to some of the specific issues that have been raised. Before doing that, I want to make a broader point. I was making the case earlier that we make this switch and this investment, we reopen lines, we bring back freight and, in particular, we get balanced regional development through investment in rail, and I believe that is all absolutely correct. However, we should say at the start that it is no small challenge because, for 50 or 60 years, we have invested everything in road and our entire system is based on everyone driving everywhere. It is not going to be easy to reverse that, particularly with regard to freight. I did not go into some of the complex details as to what we will have to do in the ports, the timelines we will need to get rail freight down to the quays and how there will need to be shunting yards in different parts of the country to get goods off the train and down to the local area. That is a huge change and is not without issues.
However, I keep going back to the first premise, namely, do we abandon that and just keep going with road? For so many different reasons, that would not be the correct decision. Many of these issues are very qualitative and do not fit into some of the cost-benefit analysis mentioned by Senator Dooley, but they are very real and I want to pick up on a couple of those.
First, Senator Garvey referred to safety, from which there is a huge benefit if we make this switch. We can see road accident numbers and fatalities going up again. If we switch, this will be about safety as well as connectivity.
The Senator referred to e-bikes. If we look at what is happening in other countries where they get good, frequent rail services and connect cycling infrastructure to them, why would we not move towards places like Utrecht or some such town where there are 10,000 bikes outside the railway station? The benefit is that it does not take that much space, it is not that expensive and it is very healthy. Space is an important commodity around railway stations, given what we want to do is build housing close to them and not build massive car parks.
We have a question that goes back to the more subtle arguments, and it is not just a question of whether we abandon rail. In many instances, it is about what we do with our 19th century market towns, which were often built around rail. The great benefit when we go to rail is that the station is in the middle of the town - I am trying to remember Senator Dolan's town of Ballinasloe.
The station is 15 minutes outside the town.
The Minister, without interruption.
That is fine. I am better informed now thanks to Senator Dolan. I will just make the point. There are subtle gains within this that we need to take into account. I agree with Senator Craughwell that part of that is having a cup of tea and actually enjoying the experience of getting the services and, as he suggested, people being able to get a return ticket. I accept that.
I hate to do it but I must disagree with Senator Dooley on one matter, although I agree with everything else he was saying. I do not agree with this idea that we go back to zero fares. What is not to like about that as a political concept? Nothing, except we need a lot of money to go into our public transport system. We have a €200 million hole in the public service obligation, PSO, budget and the numbers are going right up because we have reduced the fares. As to the idea that we would just go to zero fares, even for five years as the Senator suggested, that would take from the money we are going to need to invest in the alternative. Now that we have done the 50% fare cut for those under 24 and the 20% cut for everyone else, I strongly believe it is best to invest in greater frequency rather than going to zero fares. That is my view and I disagree with Senator Dooley on that.
Senators Doherty and Wall both mentioned the short hop. They are right that there are specific examples. We are looking at that and the Government will very shortly publish detailed proposals which I hope will address some of those concerns. There will always be a difficulty when it gets to the edge of the zone and some places are going to be at the end. However, a large number of towns are currently disadvantaged and the Senators talked about patterns in places like Sallins. That is happening so we need to address it; we are due to do so in the coming weeks and we will be giving the details of that shortly.
To answer Senator Kyne's concern about services from Tuam to Athenry, nothing we do is going to get in the way of holding the line for rail development. Any other greenway development or ancillary works are not going to interfere with the potential for us to restore a railway service on that section between Claremorris and Athenry.
Senator Blaney is right that it would be intolerable if we were not able to progress our plans because the Assembly is not restored in the North.
We will have to address that if it comes. I would take up the Senator’s suggestion and travel to visit and talk to the parties up north to make sure we can publish if they cannot restore in some form. The Tánaiste and Taoiseach are working, as are all of us, to try to restore the institutions. We have to give it time but that time is not limitless. I accept the Senator's point that this Government has about 18 months and has a real opportunity to make big investment decisions in the right direction. I will take up the Senator’s suggestion if we are not able to get a restoration.
I would suggest a slight tweak. It is vital to get connectivity to Donegal. It has suffered from all that lost connectivity. I do not believe it is necessarily the Belfast-Derry route. It is a great route and a beautiful train ride but I think the real opportunity may be a spur from Portadown through Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane, Lifford and Derry to Letterkenny. Those towns are not small and would benefit from such connectivity. The advantage is it would run from Derry into Letterkenny and then give the option to go from there to Belfast or Dublin, one being a more direct route. That is the prize that I will talk to the political parties up north about if I get the chance.
Senator Conway is correct when he says the numbers are ballooning. It is not so much on commuting services, where commuting five days per week has not come back. People are working remotely, which has potential benefits. They are ballooning on weekends and on the intercity services. We are an outlier in that our public transport numbers have come back in a way other countries have not. I take the Senator's point on earlier services and greater frequency. Rather than putting the money into zero fares, I would put it into earlier trains and greater frequency. You get into a virtuous circle then, when the numbers keep rising.
Senator Carrigy's issue about where to invest in single carriageway pinch points on the network is key. There are many parts of line where the case could be made for twin-tracking, such as Limerick Junction to Limerick, Athenry to Galway or the whole Sligo line. There is a case for such investment, which improves travel time. A challenge we have is the motorway network we built, though not to every part of the country. There was significant investment in the road network over the past 30 years. It is quicker in many instances to drive so a key question is where to put the investment. In Dublin, one might want to do four-tracking out of Connolly, which would increase speed to Sligo. That is a perfect example of a line where, if we increased the speed, the line would really take off. That is a strategic question we will have to ask. With the limited resources we have, where will twin-tracking give the best advantage? In any investment in the rail network, we have to start favouring better balanced regional development, which means connectivity to the north west, west, south west and south east. Some investments should be relatively easily done because there are not huge planning problems. Often, Iarnród Éireann has access to the space. It would not be controversial in planning terms.
I cannot comment on the houses Senator Maria Byrne mentioned on the line to Foynes. She and Senator Ward said, and I very much agree, that we need to design for disability. What Senator Byrne said is true about the instances where three people in wheelchairs could not get tickets. One learns in public transport that by designing for disability, accessibility is improved for all. It could be someone in a wheelchair, someone with a buggy, etc. Senator Byrne is right on that. With anything we build and design, including new stations, the more accessible and disability-friendly, the better the service for everyone.
Senator Dolan made a fair point on Ballinasloe. Athlone has five services. It was made by a number of others. If we can enhance the service for those living in Ballinasloe and working in Dublin or Galway and commuting two or three times a week, give them the capability of doing that and make sure there is a space on the train, that would create a virtuous circle for our beautiful 19th-century market towns - town centre first - including Ballinasloe or any town around the network. We could increase the frequency so everyone doing that takes the train rather than drives. Senator Wall referred to the N7 being blocked. That is the other reason. We need this to do for climate but also for the simple mathematics. If everyone drives, even on that road which is almost of California-Los Angeles dimensions, it will not work. We made it an eight-lane highway and, lo and behold, it is clogged, as Senator Wall said, from 7 a.m until 10 a.m. Some say it is a crazy investment in rail and does not make sense but in a country like Ireland which is booming and whose population and economy are growing, relying on a car-based system will never work. We have to switch. Switching to rail, as well as bus and cycling, is the right way to do it. I heard common consensus on that today.
Apologies, but we are out of time. I thank the Minister.