Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2014
612. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding the plans to electrify the national rail network in order to help meet our carbon emissions targets and increase energy efficiencies. [46362/14]
View answerThere are no plans at present to electrify the national rail network due to the potential costs involved. Analysis has shown that the existing level of funding for the railway network is considerably less than required to maintain the existing network, and there is no possibility of this gap being closed through rail passenger revenues.
Under the current capital plan the focus is on maintaining and extracting the maximum value from existing assets. Furthermore, the key priority over the coming years will be to protect investment made to date and to maintain safety standards. If additional funds are available, which is not certain, there will be many competing projects from all transport modes in all regions. Any additional funds will be prioritised for projects for which there is a clear need, which are affordable, have a sound business case and add value to existing infrastructure.
Subject to funding availability, some projects which are part of the overall DART Underground Programme, and which have capacity benefits in and of themselves, may proceed over the next number of years. One of these projects is the extension of the electrified DART network from Malahide to Balbriggan.
The island of Ireland is exempt from the requirements, under the new EU Ten-T Regulation, to electrify rail networks.
