Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 30 Jan 1990

Vol. 394 No. 8

Written Answers. - DART-Iarnród Éireann Passengers.

Austin Deasy

Ceist:

479 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the number of passengers carried by the DART rail system in 1989; and the number required to place it in a financial break-even situation, taking capital repayments into account, as well as operating costs.

Austin Deasy

Ceist:

480 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the number of passengers carried by Iarnród Éireann in 1989; and the number needed to place it in a break-even situation financially, taking capital and operational costs into consideration.

Minister for Tourism and Transport (Mr. S. Brennan)

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 479 and 480 together.

Iarnród Éireann have informed me that the estimated number of passengers carried on the railway system in 1989 was 24.8 million.

The company have explained that, given the present utilisation of their rolling stock and rail infrastructures, it would not have been possible to cater for the additional passenger and freight operations on the whole network which would have generated sufficient revenue to achieve a break-even position. This situation is not unique to Iarnród Éireann as many other railway companies are in a similar position.

The company's provisional estimate of travel on the DART system in 1989 is 15.2 million passenger journeys. They estimate that 25.4 million passenger journeys would have been required to break even in 1989.

The above conclusions are based on the assumption of no Exchequer subvention other than that for the interest charges on the capital cost of DART, which in 1989 amounted to £11.3 million.