Vol. 558 No. 6
155 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Transport if he will sanction funding for the upgrading of Connolly Station, thereby increasing capacity on the line between Connolly and Pearse stations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25327/02]
The DTO strategy A Platform for Change identifies the need to upgrade the DART as a critical project in addressing the public transport requirements of the greater Dublin area.
The bottleneck between Connolly and Pearse stations has been included in the DASH project, Dublin area suburban enhancement, which has as its objective a substantial increase in the capacity of the Dublin suburban rail network and DART system.
I am informed by Iarnród Éireann that it plans to undertake the DASH project in two phases: the extension of platforms, upgrade of the power supply and the acquisition of new rolling stock to allow the operation of eight car trains; and upgrading the signalling system to increase the number of train paths between Connolly and Pearse stations from 12 to 16 per direction per hour.
Iarnród Éireann expects the first phase to cost €145 million approximately and I recently approved the allocation of Exchequer funding for the full amount to allow the commencement of works to provide for eight car DART operation. This phase of the project is planned for completion in 2005 and will result in a 100% increase in capacity on the DART between 2000 and 2005.
Iarnród Éireann informs me that because of the scale of the work to be undertaken on the line during the first phase, the need to minimise disruption to service and their own internal resource constraints, the signalling project is planned to commence in 2005 for completion in 2007.
