Alan Farrell
Ceist:9. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Transport to provide an update on progress to integrate of new DART carriages to the DART fleet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4004/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 1 February 2024
Ceisteanna (9)
Freagraí ó Béal (8 píosaí cainte)
The Minister's answer will be fine.
The DART+ programme is a key programme of projects which will significantly expand the DART train service across the greater Dublin area. The programme comprises the DART+ fleet project, as well as various infrastructure projects. The NTA, in consultation with Iarnród Éireann, is progressing these projects which are at various stages of planning and development.
In December 2021, following Government approval, a major fleet procurement framework was awarded to Alstom for the manufacture and delivery of up to 750 new rail carriages over ten years. At this time, as part of the new framework the first order of new DART carriages was made, comprising 65 battery electric and 30 electric train carriages. In November 2022, the Government approved a second purchase of rail fleet under the framework, which will see 90 additional battery electric trains arrive in the coming years.
These 185 carriages are now being manufactured. The first of the new trains are due to arrive later this year for testing and commissioning before deployment. The 30 electric carriages will be used, at least initially, to augment existing DART train services along the coast. The first batch of 65 battery electric train carriages are expected to enter service on the Dublin to Drogheda line in late 2025 or early 2026. To enable the roll-out of these DART trains to Drogheda, new battery electric charging infrastructure is being developed at Drogheda station. This will allow DART trains to operate on battery power between Malahide and Drogheda, in advance of the extension of overhead electric wires in future. The remaining carriages will facilitate the roll-out of other DART services to Maynooth, the M3 Parkway and Celbridge in the years ahead and possibly beyond.
Funding has been provided to carry out a feasibility study on extending the DART to Wicklow town. It is being undertaken by Iarnród Éireann, with the potential for the new service to be in place by 2026. Similar to the Dart extension to Drogheda, this could be achieved using battery power in advance of overhead electric wires being installed. I look forward to the roll-out of the new DART services across the greater Dublin area in the coming years, helping people to travel in and out of the city conveniently and sustainably by public transport.
I thank the Minister and Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I very much look forward to the project. The people in Donabate, in my constituency, who are without a DART have looked forward to this for quite some time. I heretofore had six train stations in my constituency, which was fantastic during election periods. That number has now been reduced to three, but the extension of the DART is much more important than one single constituency because it has the capacity to change the transport habits of tens of thousands of people across the north-eastern seaboard from Donabate to Drogheda.
I am keen to ensure that the network upgrade, to which the Minister referred in respect of the BusConnects project, is operated and delivered on time and, it is to be hoped, on budget. The turnback at Malahide has proven to be quite problematic. Could the Minister comment on that particular project?
I am not aware of the difficulties of the turnback in Malahide but I will try to find out about them and speak to the Deputy after the debate. There are a lot of different moving parts. The trains are coming. We need to determine the things we need to get right to accelerate the roll-out of the project. I spoke to officials about this yesterday. I question why it takes us so long to test and trial between the arrival of a train and its deployment. I have asked my officials to examine that. We obviously have to make sure that everything is safe but as some timelines are almost a year between arrival and deployment, I question whether we could shorten that.
Another key infrastructural thing we need to get right is the deployment of new charging infrastructure. A lot of the existing DART network already has overhead wires, but when the line is extended to the likes of Drogheda we need to consider how we install charging for new battery electric trains. That will be critical. We need to determine how we can do the same in Wicklow in order to extend the DART service in that region. That could also be applied further to Cork, in terms of having chargers in Midleton and Mallow. That is the key thing to get right next.
I thank the Minister and agree with him on charging facilities, in particular in Drogheda. Have they entered, or are they about to enter, procurement?
I also agree about the turnaround time from delivery. That applies to non-electric carriages, that is, the intercity carriages that arrived recently. My understanding is that it took more than six months for them to be commissioned and introduced. As I said, however, on behalf of my own constituents in Donabate and beyond, it is so important that the timeline of this delivery is not allowed to slip because it is such an important component for transport options for people in the northern parts of Dublin, Meath and Louth into the years ahead. I very much look forward to ensuring that these battery electric trains are delivered and put into operation as quickly as possible.
Deputy Durkan wanted to come in briefly.
I have a very quick supplementary question. Can the Minister do everything possible to expedite the extension of the DART to north Kildare and the various areas he mentioned already with a view to ensuring, in the face of a rapidly expanding population, that we come to grips with the cluttering of traffic on the roads and, in fact, road safety?
I agree with both Deputies. I was not forgetting north Kildare and the DART+ South West. A lot of projects are coming, and they will get through planning. I am confident that we are going to see them start to come through the planning system now. We must then immediately start thinking that now we have got them through planning, let us build.
I will make one broader and much wider point about the reason why this strategically makes sense. We will be going into a review the national planning framework and what we are likely to see coming out of that is a recognition that our population is increasing faster than we thought and we need to provide for greater growth. The growth has to be sustainable, however. It was interesting that Deputy Tóibín earlier gave the example of Meath commuters having the longest commute. We have to make sure that where we put in new housing now is transport-led development and that it is as close as possible to where new rail services are going so that we have a really good quality of life where we have fast ways of getting around. That is why these services are important. It is not just about the transport. When we upgrade the transport, it allows us to build more housing close to stations and that is how we should really look at this.