Plans to end direct rail services between Wexford and Dublin are described as contrary to the government’s green agenda.
The National Transport Authority is considering making travellers on the Rosslare line change to Dart carriages at either Wicklow or Greystones.
Currently five daily services run on the line with passenger numbers rising in recent years.
Peter Branigan from South East on Track says it will put people off using public transport, noting; “Seems like a completely backward step where we’re in an era where the State is looking for people to make fewer car journeys and therefore they’re trying to improve public transport services which is obviously something we’re greatly in favour of, I’m presuming the Minister for Transport doesn’t want to make a service slower, worse, you know in the 2020s, it doesn’t seem like a way to encourage people to maybe leave the car at home”.
It comes as Marc Ó Cathasaigh recently called in the Dáil for the late night train from Dublin to Carlow to be extended to include Kilkenny and Waterford. (More on that here).
In a statement to KCLR News, a spokesperson for Iarnróid Éireann outlined the following;
“Rosslare line
The DART+ Programme is designed to deliver an infrastructure across the Greater Dublin Area which can maximise the capacity for rail services on all routes – doubling the passenger capacity and trebling the electrified network across the Greater Dublin Area. This will be achieved through a series of infrastructure projects and the new DART+ fleet.
Delivering additional frequency on the Rosslare to Dublin line has always been challenging in the context of a high frequency DART service from Bray to Dublin, and this challenge will increase with improvements in Greystones DART frequency envisaged arising from DART+ Coastal South, an issue which a recently commenced Wicklow capacity study – which will seek to increase services and capacity to Wicklow – will also consider.
Modelling for the DART+ Programme has outlined that to get the absolute maximum capacity in the GDA and to facilitate increased services on the Rosslare line, Rosslare services would include an interchange to connect to DART services.
However, this is infrastructural modelling, and no decision has been made to alter services on the Rosslare line. These will ultimately be operational timetabling decisions after DART+ Coastal South is delivered, based on demand, and direct and a mix of direct / interchange services will remain options available to us. Any timetabling proposals are subject to public consultation should they at any time be proposed, as is the case with all timetable reviews, and the approval of the National Transport Authority.
The DART+ Coastal South project will commence public consultation this summer.
Waterford service
Extending later evening services on our Intercity routes is a shared goal of Iarnród Éireann and the NTA, to meet the needs of our current and potential customers. We will review the opportunity to extend the current later evening service at 20:15hrs from Heuston to Carlow onwards to Kilkenny and Waterford in our timetable review later this year. If it is not achievable at that time, we will work to deliver it at the earliest opportunity.”
