An extra one million passengers will be accommodated on the Maynooth to Dublin route over the course of a year from December 11th as part of an expansion of commuter rail services announced today by the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen.
New carriages will allow the operation of three new morning peak services from Maynooth to Dublin and two new evening services which will cater for areas like Liexlip, Clonsilla and Castleknock.
Services to Drogheda will also be increased with an additional morning service and a late evening service from Drogheda to Connolly. Additional stops will be added to higher capacity evening services, according to Iarnród Éireann.
A new early morning commuter service will be introduced from Athlone from December 12th, departing at 5.15am and this will serve Tullamore, Portarlington, Kildare, Newbridge, Sallins/Naas and Hazelhatch.
DART users will have see additional services to and from Malahide.
The increase in commuter services was part of a package of improvements to rail services nationally detailed today by Mr Cullen.
Also included are two additional each way daily services between Cork and Cobh and four more between Cork and Mallow.
The Sligo to Dublin mainline service will increase from three trains to five daily while the Cork to Dublin route will have departures each way every two hours.
There will also be additional services on the Waterford to Dublin, Limerick to Dublin and Galway to Dublin services.