A £73 million investment in train services was announced yesterday by the Minister for Transport. The DART service will be extended to Malahide and Greystones, Co Wicklow. Journey times will be cut on mainline routes to Galway, Sligo, Tralee and Waterford.
The European Commission is paying £62.3 million - or 85 per cent of the total. The Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry, said: "This investment in total is the most significant ever undertaken in the railway and would not be possible without the considerable levels of EU grant assistance from both cohesion and structural funds."
Of the £73 million, £16.3 million will be spent extending the DART north to Malahide and south to Greystones. The Greystones extension was promised during last year's Wicklow by election and should be completed in 1998. The extension to Malahide was an option proposed in the Dublin Transportation Initiative. Completion in 1999 is promised.
The new DART investment will complement the £17 million already announced for new DART rolling stock, "park n ride" facilities, and two new stations at Fairview and Barrow Street in the south inner city.
Mr Lowry said £43 million will be spent upgrading track on the Galway, Sligo, Tralee and Waterford mainline routes to allow operating speeds of up to 145 k.p.h. (90 m.p.h.). The Galway route gets £20 million, Sligo £12.5 million, Tralee £4 million and Waterford £6.5 million. He said times will be shortened by 15 to 30 minutes on these routes.
The latest investment is on top of £55.7 million cohesion fund money allocated between 1993 and 1996, which is being spent on improvements on the Belfast, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford routes.
Mr Lowry said £14 million will be spent replacing the mechanical signalling system on the Galway, Sligo, Tralee and Waterford routes. The track on these routes will be replaced by "continuous welder rail", which allows higher speeds and is quieter.
Record numbers used the mainline railway system last year, according to Mr Lowry. "The new investment will help sustain - this trend by improving both the performance and image of the railways as a real alternative to road transport."
CIE reported total losses last year of £30 million compared with a profit in 1994 of £9 million. It received a government grant of £102.5 million. The company blamed the need to make provisions of £20 million for personal injury claims and depreciation. The Supreme Court last month upheld a ruling that Iarnrod Eireann is liable for up to £4 million to compensate passengers on a pilgrimage to Knock, Co Mayo, when their train struck cattle in 1989.
The Fianna Fail transport spokesman, Mr Seamus Brennan, welcomed the investment "especially given that the last time Fine Gael and Labour were in government, they wanted to see the demise of the Irish railway system". Mr Tony Byrne, president of Malahide Chamber of Commerce, said the DART extension would mean Malahide was no longer "the east coast's best kept secret".