Ballybrophy rail services and upgrades
Deputy McNamara argued that rail services on the Limerick-Ballybrophy line are poor and should be improved to support travel off the motorway. Minister Ryan said the line is being upgraded, explained his own disrupted train journey, and said the investment is needed to raise speeds and help regional development.
For people who lived in or near the towns on the old Limerick–Dublin road, including Nenagh, Roscrea, Cloughjordan, Birdhill, Castleconnell, O'Brien’s Bridge and Killaloe, the M7 was a godsend. They can now commute to Dublin in a reasonable period. However, we want to move people off the motorway and onto the trains. The direct line to Limerick, on which all trains going directly to Limerick went previously, is now barely served. There is a speed limit of 20 miles per hour on parts. In Ballybrophy station, which is great in the morning, there are only two trains in the afternoon.
As Minister for Transport, will the Minister tell me when we are going to upgrade that line? We see the difficulties with the “all planes go to Dublin Airport” approach. At the moment, all trains go to Limerick Junction and there are vast swathes of the country that are just not served by a train service. People want to get the train. As Minister for Transport, what is Deputy Eamon Ryan going to do about that and when?
Comment on this
As it happens, that is true. I took the train to Cloughjordan on Saturday and I wanted to come back on Sunday and-----
Comment on this
Yes. I had to get a bus to Roscrea and then switch to a minibus for the final leg. It was a lovely trip and great people but we had to take buses because the line was being upgraded. We have just spent €6 million on upgrading the track, which is the first thing we need to do to be able to get the speeds up. The reason the speeds were low was the track quality, so we put the money into the track.
We were talking about better balanced regional development and I made the point about Limerick needing to thrive. Limerick can thrive on the rail lines that lead into it. That Ballybrophy line can be a commuting line or shopping line into Limerick, as well as improving the service for people coming down from Dublin. Let us forget about Dublin and think about the south west and that region. If we have really good metropolitan commuting services from places like Cloughjordan, Nenagh or even Ballybrophy and Roscrea into Limerick-----
