Oireachtas committee hears Irish Rail's plans for Cork 'on track' for 2026
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All projects in the Cork Area Commuter Railplan are underway, Irish Rail has told the Oireachtas.
The programme involves developments and enhancements to the rail network from Mallow through Cork to Cobh and Midleton and will include the delivery of new rail infrastructure and electrification and re-signalling across the three main lines of Mallow, Cobh and Glounthaune to Midleton.
Furthermore, the plan is in place for Kent Station to become a multi-modal integrated transport hub. Chief executive officer at Irish Rail Jim Meade told the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Transport on Wednesday that every aspect of the programme is now "on track".
"The plan will treble the Cork commuter rail network’s capacity," he told TDs and Senators. "We see Cork as a template for other regional cities because it is moving so well.
"The target for all of the packages under the rail plan was initially set at 2026 — we are on track for that."
The double-tracking of the Glounthaune to Midleton line will begin in the first quarter of 2024. He added that the electrification of Cork rail lines will likely be in place by 2030.
On top of that, new stations are being planned at Blarney/Stoneview, Monard, Blackpool/Kilbarry, Tivoli, Dunkettle, Carrigtwohill West, Water Rock, and Ballynoe, however, Mr Meade noted that funding was not yet in place for these stations.
The return of the in-journey food and drink trolley service was raised by a number of committee members, including Senator Gerry Horkan, who noted that it was "back on some services from Cork and not on others."
The trolley service was taken off trains at the beginning of the covid pandemic and only returned to the Dublin-Cork service in April 2023. Mr Meade explained that the costs involved with running the service had meant that Irish Rail's budget for the service had become stretched.
He said: "When we came back after covid, we went to put the full service back on. Costs have increased in some cases four and fivefold. We pay for somebody to provide that service, we had a limited budget from the NTA to do it.
"Even back in the boom times, we were paying for that service. Post-covid, I think people wanted to shift all the risk on to the rail company, the kind of numbers that were being suggested were not tenable.
"However, we did use the budget we had to put on the Cork service because that, for us, is the premier route, it's the longer route. We're getting a decent benefit on it." Mr Meade noted that Irish Rail was "currently in the market" to restore a full service.
Clare TD Cathal Crowe asked Mr Meade about whether Irish Rail would consider an anonymous text service to report anti-social behaviour to gardaí or train inspectors.
He explained how he had had to make a 999 call in the past due to anti-social behaviour on a train but had to move to a spot in between carriages to do so, something he said was "awkward".
Mr Meade said that the company would "take the idea on board".
Passenger demand for 2023 saw 46.1 million journeys made across Intercity, DART and Commuter services on Irish Rail — a major jump of 29% on 2022’s total of 35.8 million, and with the pre-covid record of over 50 million in sight.