December 2005

Delivery of Transport 21 
The following progress has taken place:

• A business case from the Railway Procurement Agency was approved aimed at increasing passenger capacity on the Tallaght Luas line by 40%. (20th November);
  
• A public consultation on joining the two LUAS lines in the city centre was commenced (24 November);
  
• Loughrea Bypass was opened to traffic (25th November);
  
• Castleblayney Bypass commenced construction (28th November); 
  
• A range of Intercity and Commuter service improvements to take effect from 11th/12th December was announced (29th November), including:

Maynooth-Dublin: three new morning peak services and two new evening peak services;

Drogheda to Dublin: an additional morning peak service; 

Athlone and Kildare: a new early morning commuter service; 

Cork/Cobh/Mallow: increased frequencies on the Cork-Cobh and Cork-Mallow commuter services;

Gorey-Dublin: an additional off-peak service in each direction and an additional evening return service; 

Malahide and Portmarnock: an additional DART morning peak service and two additional evening peak services; 

Sligo-Dublin: an additional two services each way per day (with nearly all services operated by new modern railcars to improve performance and reliability on the route, and to improve accessibility to mobility-impaired customers.);

Cork-Dublin: services every two hours on a clockface timetable from 07.00hrs to  21.00hrs;                                                                                                   
Tralee–Dublin: Services will be increased from five each way per day to seven each way per day with services being operated by modern railcars;

Galway-Dublin and Limerick-Dublin: improved service on Sundays. 

•  A Railway Order application is being made for the Docklands LUAS extension (1st December); 
  
•  N52 Mullingar-Belvedere road project will commence shortly (2nd December);
  
• The location and construction timeframe for the new Dockland railway station will be announced shortly (6 December).