Brennan unveils €90m Cork rail service plans

The Minister for Transport has announced the first major extension of the State's rail network in more than 100 years.

Mr Seamus Brennan has earmarked a €90 million investment to provide a commuter rail service in Cork City and county.

The development will see the reopening of the Cork-to-Midleton rail line and the construction of five new stations. The service is expected to be running by 2007.

A new and regular commuter service will be introduced between Cork City and Midleton, at an estimated cost of over €56 million. The cost includes the re-laying of 10 kilometres of new track, the building of three new stations, at Dunkettle, Carrigtwohill and Midleton, and the installing of a new signalling system between Cork and Midleton. Trains ceased running on this 20 kilometre route in the 1970s.

Mr Brennan said the commuter service along the 35 kilometre stretch from Mallow to Cork City, on the main Dublin-Cork intercity line, would also be improved. New stations will be built at Blarney and Kilbarry at an estimated cost of almost €10 million. The journey between Mallow and Cork City is expected to take 25 minutes.

"This decision heralds a new era of growth and the revitalisation of the railways," Mr Brennan said. "I can assure you today that the decades of closures and the downgrading of lines and services can now be consigned to the past."

He said the Government expenditure on the railway network had risen to over €1 billion in recent years. The majority of this money has been used to modernising the railway infrastructure with new track, signalling and engines and railcars.

There are 1,000 miles of railway track in Ireland at present, down from over 3,000 miles of track 100 years ago.

The minister has also opened the Black Ash Park and Ride facility, with spaces for 920 cars, beside the Kinsale Road Roundabout. This is being built at a total cost of €5 million. A fleet of double-decker buses will provide a shuttle service capable of carrying 700 passengers per hour into the city centre.

He also announced a further €4 million to be spent this year on top of the €3 million already allocated for the construction of the first Green Routes for buses in Cork city. The Department of Transport said it hoped to have all ten bus corridors in the city complete by 2007.