DART extension to Greystones is further delayed

Irish Rail is not to introduce a full DART service to Grey stones, Co Wicklow, until next summer, the company confirmed yesterday. It had been hoped that the service would start in a matter of weeks following the resolution of the recent Irish Rail drivers' strike.

Staffing difficulties are the latest problem to beset the five-mile extension of the DART service from Bray to Greystones, according to an Irish Rail spokesman. While the latest delay is a setback for commuters who have been waiting since the 1996 Wicklow by-election for the extension of the service, the company says it hopes a partial service may be introduced by the end of March.

The first of an initial order of 10 carriages had already arrived from Spain, but were in storage, the spokesman confirmed.

News that Irish Rail has the carriages will surprise commuters who have been dealing with problems of daily overcrowding on the DART at peak times. The remainder of the order is expected to arrive in the summer, with another order for 16 expected by Christmas. Some "unforeseen difficulties with staffing" had arisen following the resolution of the drivers' strike, the spokesman said, but these would delay implementation for only a short time. It is a further disappointment to campaigners for the extension in north Wicklow who mounted a 10-year campaign before the electrification of the Greystones line was first announced by the then minister for transport, Mr Michael Lowry, in 1996. The delays stem from a series of setbacks, first in the arrival of DART carriages from Spain, where they are built, and then in corrosion of cable-holders in the tunnels along the cliff-top route.

A start-up date of last March was amended to a partial start-up last summer. That date changed to September, before Irish Rail announced that it was suspended pending the resolution of the drivers' dispute.

The strike ended shortly before Christmas, giving rise to the hope that a four-week driver-training and line-testing period could see the DART running to Greystones by early spring.