Irish Rail must come before Oireachtas Transport Committee, says Farrell

Irish Rail needs to explain serious issues surrounding new rail timetables, a Fine Gael Deputy has said.

Deputy Alan Farrell, Fine Gael General Election Candidate for Fingal East and Chairperson of the Oireachtas Transport Committee said changes made to the timetable have caused major issues for commuters with delays and overcrowding.

“The introduction of a new timetable for multiple services around the country in late August has resulted in weeks of delays and inconvenience to the travelling public.

“As a commuter myself and from speaking to others who regularly take the train, it’s clear there’s a serious problem with the new timetable over the last few weeks.

“I have written to the Committee to request that a public hearing take place between members of the Oireachtas and Irish Rail.

“In particular, intercity trains along the northern commuter line are no longer serving Pearse Street station for hundreds of commuters from Louth, Meath and North County Dublin. This adds significant time to a commuter’s journey to their place of work or study.

“Coupled with infrastructure failures, many trains are operating at peak times behind schedule, resulting in significant inconvenience for rail users up to and including the cancellation of some services.

“Irish Rail have recently reported punctuality rates falling below 80% on some services which is a shocking indictment of the service level presently on offer.

“Irish Rail must do better for commuters.

“The timetable change appears to have been introduced to facilitate an hourly Enterprise Service to Belfast, however, in achieving this goal, Irish Rail cannot sacrifice commuters in the process.

“Over the past three weeks it is evident that Irish Rail cannot do both. We need to get answers from Irish Rail on how this has been allowed to happen.

“I look forward to hearing their response and discussing the matter further with the other members of the committee”, concluded Deputy Farrell.