James Lawless along with the seven other Kildare Oireachtas Representatives has met with the National Transport Authority to discuss public transport services for County Kildare.
James raised the following points :
1) Insufficient capacity on commuter trains going unto Dublin, and similarly insufficient capacity on LUAS trams feeding into the city.
2) insufficient space at Sallins Rail Station Carpark:
3) The need to change trains at Hazelhatch on homeward journeys to Sallins using the new City Centre services due to start next month.
4) The necessity for later trains returning from Dublin to serve Kilcock for commuters.
5) The need to expand the Feeder Bus Network.
6) Request on an update on Busconnects following Public Consultations.
7) The need for requested stops along the route of the 139 Bus service.
James has outlined the following response he received from the NTA.
RESPONSE #1 : “NTA agreed to restore the LUAS shuttle service from Heuston into city centre at peak times. They said procuring additional carriages is very difficult for many reasons. International procurement is more difficult with Brexit. Irish trains are on a different guage to other countries. Older trains cost almost as much to refurbish as it does to buy new ones. They hope to place an order for additional carriages from UK and make the necessary modifications; this may take 12-18 months but they are working on it. They also suggested some plans to try stagger peak loads over a longer window (6-10) so as to spread demand across those times.”
RESPONSE #2 : “Works are as per initial schedule however and planning, design and build should be complete by end of next year with extra parking provided onstream in 2020”.
RESPONSE #3 : “NTA agreed to see could they run more direct evening trains to Sallins through tunnel and/or could change waiting times be better aligned.”
RESPONSE #4 : “NTA agreed to consider as part of current timetable review.”
RESPONSE #5 : “NTA will examine options on this in the medium-long term.”
RESPONSE #6 : “NTA are examining all feedback and hope to produce revised network proposals by Q2, 2019.”
RESPONSE #7 : “NTA will consult with provider (JJ Kavanagh) with a view to improving both 139 and rapid town link and provide greater flexibility of options.”