Overcrowding on the DART should ease this spring when the first of 16 new carriages arrive from Spain, the Department of Public Enterprise said yesterday.
Responding to concerns that the DART was dangerously overcrowded, a spokesman for the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said under the £2.2 billion public transport budget contained in the National Development Plan, it is intended to provide a one third increase in peak-hour commuter seats in the greater Dublin area.
Under this programme the Department intends to spend £6 million a week on improvements including £185 million on a short-term rail development programme designed to maximise the use of the existing network, £430 million for Luas and a £500 million contingency sum for the extension of outer suburban services and/or the underground element of Luas.
The spokesman said that the DART platforms would be extended to accommodate longer trains. - possibly six cars instead of the current maximum of four. Over the full period of the plan 46 additional DART carriages cars and 58 diesel railcars will be purchased.