The extension of Dart rail services to Maynooth, Co Kildare and the M3 Parkway near Dunboyne, Co Meath can finally go ahead following the withdrawal of legal action against the project.
Irish Rail said it has reached a “confidential settlement” with two parties which had taken judicial review proceedings blocking the €1 billion Dart+ West project granted permission by An Bord Pleanála last July.
Burke Brothers, a hardware and electrical wholesale company close to the Navan Road and Ashtown train station, and its neighbour Gowan Motor Group, had separately challenged the board’s decision to approve the project.
The High Court had set June 23rd for hearing the judicial review challenges, but both have now been withdrawn.
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Irish Rail said it hoped to award contracts for construction of the line by the end of next year with services to start from 2031.
The project will double train services along the Maynooth line from six to 12 per hour per direction, increasing hourly passenger capacity from 5,000 to more than 13,000 each way.
The extension of the Dart to Maynooth was part of the Government’s Transport 21 strategy published in 2005. However, Dart expansion programmes fell victim to the economic crash and the project did not re-emerge until 2020, rebranded as Dart+.
Irish Rail at that time intended to apply for permission for the Maynooth line in mid-2021, but following public consultations which resulted in changes to the project, it deferred submitting a railway order application to An Bord Pleanála until July 2022.
The project is part of Irish Rail’s plans for a major expansion of Dart services, which also includes the electrification of the rail line to Drogheda, Co Louth; Celbridge, Co Kildare; and a significant upgrade in capacity to Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Once completed, the full Dart+ programme aims to treble the current network from 53km to 150km and the number of people living within one kilometre of a Dart station would increase from about 250,000 currently to 600,000.
