New rail line likely to keep fares low to encourage uptake

COMMUTERS can expect knockdown return fares of just over €5 when the €100 million Cork-Midleton railway line opens in 2009.

Iarnród Éireann said yesterday that if the railway was opened tomorrow they envisaged a return fare between Cork and Midleton would be about €5.25. A single fare would be €3.55. A weekly return ticket could be snapped up for less than €20.

Irish rail spokesman Barry Kenny said that the figure might be slightly higher due to inflation between today and the spring of 2009, when the first trains are expected to run.

However, he emphasised that fares would be kept as low as possible to encourage take-up of the service.

Mr Kenny also revealed that track laying for the project would begin next February.

“Preparations have been going very well and enabling works have finished. We expect trains to start running in the spring of 2009,” he said.

If Iarnród Éireann can keep the fares as low as it has promised then it will be a major boost for commuters compared to other forms of public transport.

Taxi companies yesterday quoted The Irish Examiner return fares from Cork-Midleton of between €70 and €80.

David Stanton, the Midleton-based TD, said the Iarnród Éireann price promise was extremely attractive, even compared to buses. “I recently got a bus from Cork to Midleton and the single fare was around €5.50,” the deputy said.

“We’re all looking forward to the trains coming to East Cork. The Northern Relief Road is about to get under way in Midleton and it’s important that commuters can get to the railway stations easily, which will encourage them to take the train and free up the roads,” Mr Stanton said.

Mr Kenny said that large car parks would be developed adjacent to stations along the route, with hundreds of parking spaces provided at the new stations in Midleton, Carrigtwohill and Dunkettle. He said Iarnród Éireann was planning to introduce a half-hourly service during peak periods and hourly at off-peak times.

However, Mr Kenny stressed that the service would be designed in such a way that frequency could be increased if it proved, as is likely, to be a popular mode of travel.