Transport:€750 million, or over a third of the Department of Transport's overall budget of €2.2 billion, will next year be invested in public transport, including a planned extension of the Sandyford Luas line to Cherrywood, in south Co Dublin.
Other projects on which construction work is due to start in 2006 include doubling the capacity of the Dublin-Kildare railway line, a new station in Docklands, commuter rail services in Cork and a "train care" depot in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said the Estimates give the first taste of what is to come in Transport 21 over the years ahead. The full impact of the programme to be undertaken in 2006 would be dealt with in next month's Budget.
"Work is now well under way across the delivery agencies," he said.
However, he conceded that the "real step-up" in capital investment would not be seen until 2007 because of the long lead times involved in the construction of major projects.
Planning and design work would be advanced in 2006 on Dart line resignalling, Luas extensions to Docklands, Citywest and cross-city, Metro and phase one of the rail line to Navan (Dunboyne) and the Western Rail Corridor (Ennis-Athenry).
Referring to the rail projects due to start construction next year, he said he did not envisage any delays as a result of the statutory process each of them still had to go through, including public inquiries, because "we know the length of that process".
Asked to price the various projects, Mr Cullen said he was not going to give out particular figures because all of them would be subject to a competitive tendering process.
"Every one is project costed on year-by-year basis in Transport 21", he added.
He rejected suggestions that buses were being neglected. Under Transport 21, there were allocations of €529 million for buses in Dublin, €240 million for buses in the other cities and €599 million for Quality Bus Corridors (QBCs) and traffic management.
However, although he wanted to see more buses, he was waiting for Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann to submit their business plans as there had been "no review of the network for decades", particularly in Dublin, where some bus routes were losing out to Luas.
"It can't be 'business as usual' for Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann", the Minister declared. "I would like to see the capacity in Dublin increase by 150 to 200 buses, but we're not going to do this on the basis of no business plan and just having the existing routes."
There was also the issue of opening up the bus market. "I have had long and very good discussions with all the stakeholders, and there's unanimous agreement on market opening. The complexities are in technical details and I'd like to see that concluded."
Asked about QBCs with insufficient buses to serve them, Mr Cullen said he would like to know whether Dublin Bus was making best use of its assets by redistributing buses to routes with the greatest need. "I want to ensure value for money," he said.
However, even on routes where buses were "empty" because of competition from Luas and improved Dart services, there was a reluctance to change. "We have to talk about an integrated transport system and look at things in the round," he said.
Under Transport 21, buses would cater for 175 million of the estimated 375 million public transport users in Dublin in 2015. Pressed on integrated ticketing for buses, Luas, Dart and commuter rail, Mr Cullen said it would be "rolled out by adding components".
