THE NUMBER OF journeys on Ireland’s trains increased by almost one million last year.

New figures from Iarnród Éireann show a total of 37.6 million journeys were made on Intercity, DART and Commuter trains during 2014. This compares with 36.7 million journeys in 2013.

DART and Commuter journeys saw the biggest rise, going from 28.7 million to 29.3 million.

It is the first time since the economic crash that the number of people travelling on trains has increased.

Some of the routes which saw the biggest growth included:

• The Limerick-Galway route saw the biggest increase in passengers of any route, rising from 29,000 journeys to 50,000 – an increase of almost 75%. 
• The Dublin- Galway route grew by 6.4% to 1.1 million journeys.
• Dublin-Sligo grew by 4.1% to 1.2 million journeys.
• Dublin-Drogheda grew by 3.4% to almost 6 million journeys – the biggest increase in the Greater Dublin Area.

Iarnród Éireann said that the economic recovery, coupled with advertising and additional business from major sporting and music events all led to the increase in figures.

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