To ask the Minister for Regional Development to detail the average number of passengers who have travelled daily on the Larne Line during off-peak hours over the last six months.

NI Railways report that under their fare system the time of day is only captured when the ticket is sold to the customer, not when the ticket is used to travel. There is therefore no means of electronically recording when every passenger journey is made. NI Railways however has provided an estimate of 451,000 passenger journeys on the Larne Line during off-peak hours over the last six months from 1st March 2011 to 31st August 2011. Over the same period NI Railways operated 5,980 off peak services. This is an average of 230 services per week. On this basis the estimated daily average number of passenger journeys on the Larne Line during off-peak hours over the last six months is around 2,470.

The large bulk of the daily passenger journeys on the Larne line travel on the Belfast-Carrickfergus-Whitehead section.