Irish Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has officially opened a new Dublin rail link that will carry Park West passengers to the city centre in around six minutes.

The Park West station is the latest phase in the Kildare Route Project.

The new station will be served by Kildare commuter trains, offering 25 services to the public everyday, according to Irish Rail.

The minister said: "Commuters in Park West will see a dramatic increase in service on completion of the Kildare Route Project, in early 2010."

Mr Demspey, who arrived at the station by train, said the new station would have the capacity for 3,000 commuters at peak periods.

"Like Adamstown this station has been built in advance of the completion of the Kildare Route Project and it will be able to accommodate the tripling of passenger numbers that the project will deliver by 2010," said Minister Dempsey.

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Iarnród Éireann architects designed the new station building.

The development was formed as part of a public-private partnership between Iarnród Éireann, Dublin City Council and Harcourt Developments.

Owned and operated by Iarnród Éireann, the Park West site is the third new station in the network to be developer-built.

Gina Quin, Chief Executive of Dublin Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the investment into the city's infrastructure.

"The Kildare Route Project, being delivered under the Transport 21 €34 billion capital investment framework, will dramatically improve the transport of goods and the movement of people across and around the Greater Dublin Area," said Ms Quin.

However, Ms Quin said the government still needed to grant funding for an interconnector project as scheduled.

She described the interconnector as the "single most important rail project".

"By delivering the interconnector, passengers using the Park West and Cherry Orchard station, or indeed any of the other railway stations under construction, will be able to continue their rail journey through Heuston station onto their end destinations around the city centre including St. Stephen’s Green, Pearse Street, Docklands, or Connolly," added Ms Quin.

(PR/JM)