An estimated 146,000 truck trips will be added annually to Irish roads if the board of CIÉ today confirms Iarnród Éireann's decision to end its unprofitable rail freight operations.
The CIÉ board, under orders from the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to cut losses on the railways, is also expected to confirm the closure of two lines - Ballybrophy-Limerick, known as the Nenagh branch, and Limerick Junction-Rosslare Harbour.
Referring to the proposed withdrawal from loss-making rail freight services, Iarnród Éireann has said the impact on Irish roads would be "minor", amounting to an estimated 400 extra trucks a day "or the equivalent of 15 per county, on average".
However, a spokesman for Irish Railway News (IRN), an Internet-based group of private individuals campaigning against the closures, said 400 trucks a day would translate into "a staggering 146,000 extra trucks every year on our already inadequate road network".
Describing this was "anything but minor", the group said it represented "a huge threat to our environment" because it would bring more "huge trucks hurtling through small towns and villages". Cashel, for example, could look forward to an extra 126 trucks a day.
Noting studies showing that a 40-tonne truck caused thousands of times more road damage than the average car, it warned that the Government "will end up spending more money on road maintenance than what it would have cost to have goods go by train".
Although Iarnród Éireann has denied it is getting out of the freight business altogether, IRN said closure of the Limerick Junction-Rosslare line would threaten the beet traffic carried on that line from Wellington Bridge, Co Wexford, to the sugar factory in Mallow. "The only other rail freight would be from Tara Mines in Navan to the North Wall, which carries three return trains per day transporting zinc ore, and miscellaneous traffic carrying kegs of beer. And the longer-term plan is to transfer that to road as well," the group said.
"Essentially, what we're talking about here is the abandonment of rail freight in Ireland," according to the IRN spokesman. This would mean writing off a €3 million investment in 24 low-floor container wagons, which were delivered from Finland last December.
"Since then, unbelievably, they have not turned a wheel in revenue service. They have only gone on a few trial runs", he said.
The wagons would be "an invaluable asset to a progressive operator with the determination to attract new business to the railways", the spokesman said, adding that rail freight should be "off-loaded" to a commercially focused firm interested in making it profitable.
Iarnród Éireann recorded losses of more than €8 million on its rail freight operations last year. A spokesman for the company said the crisis had been triggered by the closure of IFI with the loss of its €4 million contract to transport ammonia from Arklow to Cork.
IRN however maintained that rail freight in Ireland was failing "because it has never been properly tried". It told Mr Brennan by letter yesterday that a commercial focus was lacking, modern wagons were not used and "archaic" handling methods had hiked up prices.
Given that 90 per cent of goods were transported by sea to and from the State, the group suggested that approval should only be given to new port facilities which were rail-accessible and that private operators getting involved in rail freight should receive tax breaks.
"Iarnród Éireann's views are based on a fossilised assessment of rail freight and the pursuit of outdated working practices. It is not a case of market failure. It is case of disinterested monopoly acting like a disinterested monopoly", the group said in its letter.
"Iarnród Éireann is not a credible business entity and we hope that you, as the shareholder, will not allow the board of Iarnród Éireann to withdraw from freight or close the threatened lines until the industry has been restructured," it told the Minister.
Referring to the proposed closure of the Limerick Junction-Rosslare line, IRN said if it became "a trail of weeds", the soon-to-be-published National Spatial Strategy "isn't worth a penny candle".