Report is not ambitious enough, says Brennan

REVIEW'S FINDINGS: The Strategic Rail Review called for the investment of €8.6 billion in the national rail system, yet the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said the report was not ambitious enough.

Mr Brennan, who noted that the report did not embrace proposals for the development of dedicated high-speed networks or electrification, said the Government would focus on "sweating" Iarnród Éireann's existing assets. This was the option favoured in the 500-page review by a consultant with Booz-Allen-Hamilton, Mr Steve Kanowski.

The document includes proposals to develop hourly services linking Dublin with Cork and Belfast, and two-hourly services on other inter-urban routes. It said improvements on the network could see travel times cut by 40 minutes on the Tralee-Dublin service by 2008.

Travel times on services between Dublin and Waterford, Cork, Sligo and Rosslare would be cut by about 30 minutes, he said. Travel times on the Dublin-Galway service would be cut by 25 minutes and on the Limerick service by 19 minutes. The review said: "Capacity should be increased, especially within Dublin and its hinterland."

It added: "In a city where road congestion is a major hindrance to mobility, the railway should play an expanded transportation role. Investment in primary rail corridors should enable major increases in capacity and ensure that the railway can support the considerable increases in demand expected over the next 20 years."

The report found in favour of a new commuter network in Cork - linking Blarney, Midleton, Cobh and Cork - and said that this was the only viable proposal for a new commuter system of the ten which were mooted. The Cork system would cost €124 million.

A separate Iarnród Éireann report on a proposed system in Cork said there was a "strong case" for the development of a comprehensive network comprising routes to Midleton and Cobh, but also to Mallow. The plan, by Oscar Faber and Goodbody Economic Consultants, would cost €115 million at current prices.

The Booz-Allen-Hamilton report said the proposed western corridor option, embracing a 420 km link between Sligo and Cork at a cost of €572 million, was not viable.

It said: "The high awareness of the scheme as a concept promoted by the county development boards and local authorities along this route has not yet been matched by any significant evidence of intent to encourage residential or other development on the corridor in the context of adopted land use plans."

The document, the biggest study of the Irish rail network, was described by Mr Brennan as a road-map, but not "a pair of handcuffs".

"This generation will not be forgiven in 20 years' time if we embark on a programme of containment of railway lines."