Madam, - The hasty, last-minute announcement that An Dart will not run its services for 18 months on Saturdays and Sundays in order to carry out the updating of the system is farcical and unacceptable.
The London Underground carries out maintenance and the updating of its system at night, as do similar rail systems in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia.
What is now needed immediately is the updating of the management structure of An Dart and Iarnród Éireann. That should take less than five minutes. - Yours, etc.,
MICHEÁL Ó NUALLÁIN, Monkstown, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Ben Headon's knee-jerk response to the long overdue Dart upgrade (October 9th) is indicative of the lazy thinking that nominates political debate in this country.
Would he prefer if Iarnród Éireann waited for a major rail disaster before upgrading the line? The litany of the company's inadequacies is well documented, but it is wrong to lay all the blame on the management, which is held hostage by the rail unions.
The bad work practices that infect all union-dominated industries in this country have left our rail service on its knees.
When the DART first opened the unions immediately tried to stop its growth. They restricted the times at which it could run and limited the number of staff operating it.
As usual, their members were looked after at the expense and detriment of the commuter. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN KENNY, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.