A minimum of £1.2 billion is required to bring the Republic's railways up to required standard over the next seven years. While there appears little difficulty in justifying investment in suburban rail, in Dublin and Cork at least, the huge investment in mainline rail is more difficult to justify.
Since the State, in the last national plan, has already invested in the main routes from Dublin to Belfast and Dublin to Cork/Limerick, the remaining secondary and branch lines are those most in need of investment. These routes, however, are little used and are thus difficult to justify on financial grounds.
Plans drawn up by consultants and by CIE show that mainline passenger rail requires an investment of about £458 million, most of it in secondary and branch lines, while rail freight requires some £126 million.
That is the stark reality facing the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, as he finalises the National Development Plan for submission to Brussels.
The figures do not include spending on proposed suburban rail investments in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway, nor do they include the minimum £400 million for Luas. The CIE report on investment requirements for the railways places the mainline network into three categories.
These are: primary lines, including Dublin to Belfast, Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Limerick; secondary lines from the primary lines to Galway, Ennis, Sligo, Tralee, Waterford, Rosslare, Ballina and Westport; and branch lines - Limerick to Ballybrophy, Limerick Junction to Waterford, Waterford to Rosslare and Cork to Cobh.
Through absence of investment, all routes were allowed to get into such poor condition that the Review of Rail Safety in Ireland, commissioned by the Department of Public Enterprise in 1998, concluded: "Risks are unacceptable and must be reduced, irrespective of cost considerations."
The review found inadequacies in signalling, including telecommunications and level crossings; permanent way, including track condition; bridges and other structures and electrification.
The line sections with the highest risk were said to be Waterford to Rosslare; Connolly to Mullingar; Portarlington to Ballybrophy and Howth Junction to Drogheda. The report was also scathing about the condition of the lines to Ballina, Westport and Tralee.
On the mainline side, the upgrading of the entire network to Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) is deemed to be a priority. On the primary routes, much of this has already been achieved. Of the £191 million priority expenditure on trackwork, just 3 per cent is now required for primary routes, while 62 per cent is required for secondary routes and 35 per cent for branch routes.
Ancillary infrastructure requires another £70 million for bridges, fencing and level crossings.
Additional passenger rolling stock, valued at about £60 million, is also a priority. The proposals include 26 new locomotives for freight work and new wagons, to a total cost of £67 million. Other priorities include £11 million for level crossings on the Ennis to Claremorris route and £13.5 million for freight yards and gantries.
In addition to mainline routes, there are three freight-only lines: Limerick to Foynes, Drogheda to Kingscourt and Ennis to Claremorris. Although the Ennis to Claremorris route is strategically positioned, a second report, the DKM Review of Transport Infra- structure Investment Needs, has pointed out that, on average, less than one train a day uses this line.
Indications of the scale of the investment are given in the revenue figures from CIE. The total revenue from mainline passenger services in 1997 was £49.8 million, with branch lines contributing £0.8 million. The total revenue from freight was about £17.1 million. All of which means that, while the mainline railways require an investment of about £60 million a year over the duration of the National Plan, the total revenue of those lines is just £67 million a year.