Sir, – Your report about the European Commission wanting rail services to be put out to tender makes interesting reading ("State under pressure to put rail services out to tender", July 30th). Instead of looking at present rail services, the European Commission should look at Irish Rail's shameful neglect of the Athlone to Mullingar and the New Ross to Waterford railway lines. The European Commission should require the Government to put both those railways out to tender to people who will restore and run them as working railways. – Yours, etc,
PAT NALLY,
Mullingar,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Demands for the privatisation of Irish rail services should be seen in the context of the privatisation of British Rail, which took took place from 1994 to 1997. Many UK rail fares have more than trebled since, compared to inflation of 77 per cent. For instance, a 2½-hour weekday trip from London to Liverpool, booked on the day, costs £80.60 (€115.20) one way.
Far from saving the state money, privatisation requires greater government subsidies to the UK rail industry than in its state-run days. Average annual subsidies of just over £1 billion in the late 1980s rose to a high of more than £6 billion in 2006-2007.
The fragmentation of a previously centralised rail system into competing contractors with multiple subcontractors has even more serious implications. It has undermined the co-operativeness and knowledge-sharing that are essential to maintaining safety standards across a complex, interconnected network.
A fatal crash led to the resignation of Railtrack’s chief executive Gerald Corbett in 2000, who said: “There is a tension between shareholder interests and public service obligations. The only way we can make profits is by not doing the things we should do to make the railways better.”
The privatisation of public services will inevitably erode social cohesion by excluding those who cannot afford to pay, exacerbating disadvantage and inequality and yet again guaranteeing corporate profits at the expense of taxpaying citizens. – Yours, etc,
MAEVE HALPIN,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6