Madam, - In his defence of Transport 21, Barry Kenny of Iarnród Éireann (December 28th) claims that Sean Barrett shows a poor grasp of transport evaluation techniques. He goes on to claim that Iarnród Éireann has the strongest performance in delivering capital investment programmes on budget of all major recipients of Exchequer funding.
Surely the man cannot be serious. For instance, what transport evaluation techniques are being used in relation to the works at Tara Street station? Perhaps Barry Kenny could explain why it is taking so long - almost two years at this stage - to complete the refurbishment of one of the busiest stations in the country. What was the time-scale for this project? When can hard-pressed commuters expect to see the benefits of this never-ending saga? The same stop-start approach seems to apply to projects carried out at other stations around the city in recent times. The daily inconvenience to commuters is disgraceful.
"A Platform for Change" maybe, but not at Tara Street station. - Yours, etc,
GEORGE McLELLAN, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.