Sir, - The new Minister for Transport and Infrastructure has already said that he does not care who runs public transport, but nevertheless I beg him to take early action to improve the sparse railway service linking Rosslare and Limerick. The line is operated with little regard on the part of the State, its owner, for the principle of connectivity or for the happiness of its users. Its very poverty attests the power of the road lobby.
The evening train from Rosslare to Limerick is a conspicuous test of a traveller's patience and humility since a wait at Limerick Junction is ordained from 22.27 to 23.30. The 18.20 from Heuston misses by 10 minutes at Waterford a potential connection forward to Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel, thus losing not a little revenue. A morning traveller from Cahir to Dublin is not likely to catch at the Junction the up express due to leave at 10.08, since the branch train is timed to arrive there exactly at 10.08; so a wait until 11.49 is imposed by the perverse compilers of the timetable.
Most rail investment is being directed to Dublin and to routes radiating from it. But there are other parts of the freight and passenger railway system also crying out for upgrading and reopening, and they are, and should be, all owned by the State. On railways, operations, ownership and infrastructure should not be disintegrated.
Mr Brennan should not be pretending to have no cares about either the ownership or, consequently, the operation of the nation's railway system. His recent remark about ownership is an abdication of political responsibility; he should spend more time on trains and less in the ministerial Mercedes. - Yours, etc.,
Prof GEORGE HUXLEY, Dublin 2.