Sir, – I refer to the article regarding Irish Rail’s decision to scrap 90 carriages for want of a foreign buyer (Home News, August 6th). These (Mark 3) carriages, not that old, and low mileage by rail standards, are the most recent and most advanced versions of a type still widely used across Britain. They are still thought to have the best ride of all such current carriage designs.
This year Chiltern Railways, one of UK’s most successful franchisees, has recently completely refurbished a whole fleet of these vehicles for long future service on its new flagship “Mainline” London Birmingham route.
However, in Ireland, the carriages ordered as replacements and now deployed on the Dublin Cork route have turned out to be very unsatisfactory. They have been dubbed “vomit comets” in the print media. How can Irish Rail, The Rail Procurement Agency and the Government have ever justified the replacement and scrapping of very successful, comfortable and refurbish-able stock, especially given that the replacements have been expensive, troublesome and still not completely fit for purpose? The lack of a foreign buyer for the 90 condemned carriages is, to my mind, something of a red herring, as Ireland has a unique rail gauge (distance between the rail lines). More plausible is the possibility that, as Ireland is under pressure quickly to put in place EU directives allowing competition in domestic passenger rail services, Irish Rail is adopting a “scorched earth” policy to rid the island of any rolling stock that might be available to other operators. The absence of any stock and the unique rail gauge of Ireland would make new-build an expensive and therefore prohibitive threshold for any aspiring competitor.
Irish Rail’s scrappage decision, sneaked out on a bank holiday, should be put on hold until the Government, the Transport Committee, the Minister and the NTA can throw further light on the matter. – Yours, etc,