Madam, - Brian Crowley (September 1st) bemoans what he sees as the absence in Ireland of rail facilities available in other countries "for decades".
For decades, most European countries have invested heavily in their rail networks and service, whereas in those decades Irish governments had a policy of cutbacks and no significant investment in the rail network, with rare exceptions.
Thankfully that has now changed. The online reservations system Mr Crowley seeks is being successfully piloted for premium seats and will be expanded in the near future. Our infrastructure on the InterCity network has been transformed in the past five years, securing the network into the future, and allowing us to turn to much-needed fleet investment.
By the end of 2007, a new fleet will have replaced all of our InterCity carriages over 30 years old, which currently make up over half the fleet.
This process will begin next year with the delivery of 67 new carriages, allowing us to move to an hourly service on the Dublin-Cork route. All other routes will benefit from a further planned carriage order. The "showpiece" Belfast Enterprise, as Mr Crowley describes it, will stand alongside a faster, more frequent, higher quality service across all our routes to meet the needs of our record, and growing, numbers of InterCity customers. - Yours, etc.,
BARRY KENNY, Manager, Media and Public Relations, Iarnród Éireann, Dublin 1.