Sir, – Further to your report on railways, ("Rail report: Routes around country at risk of closures", October 24th), this is what we in the southeast refer to as the "Herity strategy".
It’s a simple process. First, cut the availability of the service to suppress usage. Then claim the number of persons using the reduced service is now the gross demand.
Iarnród Éireann have form in Wexford with this strategy.
To justify its intention to shut down, first of all the Waterford-Rosslare line and now the Gorey-Rosslare line, the first step in the strategy is to make it difficult for train passengers to board the ferry at Rosslare harbour.
The consequent reduction in rail passenger numbers was put forward as justification for closing the service entirely. The photograph of a deserted Carrick-on-Suir rail station in Monday’s report is a dreadful indictment of Iarnród Éireann’s misuse of a national asset; it reflects only the lack of service, not lack of demand.
People in the southeast would dearly like to take the train to Cork or Limerick.
You only need to look at the timetables and journey times to see why they do not use the “service”.
– Yours, etc,
PATRICK SHERIDAN
Waterford.