All aboard ... for a longer journey

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN has been accused of failing passengers after admitting journey times have got longer despite billions of euro being spent on the railways.

Since the 1990s, Irish Rail has spent €1 billion upgrading track, signalling and fencing while the Government is planning to spend €5.5bn on further improvements before 2017.

Yet a comparison of this year’s train timetables with those from 1974, 1993 and 1994, reveals journeys on the same routes are taking longer today than a generation ago: