Bias against public transport to blame for much of our network deficit

THAT Dr Seán Barrett’s views are informed by a blinkered anti-public transport ideology is well known, but his latest diatribe masquerading as economic analysis, published by the ESRI, descends to the level of self-parody (‘Transport strategy seriously flawed’, Irish Examiner, December 21).

This country still suffers from an infrastructural deficit, much of which can be attributed to public policy being informed by such ideological bias during the 1980s and early ‘90s.

It was Dr Barrett who regarded the development of the DART, the country’s greatest public transport success story, as a white elephant and advocated closing the line and building a new road.