Lay the track that will lead to recovery

THE already visible benefits of the reopened Cork-Midleton railway suggest the strategy should be replicated to gets cars off the roads, reduce petrol imports and spread the benefits of employment and business.

Reopened old rail lines with new routes and light rail systems such as Luas might provide the key to national economic renewal.

Funding for such systems might derive from a scheme like that of An Post certificates and bonds, with fixed-term enhanced interest.

Private enterprise would soon come up with funding if there were adequate incentives or visible local results for increased tax on those most able to pay.

If the Parisian company that runs the Dublin Luas can maintain such a social and commercial success, might it not be invited to introduce a rail system in Cork? Instead of endless negative financial strategies that penalise the already disadvantaged for the greed and mismanagement of others, could the Government not even give us a scrap of hope Midleton-style?

Alternatively, why wait for a dilatory government?

To start with, it can’t be beyond Cork ingenuity to devise schemes coordinated by the city and county councils to set up a Luas system for Cork, extend the Midleton line to Youghal and open the stations that were planned for Kilbarry, Monard and Blarney?

Richard S Harrison

Church Ave

Roman Street

Cork