Decades of neglect take a heavy toll - The future of our railways

THERE is a modern enough legend with more than a ring of truth to it that serves to highlight our ambiguous attitude towards public transport.

A group of Concerned Citizens arranged a meeting with, as it was then, a CIÉ railway manager to try to keep their threatened local station open. Before the meeting opened the worthies were, reasonably enough, asked by the manager to show their return rail tickets to their hometown. As they had travelled by taxi they could not so the meeting was cut very short.

Even if that story is not entirely true it is very true, unfortunately, that our rail network will be greatly reduced unless Government can, in the medium term, provide significant extra funding to sustain it. In a report last month, the National Transport Authority (NTA) suggested the network requires more than €600m over five years. In the context of calls on the public purse this seems an all but impossible sum. Once again, as with water, we are confronted with the consequences of decades of under-investment because we choose to spend our money differently. This is one of the unwise evasions of social responsibility that undermines the idea of a common purpose, of cohesive society in this Republic.