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Irish Rail have plans to scrap four of it routes in a bid to cut down on costs if a shortfall in funding is not met.
In a submission to the Labour Court, reported by the Irish Independent, Irish Rail outlined their poor financial state and some of the proposals for cutting costs in the future.
Part of the plans involve shutting down Limerick to Ballybrophy, Limerick Junction to Waterford, Ennis to Athenry on the Limerick to Galway route and Gorey to Rosslare on the Dublin to Rosslare route.
They claim this could save them €17.6 million each year.
Earlier this year, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross said that it was difficult to justify the existence of some rural services which were haemorrhaging money, but said it wasn’t it wasn’t his intention to close such routes at that time.
A review of the network last year found that subvention for every passenger journey on the Dart is 90c, but on the Limerick-Ballybrophy (via Nenagh) line it is €550 per passenger journey. This figure has risen even further in the last year.
Irish Rail’s contract for operating train services is up in 2019 and there have been calls from some to privatise the network, although the Irish government has warned the EU that this would bankrupt Irish Rail.
The Luas service in Dublin is privately run by French based company Transdev.
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