Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask Mr. Meade to pass on that information to the committee. We do not know how it compares with other countries but we do know that it is three times the cost to the State, per passenger, to transport people by rail as opposed to by bus.

One of the difficulties we have in this country is that we are building motorways and looking to build rail lines on the same space and, often times, travel by the motorways is simply faster. I know that work is being carried out on a number of routes in an effort to speed up journey times. I ask Mr. Meade to give us a material outline of what is happening in that context. How fast will certain journeys become?