Mr. Jim Meade:

We see a subtle but significant difference between high-speed rail and higher speed rail. The Deputy will have seen that in my submission that I read into the record at the start. For the real high speeds, such as those of the Shinkansen in Japan, you need long distance and dedicated line. It is only between major urban centres. It does 600 km or 700 km and does not serve anywhere in between. We are looking at what are probably more modest speeds compared with what the Deputy mentioned, namely nearer the 200 km per hour mark between Belfast and Dublin, and Dublin and Cork, in particular, as the main corridor. We are targeting sub-two hour journeys on all those. We would be targeting over the next couple of years to get the journeys to all the major cities down to under two hours. We are currently, to Cork itself, at 2 hours 15 minutes and we would be targeting 2 hours or 1 hour 55 minutes with the business train. As we increase the level of activity on the track work, we are increasing the speeds gradually and bringing it all to 100 miles per hour or 160 km per hour.

Beyond that, speeds will be heading towards the 200 km/h mark on a phased basis. That is a realistic number for us. After that, a completely new railway line on a greenfield site would be required, with all the costs that would come with that.