Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

We have pursued a policy where we have built alternatives to the rail network, with motorways to facilitate just that and make it faster. We have not really invested in the rail network, which is quite extensive but most of it lies idle for most of the day because there are no services on it. To have a high-speed network, one would typically require large distances between stops because a lot of time is lost at the stops. We have a network that would be able to serve us better if we put more services on the network. I was a rail commuter until not too long ago. Many rail commuters would say that, especially at peak times, there is no space on the trains and there are not enough trains. There are many areas that have a railway line that has essentially no service. If there are only three stops a day, it is not really feasible to commute with that service. Rather than putting a lot of money into one or two high-speed lines that do not stop very much, we can use the existing network far more efficiently. As I said at the start, we have provided alternatives in the form of motorways in places that we had planned to put a rail line. For example, there was a plan to put a railway line beside the M3 going to Navan, to facilitate commuting. We have built the motorway. How many ways are needed to go from place to place? It costs a lot of money. The sequencing of our investment has been wrong. We have invested into roads in the first place and we are now looking to backfill with some public transport investment. The horse has already bolted in some areas and if we want to make that switch, it will come at a significant cost. We should stop putting infrastructure between the cities and put proper public transport in the cities. That includes Cork, Limerick and Galway, not just Dublin.