Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

The strategic rail review commissioned by the Department of Transport contained a comprehensive examination of the rail freight business and its realistic potential to support economic development and contribute to sustainable development.

Iarnród Éireann, in responding to the challenges contained in the review, developed a business plan with regard to freight and continues to pursue a policy of growing its rail freight business where opportunities present such as in bulk and trainload traffic.

The company also sought to return the rail freight business to profitability. To help achieve this turnaround, Iarnród Éireann withdrew from loss-making groupage, palletised and single container rail transport. This resulted in the deficit on rail freight being reduced by 50% in the past three years.

Since 1999, Iarnród Éireann invested more than €1.6 billion in rebuilding the railways, with Government and EU support for the investment programme. I must state as a regular user of the commuter rail service, the improvement during this period is there for all to see on a daily basis. This investment programme delivered improvements in new trains, upgraded infrastructure and customer facilities. While such investment primarily focused on improving passenger services, the investment in improving rail infrastructure also had a direct beneficial impact on freight activities.

Iarnród Éireann has no plans to eliminate capacity or freight infrastructure. Iarnród Éireann has made progress in growing the rail freight business in areas where it holds a competitive advantage over road haulage such as large volumes or trainloads over long distances. The company re-introduced the trainload pulpwood business by modifying surplus wagons and providing additional services for Coillte between the west and the south east.

The company altered rail schedules and provides three additional trains per week for Tara Mines with a potential to carry an extra 85,000 tonnes of lead and zinc between Navan and Dublin Port per annum. It also modified surplus platform wagons to provide a trainload service for containers between Ballina and Waterford Port.

Regulations to open the freight market through EU Directive 2004/51 to competition from both domestic and foreign operators, from 1 January 2006 in the case of international freight and from 1 January 2007 in the case of domestic freight operations, were also introduced.

I support Iarnród Éireann's extensive engagement with industry and transporters throughout the country to try to identify long-term sustainable business opportunities. The company had genuine difficulty in identifying business opportunities which offer reasonable volumes of business on a regular, ongoing basis. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to run trains with one or two containers and Iarnród Éireann has not identified sufficient business, with the exception of the Ballina to Waterford stream, to group a number of separate activities together to form a viable trainload.

Most Irish industry is focused on what is known as "just in time" transport and as our road network continues to expand and improve across the country the role of rail freight becomes more problematic because all rail journeys involve road movements at each end of the logistics chain. Furthermore, in Ireland distances are necessarily short. The experience across Europe is no different. The simple fact is that rail freight activities are most economic where distances are long, large volumes are to be transported and the freight to be carried is not time sensitive.

As part of this engagement with industry, I understand Iarnród Éireann also works closely with port authorities, including in Dublin relating to transport of lead and zinc and Waterford relating to container traffic, to increase rail based freight. I look forward to the company working closely with the Drogheda Port Authority on the proposed development at Bremore which is blessed with the existing rail service running straight through the proposed site for the new development. As such, it will be able to link directly with minimum capital outlay and negligible work to be done to the port project.

The Government's ports policy statement recognises the need for the integration of ports as a fundamental link in the supply chain with other transport modes including rail. In the absence of opportunities or proposals for viable long-term rail freight business, the development and use of fiscal incentives would be difficult to justify.

It is interesting that during the debate on this motion we have not heard any particular proposals on how the situation can be changed. Any worthwhile suggestion which anybody has on how rail freight can be expanded within the business environment in which we operate should be considered. The market is now fully liberalised and if opportunities exist let us hear them and provided they are valid I have no doubt the company and everybody would be delighted to see the resurrection of the rail freight business.

See this speech in context