Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is the rail review, the AECOM study and six or seven others, all of which set out how many passengers use each line and what level of increase in passenger numbers is needed for the lines to wash their faces. No one expects any line to cover its capital costs of constructing rails, stations and trains but we want to get to a point where the fares paid by passengers at least cover the running costs, which is not the case for the vast majority of railway lines.

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