Iarnród Éireann cannot afford to continue to subsidise heavy loss-making lines, especially in these times of tighter financial control. At the same time we do not want to see any line closures as they would have a detrimental effect on regional development and harm local industry and tourism in many parts of the country. When both factors are taken into consideration, there seems to be only one way forward for the future of rail freight, that is, simply to develop more markets.