We have to continue to fix the existing railway service and offer new services of course but there is scope for a HSR in Ireland.
Any high speed rail line has to be Cork - Dublin - Belfast with just a few stops in between. The Cork - Dublin route would have to be along the east and south coast so it could link in with any future Tuskar tunnel.
They should lay new track from Cork - Dublin - Belfast and build it to the European gauge. If they still want to run commuter or whatever services then they can run two extra rail lines (irish guage) on the outside of the HSR.
Of course this will probably mean buying more land for the extra lines and to straighten out the bad corners. Dublin would probably need a new tunnel linking the north and south H.S.R lines and maybe a new sub station at Stepens green or Connolly (any ideas?).
Flying is a good solution for now but emmsions from planes and the like and slower journey times is going to go against flying in future.
The tuskar tunnel will only be profitable if the government goes ahead with a deep port in Shannon and runs a second HSR line from Shannon - Limerick - Waterford(tuskar) to England. Passenger services will of course benefit from rail access to UK and the mainland Europe but it will be freight that pays for it all.
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