[Thomas J Stamp]

there are a lot of "ifs" going on.

the reason mk4's were taken off the cork run = irish rail have failed to market the mark4's properly and to keep them to a standard (not that hard BTW) which makes them more attractive to the 22k.

the reason why there is a 3 car 22k set (!) running between dublin/cork is because irish rail have failed to market the route properly.

then again, this is the company that used to run a suburban railcar non stop on that route.

the reason why irish rail are losing out on the enterprise route is because they can. any other business would react, and react swiftly, irish rail hasnt because it doesnt need to.

if senior management in irish rail was told by one of our minsters for transport that they would be sacked if there was no demonstrable and effective improvement in the service and thew returns from it - and sacked with no pension pot to boot - you can bet your bottom dollar that a lot of these problems would vanish.

but it is not in the irish public service ethos to hire someone with a goal to actually do something concrete and that if they do not do it they get the boot. better for it to be vague and woolly.

after all, we do have two ministers for transport, and NI has one. maybe between the three of them they can come up with a brainwave.

but, not, you know, this year. maybe next year, maybe.