Budget 2008 transport Spending

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by Mark Hennessy

Listening to all the commentators on radio 1 last night and this morning, there was not one mention of rail when everyone was talking about infrastructure investment (Roads, roads, roads, airports etc)

Given one more tough year economically and we'll see high high priority rail is

I have to agree with you Mark, all we have heard about is delays with Transport 21 projects this year. No real progress.

I think Derek, you can pt your banjo away, won't be needed!!

Also DOT has been defending themselves over their roads over public transport policy.

From breakingnews.ie

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhmhsneyojkf/

Dempsey defends bias in favour of road projects
06/12/2007 - 11:48:33


Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has defended the Government’s continued bias in favour of roads rather than public transport

Funding of more than €2bn was announced for roads in yesterday’s budget, compared to just €1.3bn for public transport projects.

Mr Dempsey says the bias is deliberate and will continue over the coming years, but the situation will be reversed "in the latter part of Transport 21".

Opposition parties say the move flies in the face of the Government’s alleged support for ‘green’ policies and is promoting car usage over public transport.

[Colm Donoghue]

I'm just quoting what the minister for finance said. he's getting a substantial rise and he cant or is unwilling to add....
I'm just pointing out the lies being spouted about how public transport is going to get better / transport 21 yada yada.
If someone is going to prove themselves a liar now, why would you believe anything they say later?

[Peter FitzPatrick]

In case the minister hasn't noticed, the westlink is already 4 lanes in each direction, its the removal of the toll building & replacement with an overhead gantry scanner thats at issue. He's also contradicting the NRA, who target completion for August 2008.

Some solace in the government finally seeing fit to borrow for T21; 5,6 & 8 billion through to 2009. Its clearer than ever that Government priority is roads with lip service to rail, despite comment, all roads are on or ahead of schedule.

[robdrysdale]

Originally Posted by Peter FitzPatrick

In case the minister hasn't noticed, the westlink is already 4 lanes in each direction, its the removal of the toll building & replacement with an overhead gantry scanner thats at issue. He's also contradicting the NRA, who target completion for August 2008.

Some solace in the government finally seeing fit to borrow for T21; 5,6 & 8 billion through to 2009. Its clearer than ever that Government priority is roads with lip service to rail, despite comment, all roads are on or ahead of schedule.

I know this is a Rail Users site. However, given the high cost and inflexible workforce that IR have to work with, it's hardly surprising that priority is being given to roads. Roads may be slower but they are currently the only economic way of moving freight around the country, as proved by IR's closing of this division (a stance supported by this User Group). From a passenger perspective they are fully open to bus route competition (ignoring Bus Eireann's predatory pricing and practices that needs to be outlawed); Citylink seem to be doing very well.

I agree with National Rail projects being secondary to National Road projects. However, where priority is needed is in Cork & Greater Dublin Area Rail & Luas projects. The Western Rail Corridor was pondered to instead.

[Mark Gleeson]

We don't have a position on freight, though we do point out that Irish Rail recieves a subsidy for passenger services only, in the days before separate accounts it wasn't clear if the freight division was taking a cut of this or not.

In the case of secondary routes having freight actually makes it cheaper to run passenger services since it splits the high fixed costs. Ireland is fairly unique in Europe in not offering any grants or other supports for rail freight, any capital investment in freight is likely to improve passengers journeys as well by either providing increased capacity or new freight waggons capable of travelling at higher speeds keeping them out of the way of passenger services

Most of the freight lost from the network was as a result of the companies involved closing down, IFI, Bell Lines, Silvermines, Asahi etc. Guinness got a cheaper deal elsewhere. No exising block customer has been told to get lost

The number one cause of delay in rail projects currently is the refusal of the DoT to sign off on projects at the post planning approval stage (Midleton, Kildare etc) and the failure to provide certainty in the funding going forward note the Pace/M3 electrifcation issue

It is clear that there is still a heavy bias in favour of the roads, despite the undeniable evidence that Ireland has the fastest growing passenger railway in Europe recording a 12% increase last year alone or 380% since the year before the DART opened

[ACustomer]

To-days Irish Times has a piece by Tim O'Brien headed "Rail Services get Budget Boost". The article is all about the new Dec07/08 timetable, which has nothing to do with this week's Budget. (He mentions a new 2009 Timetable at the beginning, but all specific service improvements referred to are in 2007-08).

As if that were not bad enough, he gives the impression that the new Sligo timetable comes into operation at the same time as other changes: no mention of the Jan 08 date.

This man epitomises all that is wrong with Irish journalism: lazy, sloppy, just accept the corporate handout, and so on....

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

This man epitomises all that is wrong with Irish journalism: lazy, sloppy, just accept the corporate handout, and so on....

I'll try to change that, I promise.

http://www.informer.ie

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by robdrysdale

I agree with National Rail projects being secondary to National Road projects. However, where priority is needed is in Cork & Greater Dublin Area Rail & Luas projects. The Western Rail Corridor was pondered to instead.

Great point Rob. Roads will always have to be top of the list. What the Government are feeding us is that once the inter urban road programme is finished then they will let loose on the purse strings for metro, luas, navan, interconnector et al. Thats a good plan when your economy is growing at double digit rates or "high" single figures, but not so good when growth is diminishing and figures are being revised downwards. Alternatively you could subscribe to the suggestion that once economic growth becomes stagnant then our Government will unleash huge infrastructural projects, such as those mentioned above, in order to stimulate growth. Unfortunetly there aren't enough projects for that to make a difference. Building vast road networks during bad times is good, but building a few rail projects during bad times is not so good.

We need roads and we need rail. But despite T21 I am not convinced that the Government are committed to rail transport/public transport expenditure at a meaningful level. The delay in a transport authority for Dublin should sound loud alarm bells for everyone. Its been discussed and recommended by various reports since 1980!!!!!

THEY DON'T CARE.