At the risk of making a fool of myself:
The Irish Times letter was mainly about the loss of Cement, Guinness and container traffic. These businesses continue and the raw materials are not used up (Thank goodness in the case of Guinness!). The demise of Bell was significant in the overall decline of containers, but only in respect of the traffic originating in Waterford. The only area in which the letter is mistaken is Beet where external factors were at work.
The unequal fiscal treatment of trucks and trains with respect to coverage of track costs (never mind fancy "externalities" such as environmental and congestion costs) is huge factor. Other countries take these things into account in framing transport policies: our politicians and civil servants are either too witless of too craven ("there are no votes in rail freight") do so.
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