True all rail lines lose money its a question of how much of a loss is too much
The WRC was built despite all professional opinion, reports and advice saying no. Basically the cabinet of the then FF/Green government willingly and knowingly signed off on a project which they had been told would be loss making and did not meet the minimums required for funding.
The best thing Irish Rail could do is close Ennis - Athenry to put an end to the madness, its faster and cheaper by bus. To make Limerick Galway by rail competitive would cost 600 million as its basically a new line via Shannon and even then the cost benefit is less than the current woeful WRC
You could probably get close to profit on a Galway Athenry commuter service, which of course is what is what a proper country would have done first
The Waterford Rosslare line managed a load factor of 30-50 per train 6 days a week, it was closed more or less to plug the funding gap the WRC introduced
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