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Originally Posted by Derek Wheeler
200kph may seem to some as a waste on the Cork or indeed Belfast run, but unless its achieved pronto, the car will kill it stone dead. Likewise for other routes.
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Absolutely, and my favourite example of this is Limerick, where even now the car can beat the train off peak. Once the new Nenagh-Limerick road is built, IE will be in serious trouble on that line.
And this should be a very profitable line for IE, as the fares aren't artificially low like the Sligo, Rosslare, Galway and Westport routes, and frequency can be made up by running shuttles to the Junction to eat up spare capacity on the Cork route.
The exact same process will happen on every other intercity line, until we wake up and make some decent investment in our rail infrastructure. And yes, 30 years sounds about right!