[MrX]

On the "trainspotters" (IRN) issue, yes I do get the impression that many of them are British-based and see Irish Rail as a wonderful quriky old system that has lots of loco-hauled stuff which is strange and different. They've no interest in the network other than as a living museum of ancient GM locomotives.

It's a bit like having a vintage car enthusiast dissussing motorway planning.

IE isn't a theme park for trainspotters, nor should it ever be. We have train-based themeparks for that sort of thing.

The 201s, Commuters, CDEs, Enterprises, DARTs and arrows may be boring and modern, but they're doing what railways are meant to do and what all of those old quirky technologies did to the best of their ability in their day - move a huge number of people as efficiently, comfortably and rapidly as possible.

Would these guys also like to see Aer Lingus doing transatlantic flying boats?!

We had similar arguments morning the demise of operator-switched telephone services in the west of ireland. "the friendly voice of the operator being replaced by heartless monotonous digitally produced tones." back in the early 80s. --- However, I don't think many people in rural areas were complaining!