Primetime running feature on Limerick-Galway in a few minutes

James Howard · 21-01-2012, 13:29

To be honest, I am not Varadkar's greatest fan but I think he came across very well on that interview. The fact is the money is gone and now we have to figure out how to make the WRC work without spending much more money.

The WRC isn't closing any time soon - doing this after sinking that quantity of money into it is utter madness and presumably it has relatively low staffing costs in terms of level crossings, stations and signalling. So it will continue to suck money out of the rest of the system and there is no stopping that. The reality is probably that Rosslare/Waterford is gone and North Tipperary are going to go because of the WRC and let's hope it ends at that. Any money going in is going to be for reducing operation costs and unavoidable safety investment - you can forget about improvements.

The WRC as a concept has a huge advantage over Rosslare. Its hinterland (for the whole run of it) covers about 6 constituencies while Rosslare's only covers 2.

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21-01-2012, 13:29	#11
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	To be honest, I am not Varadkar's greatest fan but I think he came across very well on that interview. The fact is the money is gone and now we have to figure out how to make the WRC work without spending much more money. The WRC isn't closing any time soon - doing this after sinking that quantity of money into it is utter madness and presumably it has relatively low staffing costs in terms of level crossings, stations and signalling. So it will continue to suck money out of the rest of the system and there is no stopping that. The reality is probably that Rosslare/Waterford is gone and North Tipperary are going to go because of the WRC and let's hope it ends at that. Any money going in is going to be for reducing operation costs and unavoidable safety investment - you can forget about improvements. The WRC as a concept has a huge advantage over Rosslare. Its hinterland (for the whole run of it) covers about 6 constituencies while Rosslare's only covers 2.