Rationalisation

The sidings they're taking up have only been used for storing the 22k's when they arrived first and more recently 2700's and some wagons. I read somewhere once that the Limerick gantry was never used?

Corktina - just saw this in the paper and thought Id share it-

From the Irish Independant, Monday 26-May-2104

ROAD bosses need €100m in additional funding every year to prevent the motorway network from falling into disrepair.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) says as much as one-third of the national network – 1,800km – is in 'fair or poor' condition and needs maintenance to prevent further deterioration.

And a failure to provide the necessary funding will result in the road network becoming as badly degraded over time as our creaking water infrastructure, NRA chief executive Fred Barry told the Irish Independent.

He said it was "essential" to maintain investment to protect some 5,500km of primary road network.

"We are spending less and have been for the last number of years than is appropriate over the long-term," he said.

"We are still managing and we're not going to see potholes and roads sliding into verges, but we have about two-thirds of the network which is either good or in very good condition, with the balance poor or fair. But over time, the amount that's very good moves to good, and fair moves to poor.

"It's essential that capital maintenance and rehabilitation is carried out. There's an asset value of €30bn there, and it's important we retain that value. The models and surveys show that eventually you end up where the water network is at the moment – that's the ultimate price you pay for under-investment."

Some €300m has been provided to the NRA this year from the Department of Transport for capital projects, which includes funding ongoing operations and maintenance and to pay back the cost of building motorways under public-private partnerships.

The amount being provided has plummeted in recent years. In 2012, some €600m was allocated, which fell to €300m last year.

Dangerous roads or poor road conditions are a contributory factor in almost 4pc of all fatal and serious road collisions, the Road Safety Authority said.

However, the NRA stressed that the road network was not in a dangerous condition, but that repairs were needed to maintain high standards.

"We think we need about another €100m to deal with the long-term asset maintenance. It is clearly a lot of money, but state funding for networks in other countries the size of Ireland would be about €800m – €1bn a year," Mr Barry said.

Link - http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/motorway-network-could-be-on-road-to-ruin-unless-extra-100m-found-for-repair-work-30304359.html

its still a lot of money for motor ways which in many cases were overspecked in the first place for which at most a dual carrige way would have been more then fine, i wonder if the money is for basic maintenence to keep them in a basic condition rather then the condition they would have been built to in the first place?

corktina wrote: »

We don't have too many roads, we have too small a population and that's due to half the country being underwater most of the time, a certain famine, no heavy industry/raw materials, emigration etc

I do agree though, many roads could be de-nationalised as they are maintained solely for the use of a handful of residents

I suspect that many of the road we now have are a result of famine relief projects which build road for the sake of it.

In a similar way, many of our motorways seem to have been built or over engineered to keep the likes of SISK and Clonmel ticking over

The point of my post was not to argue the merits of subsidising a railway line that is not used but to point out that the road haulage business is heavily subsidised by the state.

corktina wrote: »

And I showed that in fact the extra €100 million spent on 5500km of roads is a very small amount in relation to the traffic that passes on our N roads every day and is good value for money compared to lightly used rail lines.

Every single one of us benefits every day from our road network. So even if this is a subsidy of the haulage industry, it is of benefit to us all. It is of course a "subsidy" for every business and every citizen in the Country.

So what are you advocating? Increasing "road" tax or maybe postponing vital road maintenance (or is that a subsidy for the motor repair industry?)?

the haulage industry needs to pay more, its the big trucks doing the most damage, a limit on the size of trucks wouldn't work though as they will get bigger and bigger, so they need to contribute more, the express coach operators running between the citties could do with contributing more also, car tax will probably go up anyway.

or we could remove the subsidy for the road hauliers and stop them from passing on any more then a small percentage to the customer, many of them don't need a subsidy as they are proffitable and probably would be anyway, or subsidize both road and rail freight and make it fair.

With the amount of back pedalling on the Kyoto Agreement among the G20 might as well call it the Kyoto Greenway.