Underinvestment in public transport in the UK is impairing access to EU markets for Irish exporters, Ibec claimed yesterday.

An analysis of investment in the EU's Trans-European Networks (Tens) by the business lobby group suggests that the UK has invested only €750,000 per kilometre in the most important freight route from Ireland to the continent. Tens corridor 13 includes links from the ports of Stranraer and Holyhead to Felixstowe and is one of a group of corridors for road, rail and sea transport within the EU designated for strategic investment.

According to Ibec, the Irish government has invested €4 million - five times more per kilometer compared to the UK - in the Irish part of Tens corridor 13. Ibec says that since 1996 the UK had also failed to invest anything on the main rail corridor linking Ireland to the continent in contrast with €2.1 billion - or €5 million per kilometre - invested on connecting rail sections in the Republic.

Ibec transport director Reg McCabe yesterday blamed the situation on overcentralised budgetary procedures in the UK. "There is little incentive for the devolved UK administrations to pursue EU transport funding. This has led to an underinvestment in vital transport links, leaving Irish importers and exporters with substandard access to continental markets," he said.

Road traffic between Northern Ireland and the Republic doubled between 1994 and 2004, a separate Ibec report found yesterday. The number of vehicles travelling over the Border each day increased from 30,000 in 1994 to 60,000 in 2004. The change implies an annual average growth rate of 7 per cent.

The flow of north-south traffic is now level with that between England and Scotland and double the level of traffic over the Norwegian/Swedish border, according to Ibec, but is partly due to traffic from the Republic crossing the North to reach Donegal.

Some 26 per cent of the Republic's total €53 billion spending on infrastructure is going towards investment in roads, compared with 7 per cent for the North.

Mr McCabe called on the Irish and UK governments to resort to public-private partnerships to provide funding for key routes between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

"Over many decades, the road networks North and south have undergone a process of parallel but separate development. This has adversely impacted on economic performance and quality of life on both sides of the Border, particularly in the north-west region."

The relative economic remoteness of the north-west region made this particularly important, he added.

"The geographic reality of relative isolation from economic centres has been magnified in terms of its social and economic effects by poor road infrastructure. It is vital that the prevailing 'parallel but separate' roads policy be consigned to history," he said.

The Ibec reports are based on a European Commission report from last year examining spending on strategic transport networks by different EU governments.