The board of CIE meet today to decide on the future of a number of services, the outcome of which could lead to line closures.
The company says it faces losses of €14 million due to unprofitable services and a further loss of €4 million caused by the closure of Irish Fertiliser Industries.
Lines in the south and west are particularly under threat with passenger and freight routes from Ballybrophy to Limerick and Limerick Junction to Rosslare Harbour liable to closure.
According to Fine Gael spokesperson for transport, Mr Denis Naughten, ten freight depots face imminent closure and 330 jobs are on the line because of Irish Rail's decision to wind down its freight division. He said the Minister for Transport, Mr Seamus Brennan should take action.
"Some of the threatened depots have had millions of Euro poured into the upgrading of facilities in the recent past," he said.
"€3 million has been spent on new container wagons in the last 12 months. These wagons are now destined for the scrap heap.
The Minister for Transport must pull his head out of the sand and take action. It is the Government's own stated commitment to maintaining rail freight that is being undermined," he added.
It is estimated that anything between 240 and 600 jobs will be lost if the closures go ahead. SIPTU have called for the "incompetent" board to resign, while the National Bus and Railworkers' Union has begun balloting members on Industrial action.
The company says charges would need to be increased by 50 per cent to make many of their freight services viable.
They say rail freight competes with road freight without State subsidy and faces diseconomies of scale in comparison with other countries because of relatively short haul distances and absence of heavy industry.
