Killarney estimates losses at £25m

The Killarney Rail Action Group (KRAG) estimates the dispute has cost the town £25 million so far

The Killarney Rail Action Group (KRAG) estimates the dispute has cost the town £25 million so far. Tour companies such as Deros have seen what might have been "a great summer" turn into a desultory affair. "The trains may be running, but the people are not on them," Mr Denis Spillane of Deros says.

On the early-morning train from Tralee to Dublin yesterday, 30 people got on at Killarney. Normally 100 would.

The jarveys and the bicycle hire companies in Killarney are having a bad summer. Before the August rush, hotels too were badly hit.

Ms Sheila Casey, a town councillor and manager of the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney, has had cancellations from older visitors and people using wheelchairs .

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"We will be facing more cancellations in September with the Golden Oldie programme. Older people like to travel by train and they like to feel certain those trains are running," Ms Casey said.

Mrs Ruth Fell (72) from Naas in Co Kildare was forced to cancel her early August holiday at the Torc Great Southern because of the dispute. "In this day and age you can go to the moon, but you can't get to Killarney," Mrs Fell said.

She got a refund from the Torc Hotel. "It was 50 years since I had been to Killarney." She and her daughter went to Howth in Dublin for two days, instead of six days in Killarney.

Oddly enough, places in Kerry where the railway stopped running 30 years ago seem just as badly affected.

"In West Kerry the bed-and-breakfasts are really suffering," Mr Robert Casey, the president of Tralee Chamber of Commerce, said.

In Cahirciveen, the home town of the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, where the trains stopped running in 1960, the Sive hostel is reporting only half its normal visitor numbers. Mrs Rita McLoughlin says she cannot get backpackers on InterRail tickets for her 28-bed hostel since the train dispute began.

A survey by the IRD Community Development Organisation in Waterville showed most B&Bs, hotels, caravan parks and hostels are affected by the dispute.

People with hospital appointments in Dublin are travelling by air from Farranfore - if they can afford the fare.