Irish Rail has been accused of an unacceptably high number of cancelled journeys as fresh figures reveal it spent €2.5 million on taxis and buses for stranded passengers over the past five years.
The Limerick to Galway line is among the worst affected by closures over recent years, with 146 services disrupted in 2017 and 616 the previous year, latest released records show.
The Dublin to Belfast route is also consistently affected, with 104 services hit by line closure in 2017, 78 the previous year and 156 in 2015.
Dublin to Dundalk services hit by closures are similarly high, while Dublin to Cork, Limerick to Galway, Dublin to Tralee and Limerick to Limerick Junction have all seen significant shutdowns in recent years.
In 2017, the latest figure available from Irish Rail, there were 1,094 services disrupted countrywide – a rate of three a day – as a result of line closures.
The same year €184,000 was paid out in taxi fares for stranded passengers on top of another €174,000 on bus hire. Overall in the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, Irish Rail has run up a taxi bill of €791,000 for disrupted passengers, and spent €1.7 million on buses.
‘Significant’
Ciarán Cuffe, Green Party transport spokesman who obtained the figures, said the sums involved were “significant” and lay bare the scale of disruption rail passengers in Ireland had to endure.
“This degree of closures would be unacceptable on a motorway and if we’re serious about tackling climate change it should be unacceptable on our railways,” he said. “Rail services shouldn’t play second fiddle to roads.”
Chief executive of Irish Rail Jim Meadesaid closures were generally for planned engineering works “which are a regular feature and indeed safety requirement for the maintenance and upgrading of our rail infrastructure. Additionally, issues such as flooding at Ballycar would have impacted sections of the Limerick to Galway line in 2014 and 2016.”
Mr Meade said the number of services affected by line closures was “a very low percentage” of the Irish Rail’s overall services. It ran more than 230,000 services last year.