Varadkar ‘loves railways’ but warns Irish Rail on funding

The Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has warned that the State cannot "keep pumping money" into Irish Rail, which he called the least efficient of the country's public transport systems.

A self-confessed "romantic" for all things railway, Mr Varadkar had courted criticism from Siptu which is on the verge of entering Labour Court talks on proposed pay-cuts rejected by its members.

While this may be the case, recent statements from the Minister have carried a delicately worded warning that the future of public investment in the sector could be targeted towards bus networks while the potential for rail line closures was an issue he “could not pretend” did not exist.

However, speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Varadkar dismissed some reports emanating from a speech he gave to a transport conference on Wednesday that he was considering closing “dozens” of rail lines.

“We don’t even have dozens of rural rail lines so I’m not even sure where that comes from,” he said, adding that current strategy was to maintain existing services.

“But we can only do that if we reduce the cost base and we increase the number of people using the railways. The difficulty that we have at the moment is that we are not getting very good value for money from our railways.”

H went on to confess that notwithstanding his concern about the amount of investment required in the sector he was a “romantic” when it comes to railways.

"I love the railways, I had a train set as a kid. I love the romance of steam engines pulling into the train station but I have to be realistic..... we can't keep pumping money into the least efficient part of public transport which is the railways," Mr Varadkar said. "We are getting so much better value for money from Dublin Bus, from Bus Eireann, who have taken pay cuts."

Elaborating on the issue of costs, he pointed out that 50 per cent of public investment in transport goes to Irish Rail for operating expenses alone even though the company was responsible for just 15 per cent of overall passenger journeys. Payroll costs were also higher at the company, he said.

“What’s happening is that Irish Rail is getting a big chunk of money but isn’t carrying that many passengers where as Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann and rural transport and maybe even private operators are being disadvantaged,” he said.

The situation is compounded by a vote last February of rail workers, members of the National Bus and Rail Union, to reject pay cuts of between 2 and 6 per cent as part of a cost reduction plan. A Labour Court hearing is due to take place on Monday.

Speaking earlier today, Siptu organiser Paul Cullen: "We are just about to enter into the Labour Court and in a very difficult situation for Irish Rail where twice, the membership of Siptu have rejected pay cuts and have clearly indicated to the company they are not prepared to accept pay cuts."