An Irishman's Diary

One of the annoying things about Ireland, I find, is that you can't take an overnight train journey anywhere in it. I speak as a rail romantic - someone who has never quite recovered from the thrill of leaving the Gare du Lyon in Paris one evening in 1986 and stepping on to a platform in Avignon the following morning, in the heat of the deep south.

Or of arriving in Genoa during that same rite of passage - the Inter-rail holiday - and scanning the timetable for a journey that would save us a night's accommodation. The choice was a fast train to Hamburg or a slow one to Rome. And naturally, we chose the latter: which was full to start with, before stopping at every village in north-west Italy to pick up more passengers.

Unfortunately, the prospect of Ireland ever being linked to the European mainland rail network still seems like science fiction. But you should never underestimate the power of an idea. And the idea is now at least being floated.

At the Architecture Biennale in Venice last year, an Irish firm proposed a high-speed rail link from Dublin to London. It was part of a futuristic plan for multi-centred urban development, called "ElastiCity" - the really futuristic bit being a 50-mile bridge between Rosslare and Wales.

By contrast, a more recent proposal from the Centre for Cross-Border Studies seems almost modest. It was put forward by the organisation's director, my former Irish Times colleague Andy Pollak, in the August issue of his e-bulletin, A Note from the Next-door Neighbours. It too envisages a high-speed rail link out of Ireland - all the way to Paris - but with a counter-intuitive twist. The trains would travel north from Dublin.

The route would be via Belfast, Glasgow, and then London. The bridge (or tunnel) would link Larne and Stranraer, a mere 21 miles apart. Upgrading of rail-lines in Scotland would also be needed. But - deep breath - once the infrastructure was in place, and based on current projections for train speeds, the journey from Dublin to the Gare du Nord would take about 7.5 hours.

Yes, modest as this plan is, it would still be vastly expensive. The 22.5-mile road bridge under construction between Shanghai and Ningbo, for example, is projected to cost almost €1.1 billion, and that in a country with very cheap labour. A more telling comparison is the €5 billion price tag on the proposed 10.5-mile rail link between Dublin Airport and the city.

But the context of the idea is a revolution in high-speed rail travel across Europe. With airlines beset by concerns about everything from climate change to chaotic, overcrowded airports, a form of transport that used to look like a dinosaur is making a dramatic comeback. The Economist reported recently that "the prospects for Europe's trains have hardly been better since the great age of steam".

Speed is part of the revolution. The days when Paris-Avignon was an overnight rail journey are already history. It takes less than three hours now on the TGV, the glories of which are spreading beyond the French hexagon. The Paris-Stuttgart TGV takes 3 hours 40 minutes, while the German equivalent shuttles passengers from Frankfurt to Paris with similar urgency.

Co-ordination is increasing too. The high-speed trains of France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria will soon have a single website on which users can view timetables and book tickets. And even more radical changes could follow.

While privatisation of the French railways is expected sometime after hell freezes over, international passenger services in Europe will be opened to competition from 2010. The consequences could be far-reaching. In an image that will chill the hearts of rail romantics everywhere, the Economist already foresees the emergence of "an easyTrain or Ryanrail".

The map of this brave new Europe shows existing and planned high-speed links stretching north to Glasgow and Edinburgh; south to Malaga and Naples; east to Vienna and Warsaw; and north again to Oslo and Stockholm (via Europe's current longest sea-bridge).

It also shows Ireland, in not-so-splendid isolation, its Dublin-Belfast line reaching towards the continental rail network like an outstretched hand. The challenge for Irish politicians, north and south, is to persuade Britain and the EU to help close the gap. After all, it's not just us who are cut off from Europe. It's the other way round too.

If the northern "rail crescent" comes to pass, Andy Pollak envisages a situation, circa 2030, where a rail passenger could leave Dublin at 4pm, be in Belfast by 4.40, London by late evening, and Paris at 11.30pm.

Old Inter-railers will prefer the idea of a night-train. Imagine it. You arrive at Connolly in a last-minute panic. You scan the board, where such late-night Dublin suburban services as Sligo and Bundoran (it is 2030 now, remember) sit alongside Paris Nord, and you scamper down the international platform just in time.

Barely have you settled in your seat when Dundalk rushes past outside. Half-an-hour later, after a light supper in the dining car, you say goodbye to Ireland, admiring the graceful curves of the Bertie Ahern Memorial Peace Bridge while sipping cocktails at the bar. Then, as the train plunges into Scotland, it's time for bed. Woken briefly at 4.30am, by Cockney voices, you know it must be London. Then you drift back to sleep until 7am, when you wake, refreshed and stress-free, and ready for a stroll into Paris on the Rue Lafayette.

fmcnally@irish-times.ie