Sir, – The statement in the article referring to the Phoenix Park tunnel (Home News, August 20th) that apart from a brief period in the early 1900s the line has never been used for passenger traffic is incorrect. From October 1950 to September 1953 a direct service connecting Cork and Belfast via Dublin used the tunnel running in to and out of Connolly (Amiens Street) directly to/from Cork, thus connecting the line to Belfast. The service was operated by the locomotives Maeve and Macha. These, with the third locomotive of this 800 class, the Tailte, were the most powerful locomotives in use in Ireland at the time. Journey time for Belfast to Cork was six and a half hours.
To say that if the line were reopened passengers could go all the way from Cork to Belfast on one train is not just stating a possibility: they did so in the 1950s, they could do so again. Stations were opened on this line in 1910, however, now the only station on the line is Drumcondra; there used to be a station also at Glasnevin (Cross Guns) as well as a “station” in Cabra for livestock.
As there is now open land at Cabra where the livestock yards used to be, a station could be opened there and possibly that at Cross Guns be reopened. The livestock yards might have been used as a station to transfer container traffic from trucks to flatbed wagons for the docks, but that is another story. – Yours, etc,
ERNEST CROSSEN,
Knockmaroon Hill,
Dublin 20.