Sir, – The HS2 cost of €212 million per kilometre for high-speed rail, referred to by Dr John Doherty (Letters, December 9th), is high by international benchmarks. However, even taking an average cost in Europe closer to €30 million per kilometre, an investment in TGV-type speeds may be difficult to justify given Ireland's current population. It could also be questioned whether it is necessary to travel at 300 km/h between our major urban centres.
A more affordable solution would be to follow the Swiss model where electrified inter-city trains travel at speeds of 200km/h. Upgrading our rail networks to this standard would provide journey times of 30 minutes between each of Cork-Limerick-Galway, 45 minutes on the Dublin-Belfast route, while cross-island routes could take a little over an hour.
We need to ensure that rail is faster and more efficient in order to shift away from cars and address climate change. Faster and affordable rail would revolutionise our transport network and open up the country, as David McWilliams rightly suggests (Opinion, December 5th).
It is time to get on with it. – Yours, etc,
DAVID GEARY,
Gros Islet,
St Lucia.