Roads and regional development

Sir, – Further to Roger Flack’s letter (October 18th), you know what else does not exist between Cork and Limerick? A direct train.

As a result, travelling by rail between the two cities currently takes longer than by car, even in the absence of Mr Flack’s desired motorway.

Someday, hopefully in the near future, spending hundreds of millions of euro on a road between two urban settlements for yet more private motor cars is going to be recognised as the height of folly. Improving rail services between these two cities would be a much more sustainable investment than another motorway.

One can only hope the words of Doc Brown in Back to the Future were prophetic: “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” – Yours, etc,

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ALAN EUSTACE,

Dublin 2.