MORE than 100 weekly freight services across the entire Irish national rail network could be added to the current operation as part of a new rail freight plan announced by Iarnród Eireann- Irish Rail (IÉ).
The Rail Freight 2040 strategy was launched at Ballina, County Mayo, on December 1 by Hildegarde Naughton, Junior Transport Minister with Special Responsibility for International Transport and Logistics. The plan outlines IÉ’s vision for a five-fold increase in freight services over the next two decades, boosted by a substantial half a million Euro investment, while meeting the ever-present environmental targets.
A total of 25 different initiatives are included in the plan, which include reconnecting the ports at Cork and Foynes to the network, and the construction of new rail freight terminals across the network, including west Dublin and Limerick Junction.
Core to the strategy is the Irish Government’s Climate Action Plan, and as such IÉ points to electrification of parts of the network and the acquisition of electric locomotives, together with additional freight wagons as services increase. This could, it says, see a reduction of 25,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, as rail freight emissions per unit are as little as 16% of HGV emissions, and the number of HGV journeys per year could be cut by 140,000 each year.