The South East and West is to be linked by a new rail freight service between Waterford and Ballina.
Irish Rail’s working with XPO Logistics to introduce a twice-weekly service by the end of June which could remove more than 5,000 trucks from the roads annually.
Plan is to offer Irish industry a greener, more efficient mode of transporting freight between the West and South-East of the country.
Barry Kenny from Irish Rail believes this new service will be attractive to businesses concerned about their impact on the environment, saying “Companies are becoming more and more aware and more and more concerned about the impact of their operations on the environment so all sections of society, and none less than transport, needs to make moves, and positive moves, to reduce admissions and decarbonise transport and by reducing it by 75% by moving from road to rail transport that would be very attractive for businesses that want to be progressive”.