19/10/09

CIE loses €6m a week

Release to: Coach Journals
Date: October 2009
Title: CIE loses 6m a week

CIE has reported a deficit of over €310m (6m a week) for 2008. The semi state Company, which received an operating subsidy of €321m last year, carried even fewer passengers than in 2007.

Passenger journeys, for all three CIE companies (Iarnrod Eireann, Bus Atha Cliath and Bus Eireann), fell from 288.7m to 280.7m, a decrease of 2.8 per cent. Numbers travelling on railways with Iarnod Eireann dropped by 4.8 per cent, despite a massive Government investment of €604m in rail and other transport infrastructure.

And despite the continued tax payer-subsidised losses, payroll-related costs soared by 9 per cent, from €573m in 2007, to €624m at a time of pay restraint in the public service.