A mega European train network could become a reality as part of a €2 trillion Covid recovery package.
And if it does - a high speed train could see Dublin being linked to Paris via Cork.
The ambitious plan was put forward by The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies and consists of four main high-speed railway lines across the continent.
Dublin-Paris would see a train go between the two Irish cities, another one between Paris and Brest. And a ferry link between the two.
The total cost of the project is estimated to fall around €1.1 trillion with countries roughly footing a bill based on distances they'd need to build on.
The cost for Ireland would fall around €24 billion going by 2019 rates.
The trains involved in the network would travel between 250km/h and 350km/h - meaning the journey time between Dublin and Cork could be as fast as 1hr 9mins.
The other three links in the proposal are
Lisbon-Helsinki including a loop around the Baltic Sea meeting in the Ruhr area (red)
- › Brussels-Valletta, (blue)
- › Berlin-Nicosia, with a ferry-based sea link between Piraeus and Paphos and a loop between Vienna
- and Sofia (brown)
One the plan the institute says: "This is a proposal for a European green high-speed train network to be established as part of a recovery
programme from the COVID–19 crisis over the period of the 2020s.
"The URT network should be a new double-track high-speed railway system that is complementary to the existing networks. However, where suitable, also existing lines could be adapted. An average speed in the range of 250–350 km/h should be achieved.
"This would allow passengers to halve the current rail travel times, for instance, from Paris to Berlin to about four hours, making air travel for a large part of the intra-European passenger transport obsolete.
"Cutting by around half the EU’s domestic air passenger operations has the potential to reduce global commercial aviation CO2 emissions by about 4–5 percentage points.
"In addition, rail cargo capacities would be increased, freight transport speeded up and so also road-vehicle emissions reduced."
They also noted the Dublin-Paris line could prove particularly significant "in the context of Brexit".
