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A Cork-Dublin-Belfast train service?

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  • 04-04-2014 5:07pm
    #1
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭


    MOD NOTE: First 13 posts split from the thread "Phoenix Park tunnel to be re-opened for passengers" -- not because they were off-topic, but because a Cork-Dublin-Belfast train service might make for an interesting thread of its own...
    corktina wrote: »
    There is little justification to send the Cork train there whereas there is ample reason to send commuter trains there.

    A few Belfast-Cork Services each day would be nice though.


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    #2
    AngryLips
    Registered Users Posts: 2,677 ✭✭✭AngryLips


    Ben D Bus wrote: »
    A few Belfast-Cork Services each day would be nice though.

    That would be a mammoth six hour journey, wouldn't it


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    #3
    LXFlyer
    Registered Users Posts: 17,542 ✭✭✭✭LXFlyer


    Ben D Bus wrote: »
    A few Belfast-Cork Services each day would be nice though.



    And there are huge numbers making that journey that would make it economically justifiable?


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    #4
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    lxflyer wrote: »
    And there are huge numbers making that journey that would make it economically justifiable?

    Of course not. But they would be additional to the Belfast-Dublin and Dublin-Cork numbers.


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    #5
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    AngryLips wrote: »
    That would be a mammoth six hour journey, wouldn't it

    I don't think it would take too much to get it under 5 hours.


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    #6
    Stheno
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,687 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Ben D Bus wrote: »
    I don't think it would take too much to get it under 5 hours.

    you'd fly to cork from Belfast in a fraction of that


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    #7
    kub
    Registered Users Posts: 6,528 ✭✭✭kub


    Stheno wrote: »
    you'd fly to cork from Belfast in a fraction of that

    With who and either way I would say probably an hour less.
    Just consider all the security bs, that goes on in the aviation world. Arriving at Cork 2 hours before your flight....The actual flight, taxing at Belfast, waiting to get off then baggage reclaim and then a taxi to town. I reckon 4 hours by plane. Depending on traffic you might just beat the Cork train arriving into Belfast station.


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    #8
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Stheno wrote: »
    you'd fly to cork from Belfast in a fraction of that

    This assumes that the only passengers along the route of the Cork/Dublin/Belfast railway would be those traveling end to end - blinkered thinking at its best. Same sort of tripe that's trotted about 'they' should close all the smaller stations to increase train speeds.


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    #9
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    Stheno wrote: »
    you'd fly to cork from Belfast in a fraction of that

    Using that logic you'd presumably also end the East Cost Mainline service from London to Scotland? And countless others?


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    #10
    LXFlyer
    Registered Users Posts: 17,542 ✭✭✭✭LXFlyer


    Look we have to be realistic - there is simply not a market for significant numbers of people to make such a service viable.

    People who want to make that journey could connect at Portlaoise to the proposed commuter service to Connolly or take the LUAS at Heuston.

    This proposal is purely about extending Kildare line commuter services to Grand Canal Dock rather than moving Intercity services.


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    #11
    Stheno
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,687 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    I would love to see a Dublin to Belfast service that got into Belfast before 8:30 in the morning.

    Given the choice of driving from Swords to Belfast CC or taking a train from Drogheda, I'd chose the train every time.


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    #12
    Stheno
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,687 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    cython wrote: »
    If the numbers of "through" passengers are that small then you're probably as well to try to just try to coordinate arrivals and departures (if Cork trains were to travel to/from Connolly), rather than running a train up and down the entire way. Reduces the knock on impact of a delay on either section of the journey, as well as any potential logistical issues of running and therefore staffing a train for 11-12+ hours for one return journey. Since the train would have to turn in Connolly anyway, it's not like the dwell time would be short to begin with.

    Yeah I just checked, you used be able to get a direct flight from Belfast to Cork (remember that crash in 2011?) but it seems it's stopped which would indicate the demand is very small.

    I've occasionally had to finish a days work in Belfast and be in work the next day in Cork, but drove home to Dublin and to Cork the next morning.


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    #13
    strassenwo!f
    Registered Users Posts: 1,512 ✭✭✭strassenwo!f


    Stheno wrote: »
    Yeah I just checked, you used be able to get a direct flight from Belfast to Cork (remember that crash in 2011?) but it seems it's stopped which would indicate the demand is very small.

    I've occasionally had to finish a days work in Belfast and be in work the next day in Cork, but drove home to Dublin and to Cork the next morning.

    I think this is the best way to do it (at the moment, and into the long distant future).

    The Belfast-Cork journey is not like, for example, Hamburg to Munich, or Paris to Nice, which enable end-to-end travel but also pop into Frankfurt or Lyon along the way to facilitate connections between Berlin and Paris or between Geneva/Zurich and Bordeaux/Spain.

    (And, of course, along the way there are other connections, between (eg) Amsterdam and Milan, whch tie in with these trains). All of these connections help to make the train service viable.

    This simply can't happen in Ireland if finances play any relevant role. There just isn't the volume. Ireland is an Island. It must cut its cloth to suit its measure.


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