Weedsprayer Train visits the South Wexford

good look with that, the same thing was tried in the 60s to make all the railway profitable, it failed, apart from dart and commuter i can't see much proffit being made unless passenger numbers are increased, the only way that can happen is if fairs come down and speeds are improved along with the elimination of manned level crossings on lines such as lj waterford but of course that isn't going to happen, its a vicious circle, enough money isn't being spent so gradually the service goes down so therefore as many people don't use it so the service goes down and fewer people use it and round and round it goes.

It is possible to be profitable IMO but they have a long road to go.

I think this year they only had funding for to convert 3 manual crossings and that will likely be the same in 2014 and they will go to main intercity routes as manual crossings reduce line speed.

i agree, but in fairness to one railway line people are making efforts to both improve it and get people using it, okay it doesn't seem to be working but good on the nenagh rail partnership for at least trying, even if their efforts don't pay off.

They have done more damage that good for the route because all they wanted was new trains and a direct service to Heuston. Tracks were damaged, regular passengers lost and over all losses increased. They couldn't settle for a shuttle service which would of being quicker to Dublin and regular passengers wouldn't of stopped using the line.

i wouldn't like to see nenagh ballybroaphy go but i suppose at this stage its a given that it will be gone in the next few years, sad really as i do think theirs some (not a lot i suppose) of potential for the line if speeds were high and the train ran as a shuttle back and forth, however its to late now i guess, ennis athenry/a through galway limerick service might have had potential if
1. the line was built on a new routing and to a proper speed
2. if a new routing wasn't possible then no stations such as crauval (wrong spelling i'm sure) just limerick ennis athenry galway (maybe oranmore that is a mile from oranmore only in ireland) elimination of level crossings and manual signaling on waterford lj could have been easily done during the good times if IE were serious about it.

Possibly but even if it was a very fast service I think demand would still be weak.

If the Government wanted to reopen a railway line I could think of better routes to open.

dowlingm wrote: »

Suffice it to say that IE could have done south Wexford differently but didn't. I would say they would probably like to make another push at full closure but they tempt fate there given the many ways nature could trap trains south of Bray.

well TBH they don't deserve the right of full closure of the line, it belongs to the people as far as i'm concerned, the line isn't doing any harm, a weedsprayer down it once a year or an inspection car or recording car that is traveling the network anyway isn't going to break the bank, shame lines like navon weren't left instead of being stolen and the tracks sold off to ones little friends but whatever its done now, hopefully their will never be a major rockfall south of bray as i fear if its big enough IE might push to close the line

corktina wrote: »

to chop a though service for operational convenience is crazy... a Galway/Limerick/LJ/Waterford/Rosslare service should be much much more attractive than the same journey with three changes.... to chop it on economic grounds is another matter, but only if they are genuine grounds and not artificially massaged figures achieved by timing the trains to avoid as muchtraffic as possible

Maybe, but does it work operationally with crew duty limits etc. At the moment a through Limerick-Waterford service without an inordinate delay at the Junction to facilitate Cork-Dublin connections would be welcome, never mind extending to Galway and Rosslare.

My long standing opinion on this is that when it comes to road/rail crossings the onus seems entirely on IE to beg the government for capital cash to separate or automate them. This allows county councils not only to get the benefit in safety and efficiency from modern crossings or grade separations without contributing but they even allow development which will make crossing elimination harder to do later, like the relatively recent development near XH 092 on the South Wexford on the outskirts of Rosslare village. Instead the developer of that estate should have been told that that crossing would have to be closed and he would have to come up with 1/3 of the cash to do it, with IE and WexCoCo coming up with the other thirds.