Moving the Port to Rosslare

Daft Berk · 07-11-2006 8:34am #1

The latest is that a new port will be created near Balbriggan.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motoring/2006/1025/1161565745909.html

All this after spending a billion on a tunnel that will probably never open and if it does open will generate more problems than it solves.

Why Balbriggan? What about moving it to County Wexford and creating a few jobs at the Rosslare Europort which is owned by Irish Rail.

The downgrading of the Dublin-Rosslare Europort railway line has gone unchecked in recent years. There is now a 'rail car' service on the Wexford-Rosslare section of the line and no freight travels on this Dublin - Europort Line.

Given the fact that Rosslare Europort is the only port in Ireland owned by Iarnród Éireann, it is ironic perhaps that it is not a rail freight port. Indeed the only two rail freight ports surviving are Dublin and Waterford, with the future of Waterford's rail freight hanging by a thread. In 2003, Iarnród Éireann proposed ending freight services to Waterford at the same time as they ended rail freight services to Belfast, Galway and Dundalk.

One freight train takes fifty 40-foot heavy good vehicles off the road, which results in a whole load of savings to the economy in the form of reduced road congestion, pollution and road accidents. It's reckoned that an increase of only 10pc in road traffic volumes can lead to a major increase in congestion at bottlenecks, so taking just a small number of vehicles off the road has major benefits. The decline in rail freight in Ireland is reckoned to have an environmental cost of €36m a year.

Rosslare should be the solution. Improve the port/railway link and create some jobs for Wexford.

Bluetonic · 07-11-2006 9:42am

Daft Berk wrote:

The latest is that a new port will be created near Balbriggan.

How was outer space for the last year?

mikedragon32 · 07-11-2006 9:56am

I could never understand the logic of using rail freight. I appreciate that it would take trucks off the road, but several things need to be factored in.

Firstly, on the Rosslare to Dublin line, the train has to share the lines with the busiest commuter rail service in the country and so daytime freight isn't really viable as the rail line across the city is already at or near capacity.

Secondly, even if it was viable to use rail freight into Dublin, you still need trucks to take the containers away.

Thirdly, the rail network isn't as flexible as the road network. Not every container arriving in Waterford, for example, is bound for Cork or Dublin and having containers moved from rail terminal to rail terminal is costly and slow, where just putting a container onto a truck means you can have it go exactly where you want it to go with minimum fuss.

Please don't get me wrong, I hate seeing so many trucks on the road, particularly on single lane carriageways that still make up some of the National routes, but the rail network in this country has been let go to waste and the cost of restoring it would have to be met by either (or both) the taxpayer and/or the customer and the cost is likely to be far in excess of just keeping the freight on the road. Even in the UK, where the rail network is a lot better than ours, there has been a steady decline in the volume of freight carried by rail.

OTK · 07-11-2006 10:58am

mikedragon32 wrote:

Firstly, on the Rosslare to Dublin line, the train has to share the lines with the busiest commuter rail service in the country and so daytime freight isn't really viable as the rail line across the city is already at or near capacity.

Rail is best for less time sensitive freight that can wait for overnight services.

mikedragon32 wrote:

Secondly, even if it was viable to use rail freight into Dublin, you still need trucks to take the containers away.

Yes, you need freight distribution centres linking to local road delivery.

mikedragon32 wrote:

Thirdly, the rail network isn't as flexible as the road network. Not every container arriving in Waterford, for example, is bound for Cork or Dublin and having containers moved from rail terminal to rail terminal is costly and slow, where just putting a container onto a truck means you can have it go exactly where you want it to go with minimum fuss.

You need a central distribution hub.

As against the disadvanatages of rail freight, there are less emissions involved, directly linking to lower Kyoto fines. The motorway network will have a shorter lifespan if it continues to be subject to the volume of freight being carried. Trains carry more than trucks.

Most European countries have greatly increased their volumes of rail freight in the last decade, so it's not impossible. Have a look at page 10 of this report.

Daft Berk · 07-11-2006 11:10am

mikedragon32 wrote:

Even in the UK, where the rail network is a lot better than ours, there has been a steady decline in the volume of freight carried by rail.

The UK statistics are as follows.......

Rail freight in the UK has attracted over £1.5 billion of investment from the private sector since privatisation.
In the past 10 years it has grown by almost 50%, increasing its market share of surface transport to 11.5%.
In 2002/03 alone, rail freight moved the equivalent of 5.6 million lorry journeys and saved 1.4 billion lorry kilometres.

Victor · 07-11-2006 3:51pm

Thread split from Port Tunnel thread.

Bluetonic, play nice.

Bluetonic · 07-11-2006 4:14pm

Victor wrote:

Bluetonic, play nice.

Ah come on it was hardly the latest!

Just as a side the plans for a deep water port at Bremore aren't dependent on Dublin Port moving out there. Drogheda Port have already earmarked the site for a proposed port, the relocation of Dublin port would be a redeveloped of the yet to be developed relocated Drogheda Port. The site has already been encroached (1km) by nearby housing developments, which wouldn't really make it ideal for storage of chemicals, oil etc..,

Another point of note is that the relocation of Drogheda Port to Bremore would create no new long term jobs.

road_high · 07-11-2006 4:32pm

Develop Rosslare for RO/RO services to the UK and continent and Waterford as the main container port. I don't like the idea of moving the port further north to Balbriggan (i.e. further away from the city and region it is actually serving) and closer to N Ireland.
I would hazard a guess and say most of the actual traffic through Dublin originates in Munster and south Leinster but I could be wrong.
Thier interests are hardly best served by moving to Balbriggan?

John R · 07-11-2006 4:54pm

Rosslare is a small ro-ro port, I have no idea if the site is even suitable for development beyond that.

Container, bulk and tanker ships are getting bigger, water depth and berthing space is a major issue for ports handling them. Many sites and existing ports are just not suitable.

Moving the port away from Dublin and transporting by rail may seem like a green option but it isn't. The majority of the freight is destined for Dublin and outlying counties so by shifting the entry port further away more land miles are necessary.

The most economic and green method of transporting is by sea so having the landing port closer to the destination is preferable.

There is some traffic that could be switched to rail freight in Ireland but most freight will have to be transferred to road for it's last leg anyway and in many cases the section of a trip that could be covered by rail is just too short. The added time and energy used in the transferring would outweigh any advantages.

When comparing Ireland to other European countries people forget that we have almost no heavy industy and constant bulk transport is where rail has a huge advantage over road. In the last 10 years most of the bulk freight that was carried by rail here has been lost; sugar beet, IFI ammonia etc.

murphaph · 07-11-2006 6:58pm

You have to think about the other side of the sea too. The A55 has been totally upgraded across north wales and funtions as a motorway, connecting with the rest of the british motorway network. Fishguard and Pembroke have woeful road connections in comparison. That's ro-ro we're talking about obviously, container traffic is different. As John R states, moving the port away from the principal market (GDR) is a bit silly now isn't it, especially when the basis for moing it is a sub standard rail link.

Bards · 07-11-2006 8:32pm

Rail is best used when moving Freight long distances within contential Europe and the US. In Ireland the distances are miniscule and so is not economically feasible due to the amount of handling involved over such a short time frame and distance.

I agree with Mfitzy in that Rosslare and Belview should be developed considering the improved Road netwrok that is currently being built. Rosslare is on the N11 & N25 with good access to cork via Waterford and the N25. and Dublin via N11

Likewise Belview will have good access to Dublin via N9/N10 HQDC/Motorway by end of 2010.... and by 2015 to Limerick/Shannon via N24 and Atlantic Corridor

This would also help towards the implementation of the NSS

corktina · 07-11-2006 9:51pm

N25 good? well improving slowly but not good......

Moving the Port to Rosslare

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