"Failrail"

[Transport21 Fan]

...is the opposite of "Palerail".

[dermo88]

Keep them rolling, I like that slogan.

Irish railway news are moving to a new board. Should be fun. Ahem.

[Transport21 Fan]

Originally Posted by dermo88

Keep them rolling, I like that slogan.

Irish railway news are moving to a new board. Should be fun. Ahem.

Cannot take credit for it. A person who works on the clerical side of this stuff has told me the passenger loadings on the Limerick-Rosslare line have in real numbers decreased since the service was expanded. The cost of running the line has increased. So much for 'community rail'... Anyways, I was telling him I was in favour of passenger services on the line being curtailed back to Clonmel-Limerick Jct to an hourly shuttle service and he said "oh there would be murder in Waterford/Wexford by the usual shower who never took that train in their lives" and I just mentioned about the whole Palerail psychosis, and being a culchie himself he came back with "unlike Failrail, Palerail gets people buying train tickets". I could not stop laughing when he came out with "Failrail" as it's one of them things you expected somebody to have already come up with a long time ago.

As for IRN I don't think that anyone is surprised. It's just validating the spirit and founding culture of that group. The Planters have put a fence up around the manor house to keep the commoners out. Their paranoia has gone into overload of late.

I think anyone who joins that group by subscribing to their Checkpoint Charlie mentality really needs to have a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves do they really wish to demean themselves by doing everything bar sending a handful of irrelevant nobodies a birth cert and a blood sample in order to see yet one more photo of a train that's been posted a billion times over and over already.

Up the Railcar Gricers! At least they are changing with the times, and not retreating into the past, and the vast majority of them appear to be our own.

[dowlingm]

T21fan - P11 has had their closed paid-member-only section for some time. Not a criticism, it's "their train set" so to speak but this "fence" you speak of is hardly a first. P11's committee have their own philosophy and the hardcore IRNers have theirs and I can't say either side have much sympathy for the other point of view - some IRNers have no notion of how important it is to prioritise urban rail to avoid implosion of our badly planned cities and some P11ers are allergic to even commenting on matters raised on the IRN board.

That said I have been mostly happy to be an occasionally contrarian participant on both but have yet to decide on joining the IRN board. Being a still reasonably new resident of Ontario means I spend a bit more time talking about Toronto transit than Tuam these days. But then I thought the same thing when P11 left hyperboards or whatever it was then.

This particular board is so contentious because it has IRN/WOTers, P11ers and dissenters all together - it's surprising how a reasonably light moderation hand has kept things both orderly and interesting (hi Victor!) not to mention the fact that it keeps all transport discussions together which is crucial to discussing integrated door-to-door solutions in my view.

[Prof_V]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

T21fan - P11 has had their closed paid-member-only section for some time. Not a criticism, it's "their train set" so to speak but this "fence" you speak of is hardly a first.

In fairness to P11 (I'm a member, though I've had my differences with them in the past; I'm also an IRN member, but hardly ever use the site any more and may let that drop) they have a public section too, which IRN don't appear to be providing. They also have a reasonable excuse for it (that P11 is a passenger group and they want to keep technical stuff off the public section to avoid scaring the general public off, though I suppose it would be theoretically possible to have a technical board within the public area) - what's IRN's justification for their move? (Not a rhetorical question, but I haven't heard one so far.)

[SMERSH]

I wonder if http://Irishrailwaynews.org will make a reappearance soon?

[Zoney]

I'll just be glad to no longer have any reason to ever go to an MSN groups board. Bleugh.

[dowlingm]

no search and no RSS - proof positive MS still don't get the whole internet thing.

[Transport21 Fan]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

T21fan - P11 has had their closed paid-member-only section for some time.

You are correct to bring this up and I agree. It was an unfortunate decision, along with the press release attacking an SB Post article a while back as I know it seriously damaged P11's image in the print media.

But having said that, P11 from day one have always been a group of people for better or worse worked for free to make railways better for passengers and more importantly for railway's sake. There is and never was a hidden agenda from day one. P11 are allowed to make mistakes. I was one of the founding members and came up with the name "Platform11" and the mission statement of the organisation because A) I was living in Sligo and working in Dublin and could not believe how utterly pointless the rail service was, and B) I wanted Irish railways to stand on their own two feet and not be a form of welfare or some transport IFA forever dependent on government charity.

IRN on the other hand has always been about funding railways as a hobby. Mainly for the pleasure of people who do not pay taxes on this island. Sorry, but the poor bastard sitting in traffic for 2 hours outside Dunboyne comes before a "Railway Children" special from Sligo to Waterford.

End of story. But I respect your point of view. At the end of the day the truth is the truth and we are all better served by it.

[dermo88]

Limerick to Rosslare is the ultimate in failrail as it stands. There is no action plan to stop the rot. There is no sign of action that would save and improve it, such as running a Wexford to Waterford service. This should have been done in 1963 after the closure of Macmine-New Ross, but the people in charge were stuck in the old fashioned Victorian timetable mindset. Their thinking "Why do it that way, sure we've always done it like this", and its really screwed us up.

The same applies to providing a proper service for Clonmel, and running a shuttle going from Waterford to Limerick Junction. Its nice, clean and joined up. It could work if the will was there.

But as it stands, its just a long awkward service, its pretty dire.

[dermo88]

I've grown to prefer boards.ie and Platform11 over IRN. I get a sense that there is one biased moderator on IRN, and whoeever it is, he was involved or assisted the trolling, or the troll. I know this because my posts take longer to be approved above the others. It was amusing to see them wake up to proper moderation standards, after one member shot their mouth off about P11. It was a pure own goal.....and for two months since, they've been screwed up. Priceless.

I'm between two minds on continuing my membership there. boards.ie seems to have acted as a bridge between the saner members of IRN and members of Platform11, and its worked quite effectively in that regard. The locosexual element in IRN are a bit strange, and just like the locomotives and cravens that they love, if they don't wake up and smell the coffee, they won't have anything. As I told them before "Cherish the past, relish the future".

I get a warm glow when I see these new trains. It means that I am going to get free travel when I am old, and that I will be able to use the trains. Between 7 and 10 years ago, none of us expected that. Its good to see that all of it, apart from a few miles will be retained here and there, and for that, we should be grateful. Its good that its being expanded. Its even better that it might (eventually) be good enough to persuade people that they do not need a car dealership.

[Transport21 Fan]

Originally Posted by dermo88

I get a sense that there is one biased moderator on IRN,

Take your pick.

[Shunter]

I see that Irishrailwaynews.org is back in business. I wonder if they are trying to steal IRNs thunder by getting the jump on them?

[paulm17781]

Originally Posted by Shunter

I see that Irishrailwaynews.org is back in business. I wonder if they are trying to steal IRNs thunder by getting the jump on them?

Phwoaarrr, pictures section and all.

[Zoney]

Originally Posted by dermo88

The same applies to providing a proper service for Clonmel, and running a shuttle going from Waterford to Limerick Junction. Its nice, clean and joined up. It could work if the will was there.

Well, whatever about providing such a service not being high on the agenda - there would be zero chance of a sensible service ever happening if they stop the current token Limerick-Waterford service.