Any suggestions?

bazzer06

The "Has anyone thought of this?" thread got me thinking about level crossings and such like! Has anyone got any suggestions for a possible overhaul of the railway line through Wexford town?

At the moment, the railway runs along the quays and thus has to go very slowly. There are accidents every year involving cars (generally at the bottom of wexford Bridge) and pedestrians (all along the quays). Should this not be a pressing issue in the general upgrade of the Dublin - Rosslare line?

I do have one suggestion, although it would probably never happen in the laissez faire world of Iarnrod Eireann - how about completely rerouting the railway line to the outskirts of wexford (around Clonard little maybe) and then also rerouting the rosslare - waterford line to meet it at that point? This way, you'd have a direct wexford - waterford link (which would be heavily used imo - at the moment, getting the train from wexford to waterford is completely impractical due to timetabling) and would also have land to spare for a light rail project in the distant future. It would also free up this section of the line for possible double-tracking in the future.

I know the new station would be very far out of town, but a shuttle bus service could be set up to remedy this.

Perhaps if Wexford was eventually to get a new bypass, the old route could be used to run the trainline along?

John R

Total waste of money. TBH that would rival the WRC in the pointlessness stakes.

The current line is fine for it's purposes and the station is in a good central location in the town, sticking it several miles outside the town would leave the service in a far worse position than before.

The trains crawl along the section at 5mph so how anybody can manage to collide with them is beyond me. Idiots sometimes park cars too close, a high kerb would solve that.

Ever more stupid safety rules just pander to the stupid people who in times gone by would have been killed off before they could infect the gene pool.

Forget about large re-alignments for Waterford-Wexford it is not going to happen. There really isn't that much traffic between the two to warrant it, certainly nothing that couldn't be easily handled by bus services which also have the advantage of serving New Ross.

Double tracking is another pointless arguement, for the forseeable future there will be nowhere near enough traffic to consider it, even one train an hour in each direction south of Gorey is very unlikely to ever happen.

MT

There are accidents every year involving cars (generally at the bottom of wexford Bridge) and pedestrians (all along the quays).

That sounds like the traffic problems that ocurred with the Luas at first. I don't know the area (Wexford) but did these tend to arrise from lots of parking in the wrong place, stopping across yield or stop lines or refusing to leave yellow boxes clear? These and running red lights seem to be ingrained habits down south and seemed to be the cause of collisions with the Luas.

bazzer06

I probably only see it as an issue because its local and gives me some personal gripes - like the restricted access to the new quays because of legal issue for example.

However, I think that looking at it in the long term it would be a good investment. The Waterford - Rosslare line is currently in danger of closing due to light passenger traffic; something we would regret in the future. To kick start it back into action, i think we need to introduce some direct wexford - Waterford service at decent times, at least on the existing track alignment. then maybe a case could eventually be made for an overhaul.

I'm not saying this should be a short or even medium term project, just something that should be considered for the future! At the end of the day, it would connect the two biggest population centres in the southeast directly, and would introduce more possibilities for commuters from south county wexford to both waterford and Wexford.

Also, while i'm in the area so to speak, what's the general feeling about reopening the Waterford - New Ross spur?

jd

bazzer06 wrote:

I do have one suggestion, although it would probably never happen in the laissez faire world of Iarnrod Eireann - how about completely rerouting the railway line to the outskirts of wexford (around Clonard little maybe) ?

I was wondering about this before-the prolem though is the gradients-cycle a bike up the by pass and you'll see the problem with diverting from Ferrycarrig-> Clonard->Drinagh.

If the South Wexford Line is to be saved, a new curve could be installed between the South Wexford Line and the Wexford Dublin Line. Limerick/Waterford Trains cease to run to Rosslare, and run to Wexford town instead. Even that would be hard to justify in capital cost terms.

Wexford bridge probably needs barriers but if someone gets a Darwin Award it may give the town some publicity.

New Ross is a regular on AA roadwatch. The prelim. census results will be interesting.

SeanW

How much would any of this cost?

jd

SeanW wrote:

How much would any of this cost?

You can forget about a line around the west of the town. The contour lines on the map below are still more or less correct



Signalling and laying a line below-I am not sure - anybody hazard a guess.

Road barriers on Wexford bridge dunno either..

John R

Direct services from Waterford-Wexford don't look to be viable IMO.

The times are uncompetitive, Waterford-Rosslare Strand is currently given 1h10 mns and Wexford-Rosslare is around 17 mns.

Even with a direct curve and skipping all the intermediate stations the journey will still be well over 1 hour, probably closer to 1h15.

The bus currently does the trip in 50-60 mns.


New Ross-Waterford I don't see happening either, the line is the wrong side of the river in NR, it is a good walk away from the main population centre and with the station in Waterford being less than ideally situated as well it doesn't seem to be all that attractive.

Once the Waterford by-pass is built the traffic situation in the city should ease considerably so the peak time delays should not be as bad. There would also be more scope to put bus priority in Waterford.

jd

John R wrote:

Direct services from Waterford-Wexford don't look to be viable IMO.

.

True. But if it is decided to keep the South Wexford Line is kept open, it make a lot more sense to run services from Wexford rather than Rosslare.

bazzer06

John R wrote:

The bus currently does the trip in 50-60 mns

oh dear, are you making the mistake of believing bus eireann timetables? Wexford - Waterford almost always takes over on hour - up to two hours when you get stuck in New Ross!

Although I suppose they are bypassing it...

John R

bazzer06 wrote:

oh dear, are you making the mistake of believing bus eireann timetables? Wexford - Waterford almost always takes over on hour - up to two hours when you get stuck in New Ross!

No, I'm basing it on my own journeys although I avoid Waterford in rush hour like the plague, tbh I find it worse than Dublin.

If the Waterford and New Ross bypasses were not happening then I would not be so quick to write off the rail line.

I don't think it is a complete red herring but in comparison to other rail projects (except the WRC) it is well off any sort of viability radar.

There is a small but solid commuter base from the south Wexford area (mainly Wellingtonbridge and Rosslare strand) that use the current service as it is far quicker than road via New Ross, problem is that it is far too small to make the service viable. In the medium term the Barrow bridge is going to need serious money to keep the line open.

Changing the current service to start from Wexford wouldn't be a bad idea to see if any sort of traffic could be generated, there is almost no passengers to Rosslare Harbour on it anyway.

Victor

I tink it might have been better if they had kept New Ross - Enniscorthy open and closed the South Wexford line, but perhaps lets not go there.

jd

Victor wrote:

I tink it might have been better if they had kept New Ross - Enniscorthy open and closed the South Wexford line, but perhaps lets not go there.

sshhh you locosexual

Victor

jd wrote:

sshhh you locosexual

Nah, I'm a railway type, not a train type.