Irish Rail adding earlybird service Westport - Dublin

Neworder79

Irish Rail are adding 2 extra services service on the Westport - Dublin line, bringing it to 5 daily services from September. This will include an earlybird service arriving in Dublin before 9.00 which should be popular for business meetings. No details on IR site yet though.

Yoda

Excellent! Last year sometime I'd heard this would happen. I think I remember hearing that the two new services will join the Galway train in Athlone.

barleybooley

Now all they need to do is bring the price down. Not there yet and so forth

jkmanc1974

Neworder79 wrote: »

Irish Rail are adding 2 extra services service on the Westport - Dublin line, bringing it to 5 daily services from September. This will include an earlybird service arriving in Dublin before 9.00 which should be popular for business meetings. No details on IR site yet though.

Good news, however a bit of a delay in rolling this out from the promised start date of March, heres hoping it comes off!

Brgds
Johnny

Neworder79

jkmanc1974 wrote: »

Good news, however a bit of a delay in rolling this out from the promised start date of March, heres hoping it comes off!

Brgds
Johnny

Agreed, I'll believe it when I see it. The majority infrastructure improvements announced in the West during the boom years never materialised. Still waiting for the bus routes to Ireland West Airport BusEireann announced back in 2005!

RoadKillTs

Not there yet ... but we will rob ya anyways
The prices are shocking!

nuac

glad to hear it. A service that arrived in Dublin 10.50 a.m., still leaving the bother of getting downtown is not much use for business purposes.

Feel that the train times are set to suit staff rather than the customers.

The departure time is also gradually becoming earlier - at one time it was 7 p.m. from Westland Row.

de5p0i1er

There also adding an extra run for the U2 concert with a return leaving Dublin at 1.30am that would be handy for ppl and save on hotel costs.

Mixupat

Anyone hear anymore on this?

jkmanc1974

Small mention of it in todays Western People saying that it is due to start in the next few weeks, arrival in Dublin just before 9am but no other information....

Brgds
Johnny

alan4cult

Yes I read that in the Western People also. It would really be great to have! Much more people would use the train. Pity about the price though!

littlebug

What is the price?
Will people have to change in Athlone?

jkmanc1974

littlebug wrote: »

What is the price?
Will people have to change in Athlone?

Not sure ref the changing trains side of things, just spoke to someone in IrishRail who advises that the service is now not scheduled to start until end of October(current timetable has been extended to end of October)

Fares will remain the same ie 34.50 day return/48 weekly return, cheaper fares might be available on line though.

Brgds
Johnny

jkmanc1974

Latest from Irishrail on this......not looking great for these services to be introduced!

Thank you for your recent email,

The existing timetable has been extended until further notice, and no changes will take place on September 27th. In light of the current economic situation, we are currently reviewing our train services to see how best to utilise the resources available to us to maximize overall passenger volumes. Our priority in this review will be to ensure as best as possible that we maintain current services, while evaluating service improvement possibilities.

I expect the timetable review to be complete soon and an update will be available on www.irishrail.ie

Brgds
Johnny

Neworder79

The new earlybird service has been announced again, and will be in the new timetable from November 30th. Leaving Westport at 5.15am arriving "before 9.00" so slow as ever.

http://www.midwestradio.ie/MWR/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=4673&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=52

jkmanc1974

Heard the same this morning as well on MidWest, 3 hours more or less to get from Claremorris to Dublin on this service me thinks.....good news none the less if both additional services do start as promised.

Brgds
Johnny