[Article] Galway to Limerick rail route to run at €2.4m loss

parsi

Stinicker wrote: »

Don't they??

Aha. I wasn't pwned after all - they're not from Ireland Anyway if Mick was billed the full cost of the infrastructure then it would cost more than a fiver ..

Stinicker wrote: »

Yes Deutsch Bahn are unionised and have old staff but so does every company, my point is they also take on new staff and quite alot of the staff I last encountered were in their twenties. My point is that in Europe their Public service is controlled and their staff are happy and trade off the lower wage for job security.

In Ireland all they want is constant pay rises without any productivity increase etc. Irish Rail is a systemic failure and despite the problems of other railways they could not be as bad as the Irish setup if they tried.

In Germany if the train does not arrive within the minute the users are p'd off wheras in Japan if it is not within 10 seconds they are annoyed. In Ireland anything within half an hour of the schedule is considered a success and most trains are nearly always ten minutes late.

I always thought that DB was a paragon of efficiency but yet its standards are slipping (the S-Bahn in Berlin which serves a population greater than Ireland won't be fully back in service until 2011) and this is probably due to a much greater focus on the old bugbear - costs.

The private railway companies in Germany are facing revolt from their unions - once again - Costs.

This months Todays Railways has quite a litany of how much-respected companies failed to cope with the winter and all in the name of cost-saving - point covers removed (to save), vent covers removed (to save), heated sheds not used (to save) - these were all obviously provided during the good times...

Anybody can run a successful railway if they throw a fortune at it - we need to be looking at the operators who can run a successful railway with tight budgets, apathethic politicians, disjointed thinking.

Whatever about all that - with the running times proposed I don't foresee a lot of traffic unless they do a "Galway Bay" tour every Saturday with an A-class and a rake of Park Royals........

crushproof

Stinicker wrote: »

Well if Irish Rail wasn't such a Public service behemoth paying their useless lazy workers such high wages proper pricing like this could be applied. I recently took a train from Germany to Amsterdam the journey lasted about 3.5 hours and would be comparable to say Cork to Dublin or Dublin to Kerry. I paid €21 single and could have got €37 return if I wanted. In Ireland the average price is about €75 and often over €100.

Michael O'Leary can transport you as far away as Greece for less than Irish rail charges to go to Dublin, his Boeing 737's cost tens of millions yet he still turns a nice profit without a subsidy and he has competition unlike CIE. The reason why so? his staff are not constrained by unions and he pays them a wage appropriate to what they do, Irish rail staff are heavily over paid and most inefficient.

If I wanted to get from Dublin from either locations I can fly with Ryanair or Aer Arran cheaper or drive for less despite the tolls and high petrol prices. One of the main reasons rail is so unpopular in Ireland it the massive cost of travelling on it.

In Germany you can walk into any Deutsch Bahn station and expect a level of service and punctionality, in Ireland if your lucky you will not get abuse from the staff. I have also noticed that Deutsch Bahn employ young staff also instead of the sort of closed unionised shop that Irish rail are. Wages in the public sector throughout Europe are far lower than Ireland but these people happily except it as a trade off for job security. They hire younger staff and operate normally, unlike in Ireland, where these PS jobs are a gravy train and to get one you must either be in a railway family or a FF hack.

Hmmmm, strange one that, the last time my friends and I travelled Dublin to Cork return it cost us €20 each return, which was booked a few hours before departure and saved us money on a taxi to and from the airport. Don't recall booking a flight hours before departure with Ryanair and paying only €20 :rolleyes: And you cannot get to Greece from Ireland via Ryanair, cheapest is €170 via Aer Lingus to Athens.

And wow, I've been harrassed so many times by station staff, I mean even the time I late for my train and they held it while I got my ticket or the time I left my bag behind in the station and they sent it up to me on the next train to Heuston. How awfully rude of them.

Judgement Day

crushproof wrote: »

Hmmmm, strange one that, the last time my friends and I travelled Dublin to Cork return it cost us €20 each return, which was booked a few hours before departure and saved us money on a taxi to and from the airport. Don't recall booking a flight hours before departure with Ryanair and paying only €20 :rolleyes: And you cannot get to Greece from Ireland via Ryanair, cheapest is €170 via Aer Lingus to Athens.

And wow, I've been harrassed so many times by station staff, I mean even the time I late for my train and they held it while I got my ticket or the time I left my bag behind in the station and they sent it up to me on the next train to Heuston. How awfully rude of them.

Sure you had to buy a ticket - you sound like you work for the company?