Leo Varadkar gets Transport

L1011

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Mind you a lot more people live in Nobber than was the case 30 years ago

Is there another Nobber than the one I'm thinking of, which is practically in Cavan and not likely to be driven on the road diverted around the runway?

Tech3

His expenses for the trip to India were posted up on Transport.ie today

Programme

Cost of the trip on excel

Very transparent so far 9,000 for two over to India for the week

hopefully he gets up to speed fast on his brief.

runway16

MYOB wrote: »

Is there another Nobber than the one I'm thinking of, which is practically in Cavan and not likely to be driven on the road diverted around the runway?

Maybe we are getting confused with the Naul Road? Thats what I had considered that road at the end of Runway 28 to be (I think it is signposted as the Naul Road anyway)

Sponge Bob

Naul it is , sorry.

murphaph

runway16 wrote: »

the plan is for a "Scissor Hub" rather than a technical stop. The idea is that, say 3 flights would arrive from Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar, and 3 would then depart to New York, Chicago and Toronto, meaning that passengers from each of the 3 Indian cities could connect to each of the 3 US/Canadian cities. Obviously to achieve that, both Eastbound and Westbound Aircraft need to land at the same place and same time frame.

This is something that Dublin Airport would be ideal for, not just for AI but larger European carriers too. With codesharing possibilities you could have continental European passengers switching airline at Dublin in this fashion. It makes geographic sense for the most westerly island to have this function, especially as we have US INS at DUB. Like the old flying boat days eh?!

Irish and Proud

Tech3 wrote: »

His expenses for the trip to India were posted up on Transport.ie today

Programme

Cost of the trip on excel

Very transparent so far 9,000 for two over to India for the week

hopefully he gets up to speed fast on his brief.

Good on him, that's the way it should be for all ministerial trips abroad. I also like the way in which he has documented what he has being doing on that trip - also the way it should be!

Hope it stays that way!

donkey balls

While I dont agree with some of the things that Leo mouths off about the way the expenses have been published with a detail break down I welcome that.
As for Dub getting AI it would be great for business for DUB airport ground handling companies/catering&cargo operations,Cargo normally destined for India normally goes by road to the UK either to MAN or LHR any additional airlines wanting to land here should be grabbed as the the revenue of these flights trickle down through the economy.
I used to work in the industry and still have friends that do one flies for Ryanair and he told me that when they pulled most of their aircraft out of Frankfurt Hahn the airport is like a ghost town with shops that used to be busy closing down and car parks that had over flows closed.

spacetweek

Tech3 wrote: »

hopefully he gets up to speed fast on his brief.

I hope he doesn't wait for the new NDP to be finalised before signing off on anything. No need since the Metro and big road projects for this year are essential and we've already had endless discussion and CBAs for them. Any further analysis would simply confirm what we already know.

runway16

murphaph wrote: »

This is something that Dublin Airport would be ideal for, not just for AI but larger European carriers too. With codesharing possibilities you could have continental European passengers switching airline at Dublin in this fashion. It makes geographic sense for the most westerly island to have this function, especially as we have US INS at DUB. Like the old flying boat days eh?!

It already goes on to a fairly big degree at DUB, but of course has room for growth. 34% of passengers on Aerlingus Long Haul flights now transfer at Dublin onto European services.

Delta transfers a number of passengers to Air France at DUB. (Air France now places its code on Delta's flights to New York and Atlanta, so its passengers have another option to get to Paris from the US - via Dublin.

American Airlines also transfers passengers onto Etihad flights to Abu Dhabi.

The DAA has an incentive scheme in place to encourage this, and it will bear fruit over the medium term I think.

Even though these passengers dont leave the airport, it is still very good for Ireland Inc as transfer passengers can ensure the viability of long haul routes that otherwise not be sustainable if they were relying on just the Irish market.

runway16

donkey balls wrote: »

While I dont agree with some of the things that Leo mouths off about the way the expenses have been published with a detail break down I welcome that.
As for Dub getting AI it would be great for business for DUB airport ground handling companies/catering&cargo operations,Cargo normally destined for India normally goes by road to the UK either to MAN or LHR any additional airlines wanting to land here should be grabbed as the the revenue of these flights trickle down through the economy.
I used to work in the industry and still have friends that do one flies for Ryanair and he told me that when they pulled most of their aircraft out of Frankfurt Hahn the airport is like a ghost town with shops that used to be busy closing down and car parks that had over flows closed.

You dont have to go as far as Frankfurt Hahn to see that: look at Shannon that has been decimated by Ryanair's part withdrawal. At Dublin, most of the traffic decline has been due to FR's cuts as well. Other Carriers have not cut back nearly as much as Ryanair.

spacetweek

runway16 wrote: »

You dont have to go as far as Frankfurt Hahn to see that: look at Shannon that has been decimated by Ryanair's part withdrawal. At Dublin, most of the traffic decline has been due to FR's cuts as well. Other Carriers have not cut back nearly as much as Ryanair.

I was in Hahn back in April 2010; did the cutback happen before or after that?

donkey balls

I think it was after that as my mate moved base to another country just before christmas.

Tech3

Varadkar moves to break up CIE's board structure

The new Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has decided to abolish the position of executive chairman of CIE, currently held by John Lynch.

The minister is replacing the old system of political appointments to key posts at the semi-state by advertising vacancies for non-executive positions. Mr Varadkar will appoint four separate non-executive chairpersons to the controversial semi-state.

Advertisements are to be placed in the national media shortly seeking chairpersons, not only for the parent company CIE, but also for its three subsidiaries, Iarnrod Eireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann.

Interviews to fill the posts will be held over the next three months. At the end of the 12-week process, Mr Lynch will be stepping down.

The move contrasts sharply with the last Government's decision to appoint Marian McGennis to the board of Dublin Bus, just 24 hours before it left office. Ms McGennis is a former Fianna Fail councillor, senator and TD.

CIE's board has been the subject of criticism in recent months because of the presence of several board members associated with Fianna Fail. Chairman of the audit committee Paul Kiely was an associate of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while board member Seamus Sheerin was a subscriber to ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen's political funds.

The non-executive board members refused to appear before an Oireachtas sub-committee on transport to answer questions about corporate governance at the company.

Mr Lynch was due to retire at the end of March but has been given an extension until the new appointments are made.

Link

murphaph

This has the potential of being the single biggest improvement in Irish public transport ever. Fair play Leo! Get stuck in there

DWCommuter

It fails to address the fact that there is no actual need for the CIE holding company in the first place. Nearly 9 years have elapsed since it was first proposed to break up CIE and leave DB, IE and BE as independent semi states at the very least. That would be a real start on the road to damascus.

murphaph

One step at a time Derek, he's only in the job a wet week!

He has at least moved to break up the political nature of this whole shambles which has seen totally incompetent idiots running CIE and the daughter companies for far too long now.

DWCommuter

murphaph wrote: »

One step at a time Derek, he's only in the job a wet week!

He has at least moved to break up the political nature of this whole shambles which has seen totally incompetent idiots running CIE and the daughter companies for far too long now.

But I want it now!!:D

Judgement Day

Anyway Leo is still a prick of the 1st order.

dowlingm

DWCommuter wrote: »

It fails to address the fact that there is no actual need for the CIE holding company in the first place.

I hope the plan is to get stronger leadership at the subsidiaries so that when the eject button is pressed on CIE they are good to go. (The important thing is that it is not another DAA farce)

trellheim

Isnt CIE the main land holding company and for all the signboard advertising etc etc ?

Judgement Day

trellheim wrote: »

Isnt CIE the main land holding company and for all the signboard advertising etc etc ?

Yes, but that is no reason to retain them. Most of the advertising sites are on railway property and should be turned over to IE or its replacement. The property arm of CIE is beyond description and they own so much property that it would take a Tribunal to establish what. You're even talking property, trackbeds etc where CIE never even operated services such as the Galway/Clifden line and I know for a fact that they own a lot of the original Cavan & Leitrim Railway trackbed.

trellheim

turn it over to NTA perhaps ?

DWCommuter

trellheim wrote: »

turn it over to NTA perhaps ?

Just turn it over to the appropriate operator, be it DB, BE or IE.

The Celtic Tiger years saw CIE control the Spencer Dock site and enter into an agreement with Treasury Holdings to form the Spencer Dock Development Company. The last thing on CIEs mind, in this case, was aiding public transport. There is something fundamentally wrong when a semi state transport company can enter into property deals with private companies while EU funding supports development in their subsidiaries and parts of the group still draw down a subvention from the state coffers.

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

Yes, but that is no reason to retain them. Most of the advertising sites are on railway property and should be turned over to IE or its replacement. The property arm of CIE is beyond description and they own so much property that it would take a Tribunal to establish what. You're even talking property, trackbeds etc where CIE never even operated services such as the Galway/Clifden line and I know for a fact that they own a lot of the original Cavan & Leitrim Railway trackbed.

The interesting factor here JD is that despite owning so much property they even failed miserably to cash in on it during the boom. While I not a fan of CIE engaging in such practice to the detriment of rail development, they totally and absolutely bolloxed up in an area where even a two bit tosser with 2 acres in the stix could get an apartment/retail block built.

So in essence a semi state company with vast land banks couldn't do much during this country's greatest ever building boom. Therefore we could never expect them to successfully run transport. Even when something was easy this bunch of inept wasters couldn't achieve anything beyond tearing up vital rail infrastructure in Spencer Dock with no thought to realistic recession proof rail development. I wouldn't trust them to pour the milk over my Cornflakes tomorrow morning.

lods

In relation to jobs on state boards, he was interviewed on Pat Kenny this morning. He'll advertise/interview for jobs but it will still be a ministerial appointment . Not sure how much will change.

On Metro North in the Times, he’s still”familiarising himself with it” . He's going to have to get off the fence soon.

Jayuu

lods wrote: »

In relation to jobs on state boards, he was interviewed on Pat Kenny this morning. He'll advertise/interview for jobs but it will still be a ministerial appointment . Not sure how much will change.

Lets wait and see what happens. I suppose what is meant is that the interview panel will come up with a recommendation which will then be approved by the minister. As a semi-state body the appointment probably has to be approved by a minister.