Last gasp attempt to reopen Waterford/Rosslare Railway

corktina

man98 wrote: »

It really is a good idea. I should know as I know some members of Save The Rail.

please expand.... how exactly do you think its a good idea? Ask your friens on STR to tell us how it will be paid for, where the passngers are coming from and going to,what they will use for trains and staff, what practical experiance they have etc

highlydebased

The facebook page claims that they "have" 2751-2753 which are the two bubble cars (Somebody thought it was a three car unit, there is no 2752)

n97 mini

Save The Rail website account suspended. Not looking promising!

dowlingm

I thought "2752" and "2754" were designated on the second cab for signalling purposes? Am I misremembering?

end of the road

n97 mini wrote: »

Save The Rail website account suspended. Not looking promising!

maybe their just going to use facebook instead of having a website?

n97 mini

end of the road wrote: »

maybe their just going to use facebook instead of having a website?

If they're abandoning their website they should delete the DNS records for it.

I googled for them and their website was in the results, not their FB page.

end of the road

don't they not automatically delete eventually?

purplepanda

This saga is getting more mysterious by the day, so far it seems that IE are handing over ( maybe for free) a couple of old railcars & including storage facilties, and will be maintaining the line & infastructure including the Barrow Bridge under the NTA terms.

However Save the Rail need to recruit staff including drivers / guards, station staff or franchise all this out to a foreign operator? Or else hire them from IE? That won't come cheap.

Obviously finance will need to be arranged for all this, I doubt if any government subsidy will be granted even though other regional routes receive such aid. This is the South East after all not the West!!

Will the regional authorities contribute towards this,project or maybe EU grants are available? A rich benefactor perhaps? :pac:

BTW Well done to Tayna & STR for their efforts, no cyniism from me but there's a lot of future potential problems awaiting solutions.

dowlingm

How does signalling work between Wellington Bridge and Waterford Station - specifically with respect to trains in and out of Belview? If a train runs from Waterford to Belview is the section as far as WB deemed occupied for all that time?

Losty Dublin

They just reopen the Wellingtonbridge-Waterford ETS section again if it's needed regularly again; for now it's one train in steam. I gather that Belview trains operates under phone orders from Waterford signal cabin; somebody better versed may confirm or deny same.

Our man in Havana

Manual staff is used.

cbl593h

dowlingm wrote: »

How does signalling work between Wellington Bridge and Waterford Station - specifically with respect to trains in and out of Belview? If a train runs from Waterford to Belview is the section as far as WB deemed occupied for all that time?

No that arrangement went years ago when Abbey Junction closed as a block post. There is proper track circuiting nowadays. Previously for example if the Barrow Bridge controller took a release for the bridge to open,nothing could leave Belview and even go west until the bridge was shut again.

n97 mini

end of the road wrote: »

don't they not automatically delete eventually?

Yes, in May 2013 for that one.

highlydebased

dowlingm wrote: »

I thought "2752" and "2754" were designated on the second cab for signalling purposes? Am I misremembering?

Possibly, still does not turn it into a three car unit though!

dowlingm

flyingsnail wrote: »

Which they intend to maintain in the yard in Waterford? Have they any idea of what’s actually involved in maintain a train?

I am confused though, who is going to staff and run the train? IE, save the rail, foreign operator?

Surely they will simply contract with IE to maintain the sets in Limerick with light maintenance in Waterford, similar to the way Ballina is run at present? IE get to keep 2700 driver and mechanical currency in Limerick so if they ever wanted to reactivate the 2700s (such as a fault being discovered in another fleet which would cause a long term stoppage) they could do so relatively quickly. It can't be more expensive to do that than to develop a maintenance capability in Waterford for a couple of DMUs.

corktina

never gonna happen....

corktina

and I'll tell you WHY its never going to happen.
Any private investor will be looking for a return, when they twig that it would be much cheaper to BUS their booming number of passengers , thats what will happen....
happened on the Lough Swilly, happened to a degree on the CDJR, even happened on the fully re-equipped West Clare......
(happened in West Cork,
happened on Waterford to Tramore....
happened on the Kanturk and Newmarket Truck Line (enjoying the most passengers ever now with the Rail Replacement Bus increased in frequency...

Once PROFIT comes into the frame, it becomes the focus of the service NOT running trains for their own sake.

man98

In fact several companies are interested in starting a route, I have been told. IE will give 250k a year to anyone running a service.

Our man in Havana

IE will give 250k a year to anyone running a service.

Source? Link?

man98

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Source? Link?

Sorry, I don't have any as I was told this but Irish Rail gives 250k per year to bus eireann in their agreement to terminate the train service for the replacement bus unless a better alternative was found, which means a train. This document is available under The Freedom of Information Act from the NTA. They will also give whoever runs it a free 2 carriage train. This is presumably one of the ones for scrap!

end of the road

corktina wrote: »

happened on the Lough Swilly, happened to a degree on the CDJR, even happened on the fully re-equipped West Clare......
(happened in West Cork,
happened on Waterford to Tramore....
happened on the Kanturk and Newmarket Truck Line

what exactly happened with these? did they get private investers who decided to go with a bus instead of the train? i thought the west clare railway is a heritage railway?

flyingsnail

man98 wrote: »

Sorry, I don't have any as I was told this but Irish Rail gives 250k per year to bus eireann in their agreement to terminate the train service for the replacement bus unless a better alternative was found, which means a train. This document is available under The Freedom of Information Act from the NTA. They will also give whoever runs it a free 2 carriage train. This is presumably one of the ones for scrap!

Even if Irish rail did give them 250k its not exactly big money in terms of running a railway, that’s 6 or 7 drivers for a year, then you have your other staff, track access charges, fuel, maintenance advertising ect.


Have any of these interested company’s ever been named? Are they current rail operators?

corktina

end of the road wrote: »

what exactly happened with these? did they get private investers who decided to go with a bus instead of the train? i thought the west clare railway is a heritage railway?

No they basically swopped over to buses after variuos attempts at modernising.

The West Clare (CIE) was completely re-equipped with diesl locos and railcars (narrow guage) and closed a few years later. The Couty Donegal(ng) private line that relied for some years on railcars for passenger traffic before accumulated maintenance led to a swop to buses. The Lough Swilly(ng) another private line changed to buses and trucks and abandoned the railway without any effort to modernise and the West Cork Lines (5'3")were all dieselised by CIE and closed at a stroke not long afterwards, as with the Waterford and Tramore

man98

flyingsnail wrote: »

Which they intend to maintain in the yard in Waterford? Have they any idea of what’s actually involved in maintain a train?


I am confused though, who is going to staff and run the train? IE, save the rail, foreign operator?

A foreign operator will operate the services as a Community Rail Project, the same as the Fishguard- Cardiff service in South Wales by Arriva. This is what I've been told anyway.

man98

flyingsnail wrote: »

Even if Irish rail did give them 250k its not exactly big money in terms of running a railway, that’s 6 or 7 drivers for a year, then you have your other staff, track access charges, fuel, maintenance advertising ect.


Have any of these interested company’s ever been named? Are they current rail operators?

Sorry for the delay but Trampower and Veolia Transport ( who operate the LUAS, I think) are two of them and I am aware that track access charges would be €12.55 approx. per carriage. And for 4.8m they could get electronic gates, which in 10 years (16 gates @300k) and gate keepers get 30k a year. All they need is an investment. The rail company would provide the drivers and IE have to ( they signed a contract with the NTA) maintain the line!

JeffK88

Any more updates on veolia or trampower will operate this line

end of the road

apparently an inspection car is to travel the line this coming wednesday. thats according to a post on the facebook page. it will travel the line from waterford and will head back to dublin via the dead slow and easy.

JeffK88

Suppose that's progress of sorts ... least something happening and IE are willing to inspect and lease the line out must be a first for them.. if it works out could be the WRC and Waterford to limerick lines next .

highlydebased

The inspection car is travelling the country by the looks of things so I wouldn't look too much into it.

Judgement Day

IE are obliged to inspect the line by the NTA and are going through the motions. The line will never reopen but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.