Railfreight

Losty Dublin

Victor wrote: »

Irish Rail may have priced it on a whole-enterprise basis. While the freight business lost €1.6m, this was after it paid €2.4m to the infrastructure side.

Was there really a €2.4m cost to the infrastructure side in extra costs?

It's a paper keeping exercise, Victor. Train hire and track access charges for freight and other customers have to be accounted for separately on the balance sheet. Obviously, Irish Rail don't invoice themselves for these costs seeing as they own and operate the network and rolling stock but they need to show that it is a cost involved in hiring trains and accessing the network, hence it moving cash over to reflect this and thus creating a "loss".

dowlingm

It's a pity the main wagon depot is remote from the current freight flows. I didn't realise the CPWs were having to be positioned by the scenic route.

The_Wanderer

dowlingm wrote: »

I didn't realise the CPWs were having to be positioned by the scenic route.

Going the direct route recently after Lim Jct - Waterford was cleared for them.

dowlingm

The_Wanderer wrote: »

Going the direct route recently after Lim Jct - Waterford was cleared for them.

Anyone know if LJ-Waterford cleared for 201 ops or do 071s have to do the shuttle? I wasn't sure how what axle loading the rebuild of the Cahir bridge was to for example.

Jamie2k9

dowlingm wrote: »

Anyone know if LJ-Waterford cleared for 201 ops or do 071s have to do the shuttle? I wasn't sure how what axle loading the rebuild of the Cahir bridge was to for example.

201s are not strictly banned only allowed in emergencies at 25mph but there would never be a reason for them to operate on the route.

Hungerford

As part of Irish Rail's continuing drive to promote rail freight, all tracks in North Esk have been lifted. That is all.

Jamie2k9

Hungerford wrote: »

As part of Irish Rail's continuing drive to promote rail freight, all tracks in North Esk have been lifted. That is all.

because operators were jumping at the opportunity to use them, unless the current set up is completely at capacity I don't see any issue.

end of the road

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

201s are not strictly banned only allowed in emergencies at 25mph but there would never be a reason for them to operate on the route.

there is always a possible reason for a vehicle to operate on a route. so all lines should be cleared for 201s, the 071s aren't going to last forever sadly

end of the road

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

because operators were jumping at the opportunity to use them, unless the current set up is completely at capacity I don't see any issue.

because its more destruction of the peoples railway by those intrusted to look after it

Judgement Day

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

because operators were jumping at the opportunity to use them, unless the current set up is completely at capacity I don't see any issue.

I bet Irish Rail killed themselves trying to find a private operator to use North Esk. Now that the country is embarking on another property bubble I'm sure that the company will look to flog the yard asap.

BonkeyDonker

end of the road wrote: »

there is always a possible reason for a vehicle to operate on a route. so all lines should be cleared for 201s, the 071s aren't going to last forever sadly

I can see them outlasting the 201's in Irish Rail service.

dowlingm

Is North Esk the best place for a Cork area freight yard now anyway?

Jamie2k9

there is always a possible reason for a vehicle to operate on a route. so all lines should be cleared for 201s, the 071s aren't going to last forever sadly

All lines are but some for emergency only. I agree with the post above 071's will outlast 201's.

because its more destruction of the peoples railway by those intrusted to look after it

It's a few sidings in NW, the current area for the IWT is not at capacity and unless it is there is nothing to worry about. The lack of rolling stock for freight is the problem anyway.

I bet Irish Rail killed themselves trying to find a private operator to use North Esk. Now that the country is embarking on another property bubble I'm sure that the company will look to flog the yard asap.

well the market has to expand at some point, can't stay static for ever!

metrovick001

North Esk is in Cork. I would have thought that North Esk was quite suitably located given its proximity to the Dunkettle interchange (The containers would need to make their final journey segment on the back of a truck anyway). Pity, negative move by Iarnrod Eireann I think.

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

All lines are but some for emergency only. I agree with the post above 071's will outlast 201's.



It's a few sidings in NW, the current area for the IWT is not at capacity and unless it is there is nothing to worry about. The lack of rolling stock for freight is the problem anyway.



well the market has to expand at some point, can't stay static for ever!

dowlingm

My question was more whether there was a critical mass of freight sources convenient to North Esk who would be shipping internally rather than exporting via Tivoli and Ringaskiddy.

metrovick001

I think north esk could be viewed as an extension of Dublin port as it would be difficult to see any traffic arriving here for export via the port of Cork. I would say that the port of Cork are rather content with the development (or more appropriately the lack of) here as it severs a link for Dublin Port.
Im not sure who the big users were prior to Irish Rail pulling the plug in July 2005 (25% rate hike). It does have a bit of a scorched earth ring to it.

dowlingm wrote: »

My question was more whether there was a critical mass of freight sources convenient to North Esk who would be shipping internally rather than exporting via Tivoli and Ringaskiddy.

John Denver

Does anyone have any information about the new Biomass flow from Ballina?
Is it earmarked for Waterford or Dublin or does anyone have any idea when it might be starting?

corktina

maybe I've got it wrong, but wouldn't it be to Ballina?

Captain Chaos

The wagons have been put aside for it at Portlaois PW yard. I don't now if they need more work done to them as they are just flats, don't know where the container/hopper parts for them are yet.

BoatMad

Reading the 2013 strategic rail review makes poor reading for IR freight

The situation is that they have less then 400 available wagons, and in reality can't respond to new business even if they wanted to, which they don't.

Its worth noting that IR major losses in freight were all associated with its road freight operation, which was mainly associated with the Guinness contract , its saved 75% of its losses just getting rid of that


Any in a few years they will have no wagons and no locos, so freight will be a distant memory

Thats what you get when you employ a management team that actually arnt interested in growing things, just cutting back things.

A growing business with losses can be dealt with , a collapsing business with losses, thats called "going out of business"

Captain Chaos

A good question is how many wagons have IE still got, particularly the LP and LX flats.

They have 27 taras, 24 bogie bulk cement (stored), 24 CPWs (1 with the yellow guard rails, stored at Northwall), around 24-28? timbers, around 12? shale (stored),

I reckon they have around 60+ LP and 60+ LX wagons at least. At one time they used to have 200+ LP flats, don't now where they all are now.

end of the road

Captain Chaos wrote: »

At one time they used to have 200+ LP flats, don't now where they all are now.

probably scrapped?

MGWR

Looks like Eurostat has come out with some figures with respect to railfreight. Since the title of this thread is quite general, I thought to put it here.

EurActiv

EU initiatives to better integrate and improve connectivity between road, rail and waterways have failed to yield any significant results, according to the latest Eurostat data on freight transport.

In 2012, 74,5% of freight travelled by road in the EU28, a level that “has remained almost unchanged since 2007,” according to a report released on 1 October.

Shares of rail (18.6%) and inland waterways (6.9%) in freight transport also barely budged over the period.

Road transport had a share of over 90% of freight in Cyprus, Malta, Ireland, Greece and Spain, while rail dominated in the Baltic states. Ten European member states, including Malta and Portugal, do not utilise or have inland waterways.

Within the EU28, Romania appears to have achieved the best balance between the various modes of transport, with roads, rail and inland waterways each representing about one third of freight.

The data suggests that longstanding EU efforts to improve intermodality, or the use of “at least two different transport modes in an integrated manner”, have yielded little results. ...

The status quo in Ireland is solely due to government transport policy and no other factor.

Victor

Additionally Cyprus and Malta don't actually have railways. In Greece, railways are somewhat limited due to geography.

BoatMad

The estimate in Ireland is that 1-2% approx is carried by rail freight ( Strategic Rail review 2013) , essentially nothing

davidlacey

What would that figure have been in 90s/early 00s?

ClovenHoof

davidlacey wrote: »

What would that figure have been in 90s/early 00s?

2%-3%


Nothingness is a long term creeping disease.

ClovenHoof

The day will come when LUAS tracks will carry more freight than the national network. When the tram network expands it'll be used late at night for moving refuge or similar.

L1011

ClovenHoof wrote: »

The day will come when LUAS tracks will carry more freight than the national network. When the tram network expands it'll be used late at night for moving refuge or similar.

DUTC system was used for this very purpose; there's remaining DUTC tram tracks in to one of the old Corpo depots near Stoneybatter still.

corktina

do you mean refuse or refugees?