Dick Fearn's legacy

Hungerford

Last month, Iarnrod Eireann announced the impending retirement of Dick Fearn, its chief executive from 2005. He had previously been its chief operating officer.

Fearn's period as chief executive saw a number of landmarks in the development of Ireland's railways:

* The reopening of the Midleton, Ennis-Athenry and Clonsilla-M3 Parkway lines
* The closure of the Waterford-Rosslare railway
* The switch from loco-hauled passenger stock to DMUs
* The Malahide viaduct collapse
* The drawing up of the Dart Underground project
* The Kildare Route Project

I suppose my question is what do you think his enduring legacy will be? In discussions in 20 years' time, what will we be crediting him with?

CaptainFreedom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSELOCMmw4A

dowlingm

The three reopened lines were like the goldilocks bears -
Midleton just right (or thereabouts),
Ennis-Athenry overbuilt (Ardrahan/Craughwell) and underbuilt (Oranmore station/loop, Sixmilebridge loop)
M3 underbuilt (truncated, Hansfield not open on day 1) and overbuilt (day 1 double track on a line now being shoved into a bay)

Waterford-Rosslare was marked for death anyway - too little demand, too much rigidity in IE thinking, too much ground to make up in the infrastructure, too little cooperation from the sister company who could have delayed the bus back to Waterford so the service to Rosslare could wait for the Dublin train without incurring taxi fees). However the various calamities south of Connolly will make it difficult for them to contemplate lifting because of the probable need to rescue stock.

The DMUs were overbought but also badly utilised (see my frequent complaints re 22001-6). Government policy does not favour bus-rail integration in the outer catchment which meant that IE went from a position of being undercapacity (when 22037 derailed and 22010/11 were sent back yet the Mark 3 PPs remained out of service) to overcapacity (withdrawal of 2700s). Dick also failed to extend electrification outside of Interconnector either north of Malahide or west of Connolly which I think will be seen in years to come as having gambled too much on megaprojects.

Malahide was simply a continuation of inherited lack of rigour in corporate knowledge but something he certainly didn't do much to abate.

DART Underground as I mentioned above - a big bang project on which too much hung and now there is no plan to implement parts of it as funding permits.

KRP - truncated, again no clear plan to deal with the choke points at Heuston and Kildare which will prevent the built parts reaching full potential.

Here's a couple of things I would add:

No transformative vision for rail - he should have been publicly pressing to demerge infrastructure from operations and getting all those bridge replacements etc. onto NRA or someone other State Aid proof books, and getting operations out of the CIE umbrella and cooperating more closely with both LUAS and private bus operators where that advantaged getting people onto IE services.

No progress in relations with NI - still stuck with incompatible signalling systems when UK and Ireland should have combined to roll out ERTMS island-wide similar to what Denmark is doing, which would among other things have allowed the two systems to transfer stock to each other to handle surges and cope with catastrophes like Broadmeadow more flexibly, and to devise a single set of Rail Operating Rules for the island. No progress on improving Enterprise a jot.

No progress in railfreight - some tinkering around the edges with 9'6 containers, use of forwarders and so on but mostly stand pat stuff.

Rosslare Harbour remaining owned by IE for no obvious reason given it's a RoRo port, the passenger halt has been moved out of comfortable distance and the timetable is hostile to connections.

Continuing to employ the Information Minister - Barry has been too long the face of failure and IE should have found someone new with a bit more skill in getting good news out there on the few days bad news was absent.

CIE

dowlingm wrote: »

Midleton just right (or thereabouts)

Colossal overspending. Could have been done for cheaper and gotten the same results.

dowlingm wrote: »

Ennis-Athenry overbuilt (Ardrahan/Craughwell) and underbuilt (Oranmore station/loop, Sixmilebridge loop)

But by no means overspent. Of course, the parallel M18 which cost nine times as much per mile had to have its costs justified by degrading the railway service.

dowlingm wrote: »

M3 underbuilt (truncated, Hansfield not open on day 1) and overbuilt (day 1 double track on a line now being shoved into a bay)

If anything could be judged as an underbuild, it was not continuing northwest of the M3 station.

dowlingm wrote: »

Waterford-Rosslare was marked for death anyway - too little demand, too much rigidity in IE thinking, too much ground to make up in the infrastructure, too little cooperation from the sister company who could have delayed the bus back to Waterford so the service to Rosslare could wait for the Dublin train without incurring taxi fees). However the various calamities south of Connolly will make it difficult for them to contemplate lifting because of the probable need to rescue stock

Yet there is still bus service connecting Waterford and Rosslare Harbour five times a day (sorry, but I refuse to say "Europort"). And all of these buses continue on to Cork and/or Tralee (all stopping at Dungarvan too), which throws the abandonment of Waterford-Mallow into question as well (which didn't happen under Fearn, but such reopening wasn't even looked at under his watch either).

dowlingm wrote: »

The DMUs were overbought but also badly utilised (see my frequent complaints re 22001-6)

"Overbought" means (at least to me) that there was premature retirement of existing rolling stock that had many years of life left in it. Also can mean lack of expected passenger rail expansion in terms of route miles. Too much emphasis on paint scheme changes as well. Also indicates a lack of willingness to expand electrification in general; on longer electrified routes, push-pull and trailer coaches could have been hauled by all-electric engines and schedules improved greatly.

dowlingm wrote: »

Government policy does not favour bus-rail integration in the outer catchment which meant that IE went from a position of being undercapacity (when 22037 derailed and 22010/11 were sent back yet the Mark 3 PPs remained out of service) to overcapacity (withdrawal of 2700s). Dick also failed to extend electrification outside of Interconnector either north of Malahide or west of Connolly which I think will be seen in years to come as having gambled too much on megaprojects

Sending DARTs north of Malahide on the Northern Line would have resulted in complaints, especially relating to slower top speeds (with certain classes) and lack of on-board restroom facilities. More likely to be accepted on Connolly-Maynooth due to shorter distance, but then you'd have to alter the timetable once more in terms of the stopping trains that continue west to Mullingar and even Longford.

dowlingm wrote: »

Malahide was simply a continuation of inherited lack of rigour in corporate knowledge but something he certainly didn't do much to abate

Malahide was an utter disaster that just did not need to happen.

dowlingm wrote: »

DART Underground as I mentioned above - a big bang project on which too much hung and now there is no plan to implement parts of it as funding permits

Nobody knew what was hanging on DU. It was born in confusion and died in confusion. All the while, terminus capacity kept shrinking at Connolly, which made the notion of Phoenix Park Tunnel commuter service less and less viable. DU relied on too many connections to existing services (which would be reduced anyhow under the plan), which would have overloaded trains especially on the Loop Line where you have people forced to ride north after travelling south to Pearse, jamming up the proposed Maynooth-Bray service. Since the Northern Line electrification was to have been to end at Balbriggan anyhow (making that the new Northern Line DART terminus), it would have thrown existing Northern Line commuter service to Drogheda/Dundalk as well as Enterprise service into confusion (even with the unspecified "signal and track capacity enhancements" touted). There's already a surface station at Docklands (Sheriff Street really), and the way underground from there is less than certain anyhow.

dowlingm wrote: »

KRP - truncated, again no clear plan to deal with the choke points at Heuston and Kildare which will prevent the built parts reaching full potential

Goes back to the bizarre plans for DU. The GSWR line electrification was supposed to have gone only as far as Hazelhatch, making that station a DART terminus (as to why, I have no clue), and then throwing existing Kildare commuter service into confusion.

dowlingm wrote: »

Here's a couple of things I would add:

• No transformative vision for rail - he should have been publicly pressing to demerge infrastructure from operations and getting all those bridge replacements etc. onto NRA or someone other State Aid proof books, and getting operations out of the CIE umbrella and cooperating more closely with both LUAS and private bus operators where that advantaged getting people onto IE services.
  
• No progress in relations with NI - still stuck with incompatible signalling systems when UK and Ireland should have combined to roll out ERTMS island-wide similar to what Denmark is doing, which would among other things have allowed the two systems to transfer stock to each other to handle surges and cope with catastrophes like Broadmeadow more flexibly, and to devise a single set of Rail Operating Rules for the island. No progress on improving Enterprise a jot.
  
• No progress in railfreight - some tinkering around the edges with 9'6 containers, use of forwarders and so on but mostly stand pat stuff.
  
• Rosslare Harbour remaining owned by IE for no obvious reason given it's a RoRo port, the passenger halt has been moved out of comfortable distance and the timetable is hostile to connections.
  
• Continuing to employ the Information Minister - Barry has been too long the face of failure and IE should have found someone new with a bit more skill in getting good news out there on the few days bad news was absent.

There will never be any progress in railfreight until IE gets completely out of its operations and permits actual competition on there, and I don't mean in compliance with EU directive 91/440 (which I don't particularly agree with, what with it allowing foreign railways to "compete" on Irish tracks) but for homegrown Irish companies to do this. Lorries are literally running roughshod over the country.

There was no reason to do what was done to Rosslare Harbour station, unless it was a deliberate move to discourage passenger railway travel there. Again, let someone else do it if you don't want to.

dowlingm

Reopening Waterford-Dungarvan-Fermoy-Mallow? Wow, that Fearn guy is a monster for not being all over that one. (Disclaimer - I grew up a couple of hundred yards from the Fermoy-Mitchelstown light railway alignment so I am quite well acquainted with the topography and demography between Mallow and Dungarvan)

end of the road

as far as i know under the agreement the rosslare waterford line can't be lifted (how long for i'm not sure or whether its indefinite)
whether their was a lack of demand for it or not is debatable as most lightly very few people knew their were passenger services still operating (i live not far from it and i thought they had stopped years ago) + 1 train a day up and back connecting with nothing and operating at times to suit the crew rather then customers was never going to work. but its closed now the line to dublin will be next and wexford will have no services if CIE get their way, maybe they will pull the bus service to?
as for rosslare port i completely believe the removal of the station from near the port was to discourage ferry custom and to drive away that market in the hope they could shut and lift the line to wexford, forgetting that people actually live down there believe it or not. dicks legacy is (more of the same) good riddens to him. KRP m3 middleton we would have got anyway. the move to DMU we might have got anyway. the leaving to rott of good quality carriges we might have got anyway. the withdrawel of the 2700s and the debatable over subscription of 22000s we might have got anyway. the alsthom dart units having to be withdrawn because they didn't and never did work properly we would have got anyway. IE not going after alsthom to force them to fix the units properly at no cost to IE we would have got anyway. dick had a chance to make a difference and he didn't.

The Idyll Race

dowlingm wrote: »

Reopening Waterford-Dungarvan-Fermoy-Mallow? Wow, that Fearn guy is a monster for not being all over that one. (Disclaimer - I grew up a couple of hundred yards from the Fermoy-Mitchelstown light railway alignment so I am quite well acquainted with the topography and demography between Mallow and Dungarvan)

I wouldn't break sweat about it, no-one is going get up a campaign to reopen the Mallow - Waterford line on the back of an offhand comment on the internet. The rest of the post is absolutely spot on.

Iolaire

dowlingm wrote: »

No progress in relations with NI

Surely one of the biggest failings of both operators? This certainly isn't helped north of the border by an assembly in which many members still baulk at the notion of cross-border cooperation of any form. Not sure of IÉ outlook in this respect but even on the supposed joint-run Enterprise, there don't appear to be many of the dots 'joined-up'.

dowlingm

Iolaire wrote: »

Surely one of the biggest failings of both operators? This certainly isn't helped north of the border by an assembly in which many members still baulk at the notion of cross-border cooperation of any form.

Who cares about day to day travellers - as long as they can get to Lansdowne Road 3-5 times a year, that's about the limit of cross border ambition.

Sligo Quay

Time will tell his legacy, got rid of locohauled passenger services and down sized railfreight, unitload gone, now only large train load customers eg International Warehousing Transport (IWT) and DFDS until resently, but could return, Eucon a maybe, but in other words, only profit train loads, maybe zinc ore to Foynes port, but has to be a ''profit train load''
Thats Dick Fearn's legacy. Forgot to mention Tara mines which is a profit train load.