CIE and Rail - Their Terminal Termination Strategy

LivelineDipso

I have come to the conclusion that we are locked into a battle to save as much of the rail systems as possible before CIE and their unions can completely destroy it before privatization comes in.

Now before you give me this "what about the UK experience with privatization!" chestnut - there are plenty of other privatization examples around the world and not just the British Rail story.

Secondly, the UK STILL HAS A RAIL SYSTEM and a growing and developing one at that.

CIE is determined to make sure Ireland has none - so if they were eventually forced to privatize, there would be no rolling stock or infrastructure left. Therefore CIE have adopted a 'Suicide Machine' solution in order to not fall into the hands of private companies. "We'll kill it, before anyone else can save it!"


This is also how religious doomsday cults function. They have the members kill themselves just before the police or investigators are coming. I now believe this mentality is driving all railway policy within CIE.

The only way any rail transport can be saved in Ireland is to get it out of the hands of CIE management and unions ASAP.

The question is how to do this?

If you care about rail transport in Ireland and want it to have a future then lobbying TDs and writing to the media with positive privatization stories is the only recourse left.

There is now extreme urgency to get CIE away from all rail transport in Ireland as they are determined to make sure there is nothing for a private company to use.

The cutters torch and the Care and Maintenance program is their only agenda now.

dowlingm

A comparison with Great Britain, France, Germany etc. will only go so far, particular when comparing demand. The population of Greater Manchester is basically the population of the 26 counties in a much smaller area. How are these to be compared? It would be fairer to compare to smaller peripheral economies - Portugal, Greece, Denmark, the Baltic states maybe? The other issue with Ireland is that the two largest population centres on the island have rail companies using different signalling systems and rulebooks and only small numbers of crew, coaches and locomotives that can "jump the gap", leading to inefficiency in operation (although the long-long-long-awaited 22000 class trials will hopefully solve part of this problem).

goingnowhere

dowlingm wrote: »

The other issue with Ireland is that the two largest population centres on the island have rail companies using different signalling systems and rulebooks and only small numbers of crew, coaches and locomotives that can "jump the gap", leading to inefficiency in operation (although the long-long-long-awaited 22000 class trials will hopefully solve part of this problem).

Same rule book my friend

kingshankly

goingnowhere wrote: »

Same rule book my friend

Not exactly the same

Leonard Hofstadter

If you want considerably more expensive train fares, Wi-Fi if you're lucky and even then you'll have to pay £4 minimum for the privilege of using what should be a free service, then yes Ireland should have a privatised railway network.

I see in another thread that the 'walk-on' fare from Dublin to Cork is €77 return.

Sheffield to London is about the same distance as Cork to Dublin. I've just checked National Rail in the UK for a return ticket tomorrow, and the cheapest price £195, that's €240, AND if you want Wi-Fi in both directions that's another £8, bringing the total cost of the journey to £203 or €249.69 as I write this.

So yes, let's bring on a privatised rail service and have those kind of train fares:rolleyes::rolleyes:.

end of the road

captainspeed wrote: »

Ireland should have a privatised railway network.
let's bring on a privatised rail service

exactly, i think what most people are calling for is either CIE management to run the railways properly or, allow private operators to use the railways as well as irish rail, if both state and private operators can use the roads then why not the railways? i do realise the likelyhood of such private operators wanting to use our railways is slim to none, but should they want to they should be able to, i've always believed that british rail should have never been abolished, what should have happened is that they should have been just left to operate the services while another state company look after the infrastructure, then allow private operators to come into competition with british rail

LivelineDipso

captainspeed wrote: »

Sheffield to London is about the same distance as Cork to Dublin. I've just checked National Rail in the UK for a return ticket tomorrow,.

The main term here is TOMORROW. Which is Friday the most busy travel day of the week.

If you buy train tickets in advance on line in the UK they are amazingly good value.

I bought a Virgin ticket from Manchester to London a month in advance and it cost me 18 Pounds.

Try doing that on IE and getting that kind of bargin. No chance.

LivelineDipso

LivelineDipso wrote: »

The main term here is TOMORROW. Which is Friday the most busy travel day of the week.

If you buy train tickets in advance on line in the UK they are amazingly good value.

I bought a Virgin ticket from Manchester to London a month in advance and it cost me 18 Pounds.

Try doing that on IE and getting that kind of bargin. No chance.

I booked a ticket from Dublin to Tralee (similar distance) for €27 online by booking a month in advance. Not much of a difference there.

markpb

Karsini wrote: »

I booked a ticket from Dublin to Tralee (similar distance) for €27 online by booking a month in advance. Not much of a difference there.

London to Manchester takes just over 2h on average.
Dublin to Tralee takes 4h on average.

The fares might be about the same (when booked in advance) but the value for money is not.

markpb

markpb wrote: »

London to Manchester takes just over 2h on average.
Dublin to Tralee takes 4h on average.

The fares might be about the same (when booked in advance) but the value for money is not.

I don't know any quicker way of doing it, short of driving or flying. Bus Éireann takes 5½ hours.

Ah well, lets just close and lift the lot, since that's what so many Irish people want.

Losty Dublin

markpb wrote: »

London to Manchester takes just over 2h on average.
Dublin to Tralee takes 4h on average.

The fares might be about the same (when booked in advance) but the value for money is not.

If you are compariing like for like yes except they aren't quite the same.

London-Manchester line links 2 cities and about 10 million people so it has a high speed service that gets it there in 2 hours and 10 minutes; that after a recent investment in it. Tralee is a town with about 25,000 living there served by a stopping branch line train.

Terrontress

LivelineDipso wrote: »

The main term here is TOMORROW. Which is Friday the most busy travel day of the week.

If you buy train tickets in advance on line in the UK they are amazingly good value.

I bought a Virgin ticket from Manchester to London a month in advance and it cost me 18 Pounds.

Try doing that on IE and getting that kind of bargin. No chance.

Busiest day of the year never mind busiest day of the week.

The other fact for consideration when comparing the two is the frequency of service. How many trains to Virgin run from London to Manchester per day. How many do IÉ run from Dublin to Cork / Tralee / Sligo?

IÉ can be sure of good load factors as they run so few trains.