Irish Rail

flyingsnail

foggy_lad wrote: »

Train hosts, not Guards.

Nope, enterprise still has proper guards. Mk4s have train hosts.

end of the road

foggy_lad wrote: »

If you are ever waiting for a bus or train in Wexford station you will see two or three staff sitting in the station office guarding the toilets. it is not their fault they have no work to do but some arrangement should be in place to staff the place only when required using part-time staff.

thats funny because i've only ever seen a person in the ticket booth and if not them the station manager or whatever they are called, either way there is ever only 1 or the very odd time 2 staff about, i believe they don't stay there when there is no train either.

end of the road

flyingsnail wrote: »

still guards on the enterprise

true but i excluded that because guards are required for NI services

Banjoxed

end of the road wrote: »

true but i excluded that because guards are required for NI services

Good old Northern Ireland. High frequency services, busy trains coupled with a society even more wedded to the car than the Republic and no whining or bitching about the very existence of the railways. The reverse in fact.

A welcome change from the fifties and sixties. Unlike our own society where there is a big push to repeat the mistakes of that time, epitomised by the grotesque sprawl of Letterkenny.

Banjoxed

And in the meantime, anti rail folks will be celebrating the fact that the Government will spunk €550 million on the Gort - Tuam motorway despite its projected traffic levels.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/gort-tuam-link-set-to-become-another-irish-ghost-motorway-1.1903132

corktina

It's still a lot more users than the parallel rail line would carry and a vital link in the Motorway system, creating a route from North to South that doesn't go via Dublin. It will be much safer than the parallel ordinary roads . It will also alleviate congestion around greater Galway . 550 million is about 5 tomes what the Galway to Limerick rail link cost, but will be used by far more than 5 times the people.

Banjoxed

corktina wrote: »

It's still a lot more users than the parallel rail line would carry and a vital link in the Motorway system, creating a route from North to South that doesn't go via Dublin. It will be much safer than the parallel ordinary roads . It will also alleviate congestion around greater Galway . 550 million is about 5 tomes what the Galway to Limerick rail link cost, but will be used by far more than 5 times the people.

I've driven that route and some overtaking lanes and adjustments to junctions are all that is needed. One rule for railways, another for roads. Little outrage in the papers or online at maintenance costs and shadow tolls to operators that suppurate far money from the taxpayer than the railway ever would but that's double standards for you.

end of the road

corktina wrote: »

It's still a lot more users than the parallel rail line would carry and a vital link in the Motorway system, creating a route from North to South that doesn't go via Dublin. It will be much safer than the parallel ordinary roads . It will also alleviate congestion around greater Galway . 550 million is about 5 tomes what the Galway to Limerick rail link cost, but will be used by far more than 5 times the people.

doesn't matter, if the projected traffic level is as low as they are saying then a dual carrige way would be enough

corktina

You haven't driven it much then. The existing route is diabolical especially in rush hour and through Claregalway at most times.

Yes, I agree a dual carriageway might suffice, but there is little difference in reality between that and a motorway.

corktina

Banjoxed wrote: »

I've driven that route and some overtaking lanes and adjustments to junctions are all that is needed. One rule for railways, another for roads. Little outrage in the papers or online at maintenance costs and shadow tolls to operators that suppurate far money from the taxpayer than the railway ever would but that's double standards for you.

Everyone agrees that the new railway line is disappointingly little used whereas the existing traffic on the N17/N18 will guarantee transfer of usage to the new road , (and will probably take some passengers from the railway too)

There's no outrage for the very valid reason that we are all road users but very few of us are railusers.

L1011

Banjoxed wrote: »

I've driven that route and some overtaking lanes and adjustments to junctions are all that is needed. One rule for railways, another for roads. Little outrage in the papers or online at maintenance costs and shadow tolls to operators that suppurate far money from the taxpayer than the railway ever would but that's double standards for you.

Driven it at 3am on a Sunday morning? Needs a hell of a lot more than that.

You clearly read Frank McDonalds inaccurate diatribe this morning and believed it if youre mentioning topups that don't exist.

Banjoxed

MYOB wrote: »

Driven it at 3am on a Sunday morning? Needs a hell of a lot more than that.

You clearly read Frank McDonalds inaccurate diatribe this morning and believed it if youre mentioning topups that don't exist.

With insight like that have you done the lottery lately? You should.

Who benefits financially from Gort - Tuam because it sure hits a sensitive spot on C&T?

L1011

The cost/benefit analysis is public.

jackofalltrades

Banjoxed wrote: »

One rule for railways, another for roads. Little outrage in the papers or online at maintenance costs and shadow tolls to operators that suppurate far money from the taxpayer than the railway ever would but that's double standards for you.

Are you claiming that more is spent on motorway maintenance and low volume payments than the railways get in subsidies?

Davy r

mickydoomsux wrote: »

You're the one making baseless claims. The burden of proof is on you.

Got anything other than "dem railway lads do nuthin all day but drink tae and they get paid a hape"?

Ive worked for IrishRail in the past . The employees pretend to do work and doss and only do tad bit of work maybe do good bit one day. Most of the staff are aul lads got in when they were teens seem to have poor education rest got in from their daddys working in rail. Yous have a handy number job is a piece of p1ss. Staff are well looked after offered internal positions regularly one lad got offered an apprenticeship without going through public recruitment and on a general operative wage no apprentice wages.Staff do hide or pretend to work when managers come over. Alot of bureaucracy in the place. Lucky fella you are pension handy number free travel dossing all day ive worked with Irishrail doing a trade yous have it easy compared to a private sector job.

Infini

Mustve been many years ago in some remote part of the network then cos that aint what happens in my place.

Losty Dublin

Infini2 wrote: »

Mustve been many years ago in some remote part of the network then cos that aint what happens in my place.

I think he may be getting a little bit ahead of himself

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90204805&postcount=2

steveblack

True to form, in real life the rabid anti CIE people you meet are full of hate because they got turned down for a job with CIE. It would appear its the same here with the haters.

Davy r

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I think he may be getting a little bit ahead of himself



Ive worked for them 4 years ago im a 4 th year apprentice electrician and applied for apprenticeship . How am i ahead of my myself ya nut. Who wouldnt wanna get in there and do nothing with a pension and all job for life. leathcheann

mickydoomsux

Davy r wrote: »

[QUOTE=Losty Dublin;91879909with a pension

You do realize that the employees pay into the pension, right?

Just like any other pension in any other job.......

corktina

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Davy r wrote: »

You do realize that the employees pay into the pension, right?

Just like any other pension in any other job.......

not every pension is contrib, mine wasn't

end of the road

Davy r wrote: »

Ive worked for them 4 years ago im a 4 th year apprentice electrician and applied for apprenticeship . How am i ahead of my myself ya nut. Who wouldnt wanna get in there and do nothing with a pension and all job for life. leathcheann

hmmmmmmm, we have a "hit and run" here

devnull

steveblack wrote: »

True to form, in real life the rabid anti CIE people you meet are full of hate because they got turned down for a job with CIE. It would appear its the same here with the haters.

It's pretty clear that the poster was caught out, but to say all of the anti CIE people are full of hate because of some bitterness is ridiculous too.

Hilly Bill

Davy r wrote: »

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I think he may be getting a little bit ahead of himself



Ive worked for them 4 years ago im a 4 th year apprentice electrician and applied for apprenticeship . How am i ahead of my myself ya nut. Who wouldnt wanna get in there and do nothing with a pension and all job for life. leathcheann

You havent a clue to be honest, job for life but you dont work there anymore . If it was that good, why did you leave? work to hard for you?

Hilly Bill

devnull wrote: »

It's pretty clear that the poster was caught out, but to say all of the anti CIE people are full of hate because of some bitterness is ridiculous too.

Not far from the truth though.

Losty Dublin

Hilly Bill wrote: »

You havent a clue to be honest, job for life but you dont work there anymore . If it was that good, why did you leave? work to hard for you?

Perhaps Phil Verster limited him to Earl Grey, Barry's Classic Blend or Darjeeling for his tea breaks:)

BoatMad

I just finished reading the 2013 strategic rail review. It does not make good reading for IR.

Despite a relatively massive investment in stock ( and I agree IR had more then adequate stock and didn't need more) IR is loosing passengers, particularly on its heavy rail lines, and particularly outside the Dublin commuter belt. Lines doing very badly include Dub- Galway and Dub Belfast. But numbers have fallen everywhere.

Freight operations have to all intents and purposes stopped beyond a few specials, and IR is rapidly loosing the ability to resurrect its freight operations , even if it wanted to, which it doesnt ( freight doesn't vote of course).

The fact is now, if you closed all except the commuter belt, the increase on the roads would hardly be noticed. Its fallen to theses lows

IR will rapidly reach a situation in the next few years, where a decision to subsidise it properly or shut it down will be reached. You cannot run a business where all you do is cut back every so often, eventually you have no business model that works


IN my view either the taxpayer is willing and able to fund it "properly" and that includes running low volume lines or in practice you may as well shut the lot down, cause that will no real transport impact ,other then some redundancies. ( deploy into Irish water like everyone else maybe !)


IR has arguably mismanaged its network in an incredible way. It purchased completely new rolling stock , let only a few years before had purchased locomotives that are capable of 125mph. These are now stored. ( stored for what, it has now no carriages that they can pull, I mean its ridiculous Its had carriage stock that was good for years more. Currently it has virtually no ability to expand its intercity services as its has just removed any ability to add extra passenger services. ( Nor can it now respond to peaks in demand , specials trains etc)

Yet of course getting shiny new trains is good publicity, what not good, is the fact that despite a 30 year effort, its has more speed restrictions on mainlines then ever before. Trains are now running slower then there were in the 1970s , ( never mind the 1870s).

We have 125mph capable rolling stock , with no likelihood of ever having a 125mph railway, what bright spark purchased all this stuff

And of course to save embarrassment, IR are now cutting up the whole fleet of Mk3s, have stored the 201 locos ( until they and the 071s can be quietly scrapped)


Quite frankly IR is "playing trains" and generating nice projects for its "engineers". what its completely forgotten is its passengers.

example. Take the Limerick to waterford, despite the Rosslare section being closed the schedule is unchanged with two trains running the same "boat train " schedule for the last 30 years. ( yet it now doesn't even make rosslare)
No sunday trains,

result = no passengers = close it = "keep the minster happy, till the next crisis "

The same thing is being done on the wexford rosslare, remove the train from the boat pier and stick the "station", 900metres away , funnily a bus runs from wexford direct to the ship

result - no passengers = close it .. etc


All of this is because IR has forgotten that it exists to run a railway, rather then simply amuse itself playing trains, till a minister shouts and they "offer up the next "cost saving" experience.


They are simply dismantling the network piece by piece

Hence , we either fix it, and pay for it or, or in my view shut it completely, its becoming a transport irrelevancy.

As to local communities and rail, the fact is its serving virtually no one. I am reminded when tod andrews received a delegation lobbying from the retention of the west cork line, he asked them how they travelled to Dublin ( by car)

IR is a business that purely exists for its employees. It provides no transport function, outside high demand commuter areas.


WRC ( western rail corridor) is just a joke. all it is now doing is draining financial resources, away from lines that could be made work, like Limerick -Waterford or elsewhere. Its a rail political football and no doubt in time it will be closed again. The line was cheaply restored ( anyway IR never wanted it) and has a ridiculous low speed limit.


We have two simple decisions

Should IR run a railway , No , despite lots of shiny new toys they have consistently lost passengers since 2006 ( funnily just when they introduced the new toys , which goes to show thats not what the passengers needed)

Should we stop using "financial viability" as a metric and concentrate on "running a railway that offers service to its customers" - well are we prepared to pay, the answer would seem too be NO. if so close it, as thats the inevitable end result of what is happening.

Oh and stop giving IR engineers/managers shiny new projects , they have messed up all the ones so far,


PS its clear we should be filling Dublin with Light rail

end of the road

BoatMad wrote: »

I am reminded when tod andrews received a delegation lobbying from the retention of the west cork line, he asked them how they travelled to Dublin ( by car)

like limerick waterford/rosslare, another example of a line deliberately ran down to irrelevance. trains didn't even connect to dublin trains apparently. to add insult to injoury every single bit was ripped up, and for what? how much did it cost to do that rather then just suspending services and leaving the infrastructure even if it was just left and squatters dealt with. thats even if they gave the lads doing the stealing (sorry lifting) barely anything at all. i agree with more or less everything you said though. personally i believe we should wake up and pay for the network we have, it has a chance if payed for and invested in, and journey times improved to the fastest and shortist possible. but the government isn't interested. never has been, all we have for the investment is as you said shiny new trains that aren't flexible to demand not enough of them and which can't reach their full potential. and of course the use of stock on the basis of whats operationally convenient (intercity speck stock on commuter runs and commuter stock on long distance services) . along with stored and the needlessly scrapped mark 3 stock.