Limerick-Ballybrophy Closure

Fred Swanson · 21-11-2016 1:13am

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tabbey · 21-11-2016 9:54am

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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There was never a direct curve at Ballybrophy.

Trains had to reverse at Ballybrophy,
until 1967, they went into the mainline loop platform where the train was divided, the front portion continuing to Clonmel via the Thurles - Clonmel route.
The rear portion had a loco coupled at the Dublin end and proceeded to Limerick via Nenagh.
Following closure of the Clonmel branch, trains could use the bay platform.

I think what this poster is confusing with is the excessive track rationalisation which made it impossible to run around at the bay platform.

That is not to say that there should not be a direct curve, but in the current situation, it wont happen unfortunately.

Del.Monte · 23-11-2016 4:34pm

According to the "Save the Whale" Waterford/Rosslare Railway Facebook page there is a Limerick/Ballybrophy Facebook page but of course they don't give a link and I damned if I can find it. Anybody, please.....:)

Grandeeod · 23-11-2016 9:51pm

Del.Monte wrote: »

According to the "Save the Whale" Waterford/Rosslare Railway Facebook page there is a Limerick/Ballybrophy Facebook page but of course they don't give a link and I damned if I can find it. Anybody, please.....:)

Seriously? You want to add another ****ty FB page that will be consumed by trainspotters salivating on pics of packed specials between Ballbrophy and Limerick before I was even born???? That's not reality. The reality is that this line will be closed and purely on the basis that despite Kelly's Heroes, IE had it on their radar since the 70s, after it narrowly escaped closure in the 60s. Since then and the massive amounts of money offered to IE in the noughties, nobody gave a fook. Just like the Rosslare - Waterford route and the doomed Waterford - Limerick Junct. route.

This new closure possibility is based within a well documented history. When the money was free flowing CIE still didn't give a **** above the basic safety requirements. Once these closures are completed, they will move on to others that have been flagged in more recent history. But you already know that because you actually have a handle on how it works.

Fred Swanson · 23-11-2016 10:06pm

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Grandeeod · 23-11-2016 10:24pm

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Of course they won't. It has been state policy since the 1970s. All that saved it since was various small political interventions (the biggest being Seamus Brennan in 2002). Alan Kelly put a bandage on it a few years ago. But nobody has ever tried to perform an operation on it.

We are witnessing a typically historical event in a different era. CIE want to close a rail line because they are losing money. Subvention is blamed. The line will close. No amount of subvention will be good enough ever. The same old guff has been going on for 60 odd years. The new closures in the near future will involve Kerry, Mayo, Wexford/Rosslare and Sligo. The rail network will keep shrinking until train drivers are earning 250K a year along with management on 350K a year and upwards. God only knows what will happen when they run out of track!

Idbatterim · 23-11-2016 10:32pm

I think this is being looked at with blinkers by many. Ask someone from another country to look at these lines and assess viability.theres only one population centre in the entire country. Some of the places suggested for rail services, when I go to look at them on google maps, They are villages!!! I don't think there is any appreciation for how expensive it is to run these services. We have a very dispersed population. Fortune spent on roads in rural Ireland. Free travel passes. The entire thing is beyond a joke and something has to give. I see the losses on the ballybrophy line. Then see a five million euro investment would cut cork-Dublin journey times by fifteen minutes and pay for itself in two years?! And there is even a discussion going on about these lines. The cost of rural Ireland is out of control in my opinion. Want good services? Move to Dublin and pay through the nose for a mortgage or on rent like the rest of us up here. Where we allegedly have "everything" ...

Grandeeod · 23-11-2016 10:58pm

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this is being looked at with blinkers by many. Ask someone from another country to look at these lines and assess viability.theres only one population centre in the entire country. Some of the places suggested for rail services, when I go to look at them on google maps, They are villages!!! I don't think there is any appreciation for how expensive it is to run these services. We have a very dispersed population. Fortune spent on roads in rural Ireland. Free travel passes. The entire thing is beyond a joke and something has to give. I see the losses on the ballybrophy line. Then see a five million euro investment would cut cork-Dublin journey times by fifteen minutes and pay for itself in two years?! And there is even a discussion going on about these lines. The cost of rural Ireland is out of control in my opinion. Want good services? Move to Dublin and pay through the nose for a mortgage or on rent like the rest of us up here. Where we allegedly have "everything" ...

Im getting old so I have to go to bed now.:D

Blinkers?? We are talking about operational lines. Lines that got neglected while the state went spending 110 million on reopening and promoting a different line to the tune of free carparking, cheap fares and state of the art stations. Lines that had absolutely nothing done to promote them from efficient transport options to planning housing along them. I'm all for what Dublin needs, but I'm absolutely fooking horrified at how we have treated operational railways while investing millions in a new build and now wanting to close the existing routes without any effort whatsoever.

Irish railways are like a big old house with broken windows, but we seem to want to build a conservatory, before relpacing the windows.

Banjoxed · 23-11-2016 10:59pm

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Would make a fine greenway

Heigh ho, heigh ho, its onto the ignore list you go

end of the road · 23-11-2016 11:32pm

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this is being looked at with blinkers by many.

nope. no it really isn't. it's being looked at via both reality and people's experiences.

Idbatterim wrote: »

Ask someone from another country to look at these lines and assess viability.theres only one population centre in the entire country. Some of the places suggested for rail services, when I go to look at them on google maps, They are villages!!! I don't think there is any appreciation for how expensive it is to run these services. We have a very dispersed population. Fortune spent on roads in rural Ireland. Free travel passes. The entire thing is beyond a joke and something has to give.

something did give. 6 years ago, nearly 30 years ago, between 40/60 years ago in huge numbers, and still something has to give according to you. how much more must give? and once it has given, what happens then? do you get your wish list delivered?
the vast majority of the rail network is viable, so hardly beyond a joke.

Idbatterim wrote: »

I see the losses on the ballybrophy line. Then see a five million euro investment would cut cork-Dublin journey times by fifteen minutes and pay for itself in two years?! And there is even a discussion going on about these lines.

the money is there to solve the issues on the rail network. the government do not wish to spend it on it and IE aren't interested in fighting for it.

Markcheese · 24-11-2016 8:59am

end of the road wrote:

the money is there to solve the issues on the rail network. the government do not wish to spend it on it and IE aren't interested in fighting for it.

Oh ? Where is this pot of cash ..?

Idbatterim · 24-11-2016 3:01pm

the money is there to solve the issues on the rail network. the government do not wish to spend it on it and IE aren't interested in fighting for it.

I agree, they choose to starve it of funding, but that wont change!

GM228 · 20-01-2018 5:15pm

Very surprisingly in a recent meeting in relation to the forthcoming National Investment Plan review (to be published potentially in March) between IE/NTA/DoF, IE have suggested a plan for a "major spend" to upgrade the Limerick-Ballybrophy/Waterford lines.

This has come as a surprise and I look forward to reading the proposal when published. Watch this space.

Fred Swanson · 20-01-2018 5:36pm

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loyatemu · 20-01-2018 7:13pm

GM228 wrote: »

IE have suggested a plan for a "major spend" to upgrade the Limerick-Ballybrophy/Waterford lines.

they're definitely closing so.

tabbey · 21-01-2018 12:21pm

GM228 wrote: »

Very surprisingly in a recent meeting in relation to the forthcoming National Investment Plan review (to be published potentially in March) between IE/NTA/DoF, IE have suggested a plan for a "major spend" to upgrade the Limerick-Ballybrophy/Waterford lines.

This has come as a surprise and I look forward to reading the proposal when published. Watch this space.

It is probably just an option, for consideration by the powers that be.

Let the government choose from the menu, and take the blame if funding is refused and the service withdrawn

metrovick001 · 21-01-2018 2:10pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

While it's a pity to close public transport infrastructure, this line can't be allowed to continue at that cost. A motorway more or less runs alongside it, why would anyone who commutes to Limerick use a crawling train instead?

I just took a look at the times. The last train out of Limerick is at 16:55. How is anyone working a normal 9-5 in the city going to make that train?!

That's exactly it....they don't want you to make that train.

CarlosHarpic · 22-01-2018 12:20am

loyatemu wrote: »

they're definitely closing so.

Unless they plan to put in a direct curve into the main line so the towns in between are on the Dublin to Limerick services (which would be a godsend for the line) I agree, they are closing it.

Jamie2k9 · 22-01-2018 12:48am

GM228 wrote: »

Very surprisingly in a recent meeting in relation to the forthcoming National Investment Plan review (to be published potentially in March) between IE/NTA/DoF, IE have suggested a plan for a "major spend" to upgrade the Limerick-Ballybrophy/Waterford lines.

This has come as a surprise and I look forward to reading the proposal when published. Watch this space.

Major Spend sounds like yeah upgrade track and signals but not increase the line speed!

Have they any plans to "upgrade" parts of current IC lines. IE are good at publishing these grand plans for 90% never comes to pass.

GM228 · 22-01-2018 2:37pm

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Major Spend sounds like yeah upgrade track and signals but not increase the line speed!

Have they any plans to "upgrade" parts of current IC lines. IE are good at publishing these grand plans for 90% never comes to pass.

It's a signal renewal programme.

Yes various plans for other parts of the network.

Isambard · 22-01-2018 2:47pm

CarlosHarpic wrote: »

Unless they plan to put in a direct curve into the main line so the towns in between are on the Dublin to Limerick services (which would be a godsend for the line) I agree, they are closing it.

there would still remain the level crossings to stop this dead. It's doomed.

Jamie2k9 · 22-01-2018 3:35pm

GM228 wrote: »

It's a signal renewal programme.

Yes various plans for other parts of the network.

Ah yes, paper over the cracks. The passenger won't see a blind bit of difference then.

thomond2006 · 22-01-2018 4:15pm

metrovick001 wrote: »

That's exactly it....they don't want you to make that train.

Why does Irish Rail want to cannibalise itself?

CarlosHarpic · 22-01-2018 5:06pm

Isambard wrote: »

there would still remain the level crossings to stop this dead. It's doomed.

a normal rail operator would be lobbying for a road bridge over it

XPS_Zero · 22-01-2018 8:53pm

loyatemu wrote: »

they're definitely closing so.

I was reading a book a while back (Trinity - made into a movie you can get on youtube called 'ByDawns Early Light' about a nuclear exchange and a hawkish successor takes over when they think the presidents dead and he has to wrestle for control - amazing book/movie).
It starts with the General in charge of STRATCOM the nuclear command and he's thinking about how the computer malfunction and cause fake alerts by mistake. The congressman drag him up to the secret committe and read him the riot act about it, the convo always goes the same way, he says "well the computers are out of date, get me new computers"
They ask how much a new system would cost
Then suddenly go quiet and the hearing quickly comes to an end.

Is this like that? "this is what it would cost to fix this line and nobody uses it HINT HINT"?

Limerick-Ballybrophy Closure

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