Why Nobody Can Exit Manulla Junction

cml387

It's long closed of course, but Inny Junction on the MGWR line between Mullingar and Longford had no road access.

L1011

There is access to the trackbed from the road; looking at satellite imagery; that would be used in an emergency.

StudentDad

God help the person trying to get to Ballina from Westport/Castlebar or to Westport/Castlebar from Ballina. Looking at the timetable, the poor unfortunate has to hang around on an empty platform at Manulla Junction for an hour. God help you if the weather is bad. There isn't even a bench to sit on.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121211090#Comment_121211090

That's a bit of a misrepresentation.

In both directions, out of five possible connections, three are five minutes or less, one is over 30 minutes, and only one is an hour, but for both of the last two, the Ballina train remains at Manulla Junction so passengers can remain on the train.

StudentDad

So a disabled person who has an appointment for 9:30 tomorrow morning in Ballina, can what? Get a bus? A taxi? Or hang around on an empty platform with no shelter of any kind for an hour?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121211335#Comment_121211335

They would be waiting on the inbound train, cause it stays there, as explained in the post above yours.#

Having an exit from the station to the absolute nothingness there is around would not make a wait there any better. That's the purpose of the thread.

StudentDad

Looking at the timetable for tomorrow morning, as far as I can see it's the same for the rest of the week. The first train leaves Westport and anyone going to Ballina hops off at Manulla for their connecting train. 5:15 Westport - 5:34 Manulla - 5:38 Manulla to Ballina, getting to Ballina at 6:05.

Fair enough.

The next train leaves Westport at 7:15 and as the previous train picks up the passengers from Castlebar and then drops them off at Manulla at 7:35. So, either these passengers hang around on an empty platform without any shelter or public conveniences of any kind until the next train at 8:40 and then get to Ballina for 9:07 or a the train then comes back from the earlier run and sits there, for an hour on the platform, for an hour? Doing what? Reading a book?

If that is the case, frankly that's perverse.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121211589#Comment_121211589

OK, first point to make is that the connections at Manulla Junction are primarily to/from Dublin and that always takes precedence.

Second point is that both the lines from Westport and Ballina to Manulla Junction are single track so no trains can pass another one in the opposite direction at any point between Westport or Ballina and Manulla Junction, so that limits what can be done from a timetabling perspective.

In the example you quote above, the train leaves Ballina at 07:05 and arrives at Manulla Junction at 07:32 to connect into the train to Dublin, which is the 07:15 from Westport. It then stays at Manulla Junction until 08:40 when it returns to Ballina, taking a connection out of the train from Athlone to Westport.

It cannot go back to and from Ballina during that period as there is a freight train leaving Ballina at 08:05 for North Wall. Otherwise there would be no connection for Ballina out of the 07:08 train from Athlone.

At 08:31 the train from Athlone arrives at Manulla Junction, and departs at 08:32. At 08:37 the freight train from Ballina will pass through the station towards Dublin. Then at 08:40 the train to Ballina can finally leave.

So, in the second example that you quote any passengers going from Westport or Castlebar can sit on the Ballina train for the time that they are waiting at Manulla Junction. They are not left on the platform. No it's not ideal, but unfortunately, it's just not possible to suit everyone given the infrastructure constraints.

Drifter100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121211927#Comment_121211927

A precise and well explained reply

Ubbquittious

Looks like road access has only been blocked artificially via a gate

p_haugh

This was from last week, but I thought it was kind of funny. No mention of where the bus transfers would happen, so one could infer passengers were to somehow exit from Manulla 😂

Obviously it was probably Claremorris for the bus transfer.