Waterford to Rosslare line to reopen?

Louche Lad

Barrow Bridge to be repaired.

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/wexford/news/reopening-of-waterford-to-rosslare-railway-line-boosted-by-planned-barrow-bridge-works/a1437133228.html

Drifter100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333910/waterford-to-rosslare-line-to-reopen

Yep, I read that today but why are they still faffing around with the costs for the insurance company of both ships. The longer they leave this, the more difficult it will be to get recompense for the liability

whisky_galore

Lycra lads are going to be disappointed.

dowlingm

Depending on how much is spent on this, and whether they can keep an eye on the rails for the relay this time, taxpayers looking for decent ROI from state investments might be also. But my suspicion is this is just doing the minimum; keeping it functional while also reducing the need to put staff on site to open it, and no actual prospect of reinstatement of anything to the west or east

L1011

"reopen" may simply be "return to engineers possession and be available for stock transfers if the line around Bray Head falls in to the sea again"

dan575283578

Hi any updates on whats happening wiht this line? i noticed in wexford station they have a new sign whi9ch says 'to waterford' from rosslare strand which i thought was interesting. thanks

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234767#Comment_123234767

nothing yet as far as i am aware.

with this it's a case of until you see shovels in the ground then don't take it as a definite.

Taisteal Éireann

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234767#Comment_123234767

I saw they had a similar sign at Kilcoole Station recently, with a 'To Waterford' line coming off the map at Rosslare Strand. Must have them at all the stations from Bray to Rosslare Europort.

They also have Woodbrook Station on all the DART line signs, so maybe they are future-proofing the signs? Or, with regards to the South Wexford Line, likely just never updated the system since the line closed in 2010.

dan575283578

Was in Wellingtonbridge today and saw a ballast cleaner thing at the station, anyone know whats going on there? I saw it there before maybe a year or so ago

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123273220#Comment_123273220

Seen some posts on one of the Railway groups on Facebook - The ballast cleaner is down on that branch for engineer training currently. Makes sense really, as it gives them plenty of space for training without needing to do track possession on the mainlines, while also giving that branch a bit of a clean.

Wexbud

It would be great to have the south Wexford line open through a lot of work would need to happen, automation of the level crossings, a Killnick and felthouse curve track to get from the main Wexford line without having to have to stop in Rosslare strand to have the track switches changed to go onto the south line to Waterford and new track signalling with it currently being on semaphores, new track laying with id imagine the wooden sleepers with lack of use may have gone to an unusable passenger condition. A lot of students from Co Wexford and Co. Wicklow going to Waterford for college would also be great if connect with the Limerick Junction line to get to Cork without having to go up to Dublin to go back down

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123362332#Comment_123362332

Assuming the tracks have to be relaid, you are talking of a simular spend as with the Foynes renewal.

If it was my decision, I would make it an hourly Kilkenny-Waterford-Wexford service.

The route has a few closed stations (Bennetsbridge, Ballyhale, Mullinavat, & Kilmacow) between Kilkenny & Waterford.

OisinCooke

The distances between Limerick and Foynes and Waterford and Wexford are indeed similar and so going on base track relaying, the spends there will probably be very similar.

As well as this there is about 20 level crossings between Waterford and Wexford, - similar to the Foynes line - of which 9 or so are only small private tracks requiring only hand operated gates and not full barriers. However that being said, I believe the costs of automated level crossings are very expensive these days… were the ones on the Foynes line coming in at around €1m…??

I think a lot more is required signalling-wise to have the line be operable as a passenger route (not sure exactly what but I think there’s more involved) and realistically until (if ever) Rosslare is overhauled as a port, the line will be predominantly passenger rather than freight.

In terms of stations then, if the line was reopened, which stations would get reopened? In theory a case could be made to reopen them all (or at least all the ones there when the line was closed in 2010). The big ones for me would be Bridgetown and Wellington Bridge, and maybe and Campile and Ballycullane?

God it would be great to have this line reopened AND more importantly, run enthusiastically and usefully with return services morning (pre 09:00 would be better again!!), evening and very importantly during the day!!

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123370462#Comment_123370462

A "crazy" idea might be to reopen all the stations, and build at least 50/100 houses at each station.

OisinCooke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123370836#Comment_123370836

Exactly my thinking. The sizes of towns like Craughwell, Ardrahan, Sixemilebridge etc before and after the return of the railway speaks for itself. All of the towns along the railway line could be fantastic commuter towns for both Waterford and Wexford, it could really bring a lot of life back to what is unfortunately a quiet and forgotten about part of the world!

OisinCooke

Have had a few more thoughts about the reopening of the line as well, just thought I’d share to see if anyone has any insight.

One other thing that’s been on my mind is the Felthouse Curve. It would be completely silly to reopen the line and not reopen this curve. Unfortunately it’s something I see Irish Rail doing, in a cost cutting measure, and in fairness, if it gets the line open then maybe how bad, but I do believe that at the very least, the service should be operated to Wexford, be that by reversal at Rosslare Strand (in fairness not a bad plan, if anything adds another commuter towns to the route) or ideally by the Felthouse Curve. Rosslare Europort is no one’s destination.

Does anyone know do Irish Rail still own the land that the curve was on? If not it’s about just over 3km in length I believe so a CPO job while not being incredibly taxing, would still rack up the cost figures quite a bit… And with the state of the land the curve is on (the old alignment is only traceable by trees) it would effectively be like laying a whole new line from scratch - also far more costly than just track relaying.

Extra platform capacity might be required at Wexford if the line is reopened. I’ve always thought it silly that the passing loop at Wexford is only metres beyond the platform, rather than integrated into the station with a second platform. I think if the Waterford line is reopened, Wexford could certainly do with an extra platform, to allow people to change trains coming to or from the South Wexford Line and the Dublin Line.

Aside from this, I do think that all the bridges (minus the Barrow which needs a bit of work) are in decent nick if like @dan575283578 says he saw the ballast cleaner there only a few weeks ago.

Do people know was the line under CTC or full semaphore signalling when it closed? I’ve walked a good bit of it and have found pretty even mix of colour light signals and semaphore technology… I do believe that if they reopen it, they should integrate it with CTC however. While the two semaphore lines still left in the country are a lovely heritage piece to have, it’s not a practical way to run a commuter railway which requires more frequency than a token system can provide.

Thanks all, hopefully we can see this line reopened soon.

Oisín

thosewhoknow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371410#Comment_123371410

Irish Rail’d probably be best off avoiding Felthouse Curve. 2 bridges would need to be reinstated, and it’d be a good bit cheaper to just reverse the service as you said. There’s also a good chance they’d have to CPO the curve as I’m doubtful they still own it.

OisinCooke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371537#Comment_123371537

Ok yeah, noted and probably a fair assessment, if all it would do is add eons to the cost for the sake of shaving 10 minutes off the journey. Rosslare town is a town that can benefit hugely from extra commuter services toward Wexford as well.

My point still stands I believe however about running the service to Wexford rather than the Europort, it will entice far more people to the train from along the route if it’s a direct service. Dublin trains and South Wexford trains could also theoretically pass one another at Rosslare Strand too, however I believe Wexford would be more ideal as there would be awkward waits for passengers if the trains passed at the Strand.

There is plenty of space in Wexford for a second platform and only one extra point would have to be installed as you are theoretically only extending the loop south. In fact within a weekend possession, the existing turnout could probably be just moved south, saving money again. It’s just a case of a simple plain platform and one of Irish Rail’s out-of-the-box footbridges, not a huge project relatively and probably one that should happen anyway.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371406#Comment_123371406

I'd also reopen Wexford South Station, nothing fancy, just a platform and a ticket vending machine.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123372478#Comment_123372478

That's now in the Wexford LAP/CDP I think, obviously that doesn't fund the works though.

PlatformNine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123368216#Comment_123368216

I would like to see more regional services like Kilkenny-Waterford-Wexford or Limerick/Limerick Jnc.-Waterford-Wexford. Especially if they started reopening some of the stations on the lines, adding more regional services could be a good way of keeping the journey times on IC services low while still allowing the connectivity of having all the stations. Between Kilkenny and Waterford I think the most likely to reopen are Bennetsbridge and Mullinavat. Both are right on the line and could benifit a lot from it, and I think Mullinavat also being right off the M9 could potentially see a small P&R, though I am not sure if it would see much use.

PlatformNine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371682#Comment_123371682

I think there are also just better ways of reducing the journey time, which even with AISRR improvements like twin-tracking Kilkenny-Cherryville Jnc. and the 200km/h line speed, will be needed to make the journey as competive as possible with private cars and Wexford bus.

I have been thinking that if IE still plans on introducing an hourly Wateford service, they could have services alternating between Wexford-Waterford-Dublin using the Lavistown Loop to skip Kilkenny and Waterford-Kilkenny-Dublin services.

It would allow both Kilkenny and Wexford to maintain two-hourly Dublin services while also allowing for plenty of time to saved from Wexford-Dublin journey times. IE currently schedules Waterford-Dublin service a week that along side being a limited stop service, skips kilkenny, and it allows it to save almost 30 minutes overall for a 1h 50m journey. Depending on how long Waterford-Rosslare Strand-Wexford takes, it would at least become possible to match current times.

thosewhoknow

Although most agree it’d be better if resumed services went to Wexford instead of Rosslare Harbour, it is interesting to note that Rosslare Harbour’s population has almost exactly doubled since the line closed (1,123 ⇒ 2,247).

Wexbud

I heard rumours that IE is relaying sleepers and rails on the Mothballed South Wexford rail line. Possibility that they might reopen it, it still gets the Inspection car, Sperry train, and Tampers were down there to do driver training. Don't know what the condition of the Barrow bridge is after the Ship hit it, either going in or out of New Ross port. The new signs along Wicklow to Rosslare got updated with 'to Waterford' at Rosslare Strand back in Jan/Feb, now they are covered over along the line.

Wexbud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400293#Comment_123400293

Additionally, some level crossings might prove difficult as they are near main roads, such as the level crossings near Wellington Bridge station. My guess is they might try to realign the roads to have them all meet at one central area to reduce the stop-start that the train crew have to do to get the train across the level crossings

thosewhoknow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400637#Comment_123400637

If they reopen the line, I’d imagine many level crossings would be automated, seen as they’re doing so on the Foynes line.

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400637#Comment_123400637

Farranfore is a good example of how they could handle that, there's a level crossing over the N22 right beside the station.