[PR] Government announces €65M investment in new National Train Maintenance Centre

Victor

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=6833&lang=ENG&loc=1850

Government announces €65M investment in new National Train Maintenance Centre for Portlaoise
19 July 2005

"High spec facilities to service high spec trains" says Cullen

Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen T.D. has announced a new €65m rail maintenance centre in Portlaoise. The new facility, to be completed by 2007, will service Iarnród Éireann's fleet, including the 120 new Intercity rail carriages which will serve over 11 million passengers.

Speaking in Portlaoise, Minister Cullen said: "There is no point in having high spec trains if we don't have the high spec facilities to service them. That is why from early on, the Government and Iarnród Éireann designed a strategy that would not only deliver better trains, but deliver a better service.

"This facility puts Portlaoise at the very centre of Irish Rail's Intercity operations. In our manifesto, we said we would continue to improve our mainline rail services by investing in the necessary rail infrastructure track, carriages, depots and stations. If our public transport is to continue to improve, if we are to meet our goal of getting people out of cars and onto rail and bus services, investment matched with long-term planning must succeed."

Construction work on the €65million facility will now commence and is expected to be completed in 2007. An estimated 300 jobs will be created here in the Portlaoise area during construction, and up to 80 full-time jobs when operational. This is the type of investment this Government is committed to delivering.

Minister Cullen said the Government is committed to matching short-term investment in public transport with long-term planning.

He said: "The Government, in the short-term, has taken action to support counties like Laois. In commencing construction on this new rail depot, we have placed Portlaoise at the heart of the country's rail development. In delivering better roads like the bypass and motorway, we are supporting communities and jobs in the midlands. In delivering 67 new carriages on the Dublin to Cork line, via Portlaoise, we are improving the daily rail journey for over 500 passengers. And in continuing to invest in transport services for people, like the hugely successful Rural Transport Initiative in Laois, this Government is ensuring people's taxes deliver the benefits your work deserves."

The Minister concluded by recognising the part played by so many in getting today's project off the ground. "People like my colleagues Deputies Sean Fleming and John Moloney, local management and staff of Iarnród Éireann, Laois County Council and all who have worked hard for a Portlaoise rail depot", he said.

ENDS

Capt'n Midnight

Portlaoise ?

What was the story with Spa Road.

Victor

https://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=123

€65m investment in new Portlaoise train maintenance facility announced by Press Office

MINISTER ANNOUNCES €65M INVESTMENT IN NEW NATIONAL TRAIN MAINTENANCE CENTRE FOR PORTLAOISE

Facility part of programme to transform Intercity services

A major new national train maintenance facility in Portlaoise, to service Iarnród Éireann’s new Intercity fleet, was announced on 19th July by Iarnród Éireann and Minister for Transport Martin Cullen TD.

The Laois Traincare Depot, to be located at a 39 acre site to the west of Portlaoise town centre, will play a central role in the major improvements planned for Iarnród Éireann’s Intercity services.

The €65 million purpose-built facility will bring an estimated 300 jobs to the Portlaoise area during construction, and up to 80 full-time jobs when operational.

A new €262 million fleet of Intercity railcars, which will give greater frequency, comfort and quality of service to Intercity customers across the network, will be maintained at the Portlaoise centre, as well as other carriages.


Background

Iarnród Éireann has just placed the largest order for new trains in the history of Ireland’s railways.

Funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan, the €262million fleet of 120 Intercity carriages has been awarded to Mitsui of Japan, in partnership with Rotem of the Republic of Korea and Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan.

The new fleet will allow Iarnród Éireann to transform the Intercity service, offering higher frequency and greater comfort and quality on all routes for record numbers of Intercity customers.

The new trains will begin entering service from 2007. Benefits to customers will include:

- Significantly higher frequency and capacity on all InterCity routes, operating to a clockface timetable
- Modern on-board comfort standards
- The replacement of outdated fleet across the network; currently, over half the fleet on Intercity services is more than 30 years old
- Improved accessibility for mobility-impaired customers
- In conjunction with planned infrastructure works, faster journey times


Features of the InterCity railcar fleet will include:

- Automatic PA and information display systems
- Fully air-conditioned
- Internal CCTV system for improved security
- Modern catering facilities
- Individual base seating
- Sleek carriage design
- Advanced safety features throughout


Laois Traincare Depot

The new fleet will be maintained at a new purpose built facility – Laois Traincare Depot. The new depot will not only service the new trains but also accommodate new Intercity trains for the Dublin/Cork route (entering service in 2005 and 2006) and existing Kildare, Cork and Limerick Commuter fleets.

The depot will be constructed on a 39 acre site to the west of Portlaoise town centre between the Clonminam industrial estate and the M7 motorway to the south east of the Dublin/Cork main line railway.

Portlaoise was chosen as the best location to build the new facility because of its strategic position in relation to the Iarnród Éireann Intercity rail network.

The centre will bring benefits to Portlaoise as well as the national network, providing for an expansion of rail services from the town and an estimated 300 jobs during construction and 80 jobs when in full operation.

Like Iarnród Éireann’s award-winning maintenance facility in Drogheda, Laois Traincare Depot will be designed with the most modern environmental features incorporated, including water recycling, and pumping and fuelling mechanisms to prevent oil and diesel spillages.


Timescale

The design and planning phase is will take place from now to the end of 2006, with construction to be completed by the end of 2007.

The announcement is the latest good news for Intercity customers. The first carriages of a new €117 million 67-carriage fleet for the Dublin-Cork line are expected to be delivered in the coming weeks, beginning the process of the complete renewal of the Intercity fleet, and the expansion of the Intercity timetable.

SeanW

The announcement is the latest good news for Intercity customers

Unless you're on of the poor bastards who live along the "Cinderella" lines of Sligo and Rosslare, in which case a crappy, bouncy, engine-noise filled 29000 class railcar with a big "COMMUTER" logo on the side is, according to Irish Rail management, a highly successful Intercity train.

NewDubliner

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Portlaoise ?What was the story with Spa Road.

It's in Dublin.

Do you have an 'anti-rural' agenda? :eek:

Bogger77

NewDubliner wrote:

It's in Dublin.

Do you have an 'anti-rural' agenda? :eek:

Portlaoise is central, there's a massive site available on the old P'laoise to Kilkenny Line. It's currently the depot of Maintaince of Way crews.
It's on the main line for Cork and Tralee,almost on the Galway/Westport lines.

Not everything has to be in Dublin, and Portlaoise is less than an hours running from Hueston

MarkoP11

This issue with Port Laois is that no intercity services actually start there so these trains don't actually have any reason to be there, there is a 100 mile round trip from Hueston to Port Laois, its massively wastefull. Its a bloody long way from Galway, Westport and Waterford and requires a reversal.

This is a political move more than a operational move

Put simply roughly 50% of the fleet overnight in Dublin any way it makes sense to put the depot close to Dublin. The Drogheda suburban depot is ideally positioned all trains in the suburban area visit Drogheda every day since trains from Maynooth also operate to Drogheda, since its one large common fleet

John R

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Portlaoise ?

What was the story with Spa Road.

Property development in the near future IMO.

Capt'n Midnight

WRT: to anti rural agenda, most of the economic black spots in this country ( areas with > 90% unemployment ) over the last few decades, with the exception of a certain area of Limerick, have been in Dublin. This has caused huge knock on problems like crime (to get money) and drugs (to kill time) out of all proportion to any savings.

The numbers of civil servants that have accepted [strike]under extreme pressure [/strike] de-centralisation (137 / 10,000) shows that getting staff may be a problem compared to the very long history of engineering at Spa Road. And many of the civil servants wern't from Dublin in the first place, whereas in some cases it's a generational thing for workers in Inchicore.

Any idea which construction company got the contract, just so we can be sure it was (of course), above board ?