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Study announced for Shannon rail link

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,110 ✭✭✭p_haugh


    dowlingm wrote: »

    Would be quite ironic if Shannon was the first airport in Ireland to get a heavy rail link! I can see the reasoning for it though, even if it just went as far as the town itself


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭goingnowhere


    Third...

    Prize if you name the other two


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,749 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Good. Hopefully after this study, we'll finally be able to put this idea to bed for good. Outside of morning and evening rush hour, there would be almost no demand for a service on this line.

    Even then there is never congestion on the N/M18 so it's very easy to drive from Limerick/Ennis and there are numerous regular buses. Are people going to travel to a train station and change to a train that doesn't bring you to where you work when there is no congestion to beat?

    Numbers travelling through the airport wouldn't drive enough demand either.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Err... With the current Covi19 situation and the impact on the airline industry, Shannon will be lucky to even survive as an airport!

    Just 2 departures today (plus one Fedex flight).

    Sure, hopefully we will have vaccines in the next 6 months, but it is still expected that it will take years for the airline industry to recover and it is expected that they will focus on the busiest and largest airports at the expense of smaller regional ones.

    The next few years will be very tough for the likes of Shannon, Cork, Knock, etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 524 ✭✭✭richardjjd


    Third...

    Prize if you name the other two
    Belfast City and ... would Farranfore could? Both involve a bit of a walk


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,811 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    Neither are REALLY connected though, not in the sensible way.

    Farranfore is a good long walk from the terminal along a badly lit walkway.
    Belfast City is a disaster - the bridges to get to the railway are not exactly inside the terminal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,496 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    Third...

    Prize if you name the other two

    Aldergrove i think use to have one, the railway line cross the runway i think


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    Aldergrove i think use to have one, the railway line cross the runway i think


    Are you thinking of RAF Ballykelly nr Londonderry.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,309 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    Good. Hopefully after this study, we'll finally be able to put this idea to bed for good. Outside of morning and evening rush hour, there would be almost no demand for a service on this line.

    Even then there is never congestion on the N/M18 so it's very easy to drive from Limerick/Ennis and there are numerous regular buses. Are people going to travel to a train station and change to a train that doesn't bring you to where you work when there is no congestion to beat?

    Numbers travelling through the airport wouldn't drive enough demand either.
    the way you make it work is to enable guaranteed traffic (commuter from Shannon Town and Cratloe) into Limerick and add a tourism draw (a stop at Bunratty), ensure the shortest feasible route to ensure competitiveness (don’t route via Sixmilebridge)

    The Sixmilebridge route is “obvious” because nobody has to think hard as to how to implement it because you just construct a 7km straight line from the existing line to the N19 roundabout and go down along that 5km more to SNN, and because there is not an obvious corridor from the Cratloe side which can also pull in Bunratty (not least because of the quarry), and because politically it is probably easier to sell something as a benefit to Ennis and Galway rather than the catchment that can use it most intensively


  • Registered Users Posts: 298 ✭✭Five Eighth


    Population density does not warrant a rail link. This is probably a Green Party sop because of their objection to the Limerick-Cork motorway. Shannon airport has to get over its notions and crawl back to the DAA. Living in its State-sponsored past is a recipe for disaster. Its glory days (made possible by State anti-competitive legislation) are well and truly over. Shannon is a provincial airport and needs to do a deal with the devil (Michael O Leary) and get planes landing and taking-off from Shannon at any cost.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    For half a century, a rail connection to Shannon airport has been proposed.
    The indirect route of the Ennis railway combined with a ninety degree turn to Shannon means such a rail route would be slower than road, especially since the tunnel has taken much of the traffic from the Ennis road.
    At this stage it is only a study, not a plan or even an aspiration.


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,749 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    dowlingm wrote: »
    the way you make it work is to enable guaranteed traffic (commuter from Shannon Town and Cratloe) into Limerick and add a tourism draw (a stop at Bunratty), ensure the shortest feasible route to ensure competitiveness (don’t route via Sixmilebridge)

    The Sixmilebridge route is “obvious” because nobody has to think hard as to how to implement it because you just construct a 7km straight line from the existing line to the N19 roundabout and go down along that 5km more to SNN, and because there is not an obvious corridor from the Cratloe side which can also pull in Bunratty (not least because of the quarry), and because politically it is probably easier to sell something as a benefit to Ennis and Galway rather than the catchment that can use it most intensively

    That is in no way guaranteed traffic. The circuitous route from Colbert Station out of the city around Moyross, means that it will never compete with the car for time. I can get from my front door to clocking in at work traveling via the tunnel in 25mins. Most in Limerick can do the same and its even quicker if you live on the Northside of the city.

    Unless they build a dedicated high speed line (which is obviously never going to happen), then this line is not viable.

    Plus around 50% of the people commuting to Shannon are coming from the Ennis direction.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,928 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    this is good news, as much as i share concerns about the survival of the airport itself i think shannon would certainly work as a feeder town on it's own merit for which quality infrastructure will be needed if that is deemed to be the case.
    how things are in the here and now aren't really an argument against something we won't see for a long time in the event it was given the go ahead.

    shut down alcohol action ireland now! end MUP today!



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,749 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    this is good news, as much as i share concerns about the survival of the airport itself i think shannon would certainly work as a feeder town on it's own merit for which quality infrastructure will be needed if that is deemed to be the case.
    how things are in the here and now aren't really an argument against something we won't see for a long time in the event it was given the go ahead.

    A feeder town to where? Most Shannon natives work in Shannon. There are nearly 10000 people (similar to the actual population) working in the Industrial Estate and Smithstown. The daily commuting is from the Limerick and Ennis directions into Shannon, not the other way.

    As for quality infrastructure, there's a dual carriageway/motorway all the way to the entrance of the industrial estate (with plans to extent that into the airport) and over 30 buses daily serving Limerick and a similar amount serving Ennis. Its already got quality infrastructure for a town of less than 10000 people.

    Future rail investment should be focused on Dublin first, then Cork and then possible commuter lines around Limerick and Galway. Sort out the things that were needed years ago before looking at thing that aren't actually needed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,928 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    A feeder town to where? Most Shannon natives work in Shannon. There are nearly 10000 people (similar to the actual population) working in the Industrial Estate and Smithstown. The daily commuting is from the Limerick and Ennis directions into Shannon, not the other way.

    As for quality infrastructure, there's a dual carriageway/motorway all the way to the entrance of the industrial estate (with plans to extent that into the airport) and over 30 buses daily serving Limerick and a similar amount serving Ennis. Its already got quality infrastructure for a town of less than 10000 people.

    Future rail investment should be focused on Dublin first, then Cork and then possible commuter lines around Limerick and Galway. Sort out the things that were needed years ago before looking at thing that aren't actually needed.


    in that case my point simply changes to take account of the direction of traffic, which means it still stands.
    so a motor way exists as does bus services, neither are an argument against the rail line if in fact it does turn out to be warrented, just the same as any other proposed rail project.
    a motor way (well a road) is more necessity infrastructure then quality infrastructure.
    future rail investment should be focused where it is deemed it is needed first, a dublin first then going down the chain strategy is unworkable as all of the cities are slowly grinding to a hault.
    nobody is looking at things that aren't actually needed, any rail lines that are opened are needed, if there are studdies being launched into reopening lines, then the high likely hood is they are needed.

    shut down alcohol action ireland now! end MUP today!



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,309 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    That is in no way guaranteed traffic. The circuitous route from Colbert Station out of the city around Moyross, means that it will never compete with the car for time. I can get from my front door to clocking in at work traveling via the tunnel in 25mins. Most in Limerick can do the same and its even quicker if you live on the Northside of the city.
    Part of the problem is that Moyross itself doesn’t have a station even with LIT down the road (and Thomond Park)

    A station has been mooted at the Parkway since I was a UL student if not before, and that was coming up on 30 years ago now.

    Unlike many Irish commuter services from dormitory towns, having the industrial parks and their airport provides the possibility of inward commuters - but that depends on the route taken and the willingness to expand track capacity to something more like Cork-Cobh/Midleton.


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