M6/4 Motorway Galway to Dublin (for discussing completed sections)

Sucks that Nestors dont use Athlone no more, but i guess Citylink still do an almost round the clock service anyway, so all good. :pac:

Can be handy when you book a cheap flight that goes at circa 6am from Dub

KevR wrote: »

Go Bus now have non-stop services between Galway and Dublin City & onward connections to Dublin Airport.

Average journey time is 2hrs 45mins which is roughly the same as the train. When the 2 new sections of the M6 open it should be even faster and beat the train's time.

14 services each way daily.

€10 for a single Galway-Dublin City, €15 Galway-Dublin Aiport single.

They have onboard toilets and free onboard WiFi.

With good advertising they should be able to win over a lot of train customers.

I always used City Link or Go Bus for Dublin Airport and used the train for the City. Can see myself switching to the bus now - it's cheaper and travel time is roughly the same (but will beat the train in the near future).

http://www.gobus.ie/index.php

http://www.gobus.ie/media_lib/files/GoBus-Press-Release-march-5th.pdf

I've said a few times before that the opening of these motorways, combined with non-stop bus services, is going to pose a serious challenge to the railways.

Unless rail journey times are significantly improved, IE is going to be in serious trouble within two years.

Edit: Bus Eireann have 16 services daily between Galway and Dublin, Gobus have 14, Citylink have 15 on weekdays, 16 on Sundays (19 to Dublin Airport).

That's 45 bus services between Galway and Dublin from Monday to Saturday and 49 on Sundays.

IE have 7 weekday services, 6 on Saturdays and Sundays. Average journey time is about 2 hours, 45 minutes.

If Citylink and Bus Eireann both introduce more non-stop services when the M6 is finished then IE is screwed!

marmurr1916 wrote: »

If only there was an airport in the midlands....

In the interim 3 years odd, one still has to make the god-awful journey up the M6/M4/M50

dubhthach wrote: »

21st century road alignments trumping 19th century railway alignments when it comes to travel time, who would have thought it!

It's maybe time that IE moved into the 20th century when it comes to train travel speeds.

There's no good reason why investment in track improvements shouldn't enable their trains to travel at the much higher speeds that they're actually capable of travelling at. They'll need to achieve average speeds of ca. 120 km/h on the main intercity routes to compete with non-stop bus services once the motorways are completed.

marmurr1916 wrote: »

It's maybe time that IE moved into the 20th century when it comes to train travel speeds.

There's no good reason why investment in track improvements shouldn't enable their trains to travel at the much higher speeds that they're actually capable of travelling at. They'll need to achieve average speeds of ca. 120 km/h on the main intercity routes to compete with non-stop bus services once the motorways are completed.

The problem is that even though they have laid new tracks (on concrete sleepers) there has been no major realignment of tracks to take out bad curves/gradients since the system was built in mid 19th century.

A good example of this can be seen with WRC, when it eventually goes into service the trains will run considerably slower then standard road traffic all because no work was done to either straighten the track or reduce any severe gradients on it.

Given the current economic climate I can't see where the money to do such work will come from. To be honest the money spent on WRC could have been better spent on the mainline routes, for example double tracking Galway to Athenry. If they Galway route had more double track I think the current travel times would reduce, I can recall sitting on a train in a station for 5-10minutes waiting until the track ahead was clear. Thus is the curse of single track lines in this country.

dubhthach wrote: »

21st century road alignments trumping 19th century railway alignments when it comes to travel time, who would have thought it!

KevR wrote: »

Last time I took a train from Dublin-Galway, a bit outside Dublin you could see a motorway (not sure which one) a short distance away and the cars on it were leaving us for dust.

Was on the Eurostar going to Brussels last year and that train was leaving the fastest cars on the motorway for dust. But that's what you get when you have 21st century trains vs 21st century roads.

Interesting that when the Government was being formed, of the three 'Green' portfolios, the Greens got Energy and Environment, but not Transport. I think this is because Fianna Fail wanted to finish the roads (first?) and didn't think the Greens would do it. I do believe that, had the money lasted, after the MIUs and ARC, then the majority of transport money would have gone into trains. Alas!

Agree 100% about bus kicking the trains ass, specially on Galway-Dublin, when the M6 (and other MIUs) are complete.

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Rail speed between Galway and Dublin isnt TOO bad.

150kmh between Dublin and about Portarlingon (where it drops to 25), then about 120kmh on average the rest of the way to Galway.

Trouble is great swathes of it are single track, so you have to wait 30 minutes sometimes in Tullamore for the train coming the other way.

25 mins for 21 kms from Athenry to Galway is a wee bit slower than 120kmh
16:50 to 17:15