nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

CIÉ / Irish Rail - is the game finally up?

Judgement Day

At last the penny drops - even over at Irish Railway News. This post from today says it all. When railway enthusiasts start asking questions like this you know we're in trouble. Perhaps a section of railway line from Heuston to Inchicore could be kept for RPSI and IRRS specials? :rolleyes:

by Drimnagh Road

Would Anybody Really Notice If Ireland's Railways Were Dug Up In The Morning?
A couple of enthusiasts, a few commuters around the Dublin belt perhaps, a few hen parties who would miss the convenience of been able to drink on the way down to Wexford.
But, this is actually a serious question. From a practical point of view, where do railways fit in in this country? Do they serve any purpose at all anymore other than carrying people who don't drive and don't like sitting on coaches.
I read today that one of the final pieces of the M7 motorway jigsaw is now opened, the Abbeyleix bypass and it will cut journey times to Cork by up to 45 minutes at peak times. That means that Dublin-Cork (M7/, Dublin-Limerick (M9), Dublin-Galway (M4/6), Dublin-Belfast (M1), Dublin-Waterford (M9) will all be much quicker to travel by road than it is by train.
I have to say that if one good thing came out of the boom years in spite of the bankers, greediness, high prices, property chaos, corruption and subsequent downfall, it was the road network. Everybody admits that the road network is now superb, and I don't even drive!
All these motorways would have been developed during the boom years. Railways also got hundred of millions to invest around the same time aswell, and it is only now that it should be obvious that a lot of it was squandered. We do not have a better railway than we did ten years ago. Yes we've shiny units, colour light signalling and replacement CWR track over vast amounts of the network.
Yet journey times are tediously slower. It would be the same as a new motorway opening yet it would be quicker to travel on the old road via every little village you could think of. Something is just not right!
I've been surprised yet hardly surprised at the general lack of interest from local people about the Rosslare-Waterford line. While I agree with and expected eventually that this line would close, I thought that locals would have been at least able to rustle up enough support to cause enough racket to at least implement a delay.
I've always been pro-rail but with our poor country in such a dreadful state can we afford to spend any more money on something that contributes no benefit to us. The 16:00 Cork on Saturday had 68 people out of Dublin, I viewed a 2700 arrive in the Junction with 3 people on-board from Waterford, is this viable?
When railways come to a halt on other countries there does be mass chaos, over here it generally awakens people to better and faster modes of transport (i.e. Malahide Viaduct been tragic for Irish Rail passenger numbers).
I don't necessarilly think that Irelands Railways have any strategic part to play in our country's national infrastructure anymore. We have gotten so little out of ours and the EUs moneys from the investment programme that is it now time to give up now and redirect the money to healthcare etc, where everybody would feel the benefits?
With so many great roads around the country now would anybody really be that inconvenienced if the railways were shut in the morning?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

kingshankly

doncarlos wrote: »

€23 single ticket to Dundalk vs €7 on the bus that takes the same lenght of time plus free wifi. I'll never travel by train again

it's 10 euro return from Dundalk or 12 at the weekend

Hungerford

Just a quick note. It seems that the MK3s at Dundalk are due for an appointment with the scrapman imminently. So much for retention for future services...

Hungerford

And a further quick appendix to the above, there are reports of what it is either a broken rail on the Northern Line near Balbriggan (RUI), a signalling failure (IR) or subsidence on the line (NIR) this morning.

The latter sounds highly unlikely given the terrain. The first option is quite frightening because it would point to a maintenance issue.

Run_to_da_hills

Hungerford wrote: »

Just a quick note. It seems that the MK3s at Dundalk are due for an appointment with the scrapman imminently. So much for retention for future services...

Talk about dumping a product before the end of its shelf life. :mad:

corktina

DWCommuter wrote: »

FINALLY......some are starting to get it.:D

See sig below and follow.;)

Alternatives only come after a big number are assembled. The answers are out there.;) It doesn't have to be CIE/IE anymore. As I said before, I don't criticise CIE/IE lightly. The micky mouse facebook page is leading somewhere, but only if you really believe!

I joined...i said "Privatisation is the only way, even then I think its too late. Motorway system now very well developed and will leach away traffic from the railways at an increasing rate, and the passengers lost, don't forget, will be the ones actually PAYING for thier seats AND the seats of the Freebies.."

poisonated

I have to admit that I prefer travelling by train. It is much more comfortable. If they made buses more comfortable, I would have no hesitation in never using a train in Ireland again.

Hungerford

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Talk about dumping a product before the end of its shelf life. :mad:

The writing was on the wall, literally, when CIE allowed the Dundalk sets to be vandalised. :eek:

doncarlos

kingshankly wrote: »

it's 10 euro return from Dundalk or 12 at the weekend

Hasn't been for a while. It's €15 as a web price on their website so it's still well over €20 for normal over the counter ticket. I know quite a few people who have been stung with this rumour of €10 return

Stark

poisonated wrote: »

I have to admit that I prefer travelling by train. It is much more comfortable. If they made buses more comfortable, I would have no hesitation in never using a train in Ireland again.

I thought the old trains were more comfortable. The new Cork-Dublin ones are horrid. It's fine when I'm coming home on a quiet train, but even when I get sat next to a skinny person on the way down, I still feel pressed up against them. The buses are a bit more spacious. If the bus service made better use of the new motorways, it would clean up.

BenShermin

68 passengers on a rush hour Dublin to Cork train is very worrying indeed.

When one considers that Dublin to Cork with Bus Eireann is timetabled for 4hrs 25mins, First Aircoach is timetabled for 3hrs 50mins and both Ryanair and Aer Arann have cut their service recently there is no reason for the train to be so empty given the dire competition on offer.

All it would take to kill the Dublin to Cork line is a non-stop express bus with toilet facilities, the journey would be done in 2hrs 30mins off peak. The DoT must have blocked this idea somehow, because the likes of GoBus, Citylink or Firstgroup would make a mint on this route.

IÉ really need to get their act together regarding the Dublin to Cork intercity and that starts with abolishing the failure that is the hourly timetable. The company needs to drastically slash daytime services in favour of nightime/dawn custom.

For a start these questions need to be asked:

Why does IÉ need five trains between the two cities from 8am to 12pm when they have little or no patronage?
Why can a businessperson using IÉ not get to Cork City before 9am?
Why do thousands of people attending concerts in the O2 bypass Heuston on Luas trams to pick up their cars at the Red Cow P&R when a train service could be provided?

steamengine

Hungerford wrote: »

Just a quick note. It seems that the MK3s at Dundalk are due for an appointment with the scrapman imminently. So much for retention for future services...

Their custodian's attitude is possibly best described by Yeat's epitaph:-

Cast a cold eye on Life and Death, Horseman Ride by !!! :mad:

Transportuser09

popebenny16 wrote: »

It is also a prime reason why the Rosslare/Waterford branch is going and why Ballybrophy/Limerick will be next. I have posted before about the theory that, seeing the figures year on year and hearing from people like DWCommuter and myself to their faces that the timetable and publicity is the key, they insist on changing nothing.... so is it the strategy to purposefully allow these branch lines to wither and die? To sacrifice them to the Department of Finance in a vain hope that this will allow the saving of the other lines? If so, it is an admission of failure from a bunch of failures. The existance of a railway line is something that any town should be able to use to attract Foreign Direct Investment, and likewise a region. However, not in Ireland. The railway is so irrelivent is is not even mentioned. Motorways are.

Agreed, more publicity and better timetabling are whats needed in the case of these lines.

popebenny16 wrote: »

68 people on a train between the two main cities says it all. If they cant do better then that its not only sad but pathetic.

In fairness that is a Saturday afternoon, rather than the traditional rush hour. I suppose there is only so many people travelling on a Saturday (compared to Monday-Friday).