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Waterford - Limerick Junction to be 'mothballed'

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    #2
    Niles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭Niles


    Not really that surprising considering the closure of the South Wexford though. I'd have thought Waterford-Limerick Junction might have stood some chance though, given that it at least links two cities. Blasphemous as this may sound (I'm both a Wexfordman and rail enthusiast) the South Wexford really only served a couple of villages and a car orientated ferry port. This line serves a few major towns and two cities. If I were a betting man I would have thought Ballybrophy-Killonan will disappear before this route.


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    #3
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,691 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    I'd be amazed if its the only line to be mothballed within 18 months, unless the state pulls a shock privatisation or replaces management...


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    #4
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Niles wrote: »
    Not really that surprising considering the closure of the South Wexford though. I'd have thought Waterford-Limerick Junction might have stood some chance though, given that it at least links to cities. Blasphemous as this may sound (I'm both a Wexfordman and rail enthusiast) the South Wexford really only served a couple of villages and a car orientated ferry port. This line serves a few major towns and two cities. If I were a betting man I would have thought Ballybrophy-Killonan will disappear before this route.

    Ballybrophy/Limerick will go at the same time. Start another thread.


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


    Niles wrote: »
    Not really that surprising considering the closure of the South Wexford though. I'd have thought Waterford-Limerick Junction might have stood some chance though, given that it at least links two cities. Blasphemous as this may sound (I'm both a Wexfordman and rail enthusiast) the South Wexford really only served a couple of villages and a car orientated ferry port. This line serves a few major towns and two cities. If I were a betting man I would have thought Ballybrophy-Killonan will disappear before this route.
    Nenagh has Minister Kelly and his GAA special. The aforementioned line does NOT link two cities. It links a railway station across the river from a large town (in any other country) and a windswept junction. IE do not operate through services all the way Limerick to Waterford.


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    #6
    Niles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭Niles


    dowlingm wrote: »
    Nenagh has Minister Kelly and his GAA special. The aforementioned line does NOT link two cities. It links a railway station across the river from a large town (in any other country) and a windswept junction. IE do not operate through services all the way Limerick to Waterford.

    True enough, I should have phrased it better. I meant it has the potential to link two cities in ways the South Wexford didn't. But as you say IÉ don't operate through services between the two cities. Under different management the line might have a fighting chance but I guess that's just not going to happen.


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    #7
    ardmacha
    Registered Users Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭ardmacha


    There is crying need for a modern day private WLWR to be given the opportunity to run Wexford-Limerick-Galway and Ballybrophy too, before it is too late. A lightweight operation with some real incentive to encourage people to travel.


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    #8
    teol
    Closed Accounts Posts: 292 ✭✭teol


    ardmacha wrote: »
    There is crying need for a modern day private WLWR to be given the opportunity to run Wexford-Limerick-Galway and Ballybrophy too, before it is too late. A lightweight operation with some real incentive to encourage people to travel.

    Are the private operators going to maintain the track? The line would still be a drain on the taxpayer.


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    #9
    dowlingm
    Registered Users Posts: 5,309 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    One wonders will Tipp Co Co be smarter than Limerick Co Co and insist on a heritage designation for the line which Limerick got talked out of by IE for Foynes.


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    #10
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    dowlingm wrote: »
    One wonders will Tipp Co Co be smarter than Limerick Co Co and insist on a heritage designation for the line which Limerick got talked out of by IE for Foynes.

    :confused: Sorry? This is news to me - what on earth is a heritage designation?


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    #11
    charlemont
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    Judgement Day wrote: »
    :confused: Sorry? This is news to me - what on earth is a heritage designation?

    The remaining portions of the long extinct Clonmel Thurles line also have that protection, Its to prevent people building on the trackbed in case of future reopening.


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    #12
    Stinicker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    teol wrote: »
    Are the private operators going to maintain the track? The line would still be a drain on the taxpayer.

    Its not the lines that are the drain but the lazy corrupt inefficent staff and their union backers that have rail destroyed in this country. They should all be sacked and hire new customer oriented staff on real world wages not the over bloated bourgeois that Irish Rail is.


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    #13
    charlemont
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    dowlingm wrote: »
    One wonders will Tipp Co Co be smarter than Limerick Co Co and insist on a heritage designation for the line which Limerick got talked out of by IE for Foynes.

    So IE actually talked the council out of protecting the line, Well that's the most Irish thing ever, Talk about braindead.


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    #14
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,691 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    charlemont wrote: »
    So IE actually talked the council out of protecting the line, Well that's the most Irish thing ever, Talk about braindead.

    ....and then tried to demand they install a fully automated crossing on it when building a road that crossed its path!


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    #15
    dowlingm
    Registered Users Posts: 5,309 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    Judgement Day wrote: »
    :confused: Sorry? This is news to me - what on earth is a heritage designation?

    http://www.lcc.ie/NR/rdonlyres/B72C5ED5-1E77-45BC-81B2-54D14BF12714/0/020609FoynesThemeTownPlanlowres.pdf (page 14)
    Limerick County Council proposed including the line as a protected structure in the review of the County Development Plan in 2005. A High Court case followed with CIE reporting that the line was still operational. In 2006, CIE instructed staff not to use the line after Ballingrane, Rathkeale as the rail bridge at Robertstown was in serious disrepair.

    In my (previously expressed) view lines like these should be removed from IE control to an arm of OPW. Use it or lose it. OPW could then be given a mandate to keep the lines in good condition while not directly subsidising IE. Weedspraying etc. could be accomplished by road/rail vehicles.


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