Fare increases on the way

[Colm Moore]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1205/budget9-business.html...

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar today announced cuts totalling just under €22m to CIÉ and the rural transport scheme.

He said fare increases were a matter for the National Transport Authority, but he would be asking Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann to absorb some of the 8% loss in funding through cost cuts.

He also said holders of the Leap smart travel card would be cushioned from the increases while there would be bigger increases for cash fares.

Earlier, Public Expenditure & Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said measures at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport would result in savings of €45m.

...

[Destructix]

Basically we on the Dublin-Cork line will be subsidizing the other lines by a larger percentage. I wonder will the Dublin-Waterford line see increases.

[Inniskeen]

Basically we on the Dublin-Cork line will be subsidizing the other lines by a larger percentage. I wonder will the Dublin-Waterford line see increases.

Does the Cork line make a profit ? Really ? How much ?

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail still hold a 40% market share Dublin Cork, it is said to be borderline profitable.

Dublin Commuter and Cork Commuter services operate on a very small per journey subsidy, 50-60 cent. Cork was in fact projected to enter profit in the coming years.

In comparison a journey from Limerick Galway costs the taxpayer 25 euro for each passenger in each direction

[ACustomer]

Estimating the profitability of a particular line (e.g. Dublin -Cork) will depend on how you treat other lines which complement it. Suppose you find that Mallow-Tralee loses money, on the basis that revenues from Kerry line passengers are allocated to the Kerry and the Cork lines on a basis proportional to mileage. You then close the loss-making Kerry line and the drop in revenue tips the Cork line from profit to loss (or maybe just lessens its profitability). Also costs which are system-wide (ballast tampers, track-laying equpment, senior management, etc) are now spread over fewer lines.

A lot of the history of Irish rail transport is cutting off loss-making non-core bits everytime the going gets tough. The logical and absurd end of that would be an expensive head office at Heuston, with no lossmaking activites, and no freight, or pessengers to bother seniur management either. Perfect!

[Inniskeen]

Irish Rail still hold a 40% market share Dublin Cork, it is said to be borderline profitable.

Dublin Commuter and Cork Commuter services operate on a very small per journey subsidy, 50-60 cent. Cork was in fact projected to enter profit in the coming years.

In comparison a journey from Limerick Galway costs the taxpayer 25 euro for each passenger in each direction

Are you saying that 40% of all Dublin/Cork journeys are by train ? I presume profit means operating profit.

Incidentally I must admit I have never understood the passenger carrying figures quoted for the Cork line - usually around 3.5 million passengers per annum which would be somewhat over 10000 passenger journeys per day. This implies an average of around 300 trips being generated per train, a level of usage which is in my experience is only attained on a very small number of trains.