[19/04/2014] Waterford - Clonmel - Limerick Junction

[Traincustomer]

Sat 19th Apr 2014:

Due to Engineering Works between Limerick Junction and Waterford, all services will be substituted by buses. A 10/15 minute delay may occur.

Source: http://www.irishrail.ie/media/easter_26032014.pdf?v=gwhuopo

[ACustomer]

This gives them 3 days possession if they want to do some serious per way work. (No trains on Sunday as usual, or on Easter Monday).

It seems usual that on Bank Holiday weekends there are no trains on the Holiday (Monday), never mind the Sunday. So the line is a complete write-off for holiday weekenders. Do they want to operate a service or not?

The usual bean-counter calculations of the costs of opening on a holiday will no doubt be trotted out. But does anyone take account of the revenue foregone by closing for weekend traffic: it's not as if the line had loads of business travellers Monday to Saturday.

[Traincustomer]

It's the only line on the island of Ireland devoid of a Sunday service. The line essentially interlinks the third and fifth most populous cities in the state and offers good connections to the capital, Cork and Galway (Galway connections not great at present). I think Mark mentioned on here sometime ago that Clonmel is Ireland's largest inland town. Carrick on Suir, Cahir and Tipperary Town are all reasonable sized towns in their own right. Cahir in particular is “touristy” with the castle etc... Clonmel is something of a regional retail mecca and local radio ads refer to it as a boutique town. The parallel N24 road corridor still leaves much to be desired and even at its 50mph line maximum (could this be pushed to 55/60/65 mph in places or perhaps too many accommodation crossings preclude this?) the train outpaces the express coach on most of the town to town timings. The train doesn’t compare too badly to private car journey times either.

It would be good if a basic Sunday service i.e. one journey each way late afternoon/evening could be provided. It could be the extension of a Dublin-Waterford service or vice versa.

If worked by two separate trains i.e. one originating from Limerick (or Ennis/Galway) and working through to Waterford and onwards to Dublin and one doing the same in reverse they could be timetabled to cross at Clonmel. This would minimise the time that signal cabins and level crossings need to be staffed. Crucially from a customer's perspective through trains (i.e. beyond Limerick Junction/Waterford) would maximise the number of journey possibilities available.

A basic Sunday service is a reasonable expectation and if it’s not an eventual aim one could and should ask the valid question of why not. Monies may well be scarce at present but there have to be modestly better times ahead and there are always means and ways of achieving things or at least working positively towards them.

The student, returning worker and short break tourism market are all precluded by the absence of Sunday trains.

[Jamie2k9]

This gives them 3 days possession if they want to do some serious per way work. (No trains on Sunday as usual, or on Easter Monday

Think it may be renewing the final secton of joined tracks around Cahir, 22's won't be doing it any favours.

IE are brining online bookings to the route however they are "working" on it. Can't see why there is a dwlay in not doing it.

[Mark Gleeson]

The line used to be open on Sundays...

Online booking to from Clonmel was live until last week. It had to be removed as the fares charged were wrong and well above the NTA set rates. Apparently when the WRC was enabled it broke something else.

Unlike the RUI fare calculator, Irish Rail's fare engine is hard coded, originally for radial routes only and for first class only.

10-15 million euro project to rip out all fares systems and replace with new online and booking office systems.

[Jamie2k9]

The line used to be open on Sundays...

Online booking to from Clonmel was live until last week. It had to be removed as the fares charged were wrong and well above the NTA set rates. Apparently when the WRC was enabled it broke something else.

Unlike the RUI fare calculator, Irish Rail's fare engine is hard coded, originally for radial routes only and for first class only.

10-15 million euro project to rip out all fares systems and replace with new online and booking office systems.

I see, fares will have start from 9.99=14.99 at the very least and IE actually need to let people know about it once it's back live.

From a costing point of view, which costs more Limerick Branch to operate or Waterford Brach?