North South Cooperation
 

NORTH SOUTH MAKES SENSE
17th January 2006

DALLAT CALLS FOR AN ALL-ISLAND BODY TO RUN RAILWAYS

East Derry SDLP Assembly Member John Dallat, a long-time campaigner to save the Derry-Belfast railway has called for an all-island body to run the railways across the island of Ireland North and South.



Mr Dallat stated:



“The partition of Ireland almost killed off the railways north of the border and it is a miracle that we have any left but we are getting nowhere while two separate companies, Translink and Iarnod Eireann, are operating separately. It doesn’t make sense and it severely restricts efforts to deliver an all-island strategy which will serve the people of Ireland in the next twenty-five years.



Translink is constantly in the news for the wrong reasons but it isn’t enough to lambaste their shortcomings or mistakes. Change has to take place and take place without delay if the professionalism, expertise and benefits of a larger scale operation are to be achieved. A holistic approach is urgently needed and the only intelligent way to do that is to set up a body or company with specific responsibility for the future development of our railways from Derry to Kerry.



While the all-island bodies set up under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement to take charge of the Waterways of Ireland has been severely hampered by the continual suspension of the Assembly there is no doubt that in a time much shorter than many people believe, there will be a complete transformation of water-based tourism. The same is true of Tourism Ireland. How much more likely is it that rail transport can be transformed on an all-island basis with financial backing from both governments and the European Union?”



ENDS

17/01/06

I have very limited experience with Translink but if this were too happen...

Engineering duties -> IE
CS duties -> Translink

We may have a decent company that way.

If you think IE are bad Translink are even worse the sheer volume of cancellations and strange last minute changes is unbelieveable, the only forgiveness is a decent website which actually details the disruption

For start IE and Translink do not operate seperately they share a common rule book and common standards, they share equipment passenger coaches, locomotives and maintenance equipment. IE and NIR have running rights on each side of the border which is quite unique, if IE wanted to run a train from Derry to Dublin they could and they have

A single infrastructure company could make some sense but I hate to say it the track between Belfast and Newry is said to be better than Dundalk Dublin

In reality what you will end up with is a seperation into
1 Dublin Belfast
2 Dublin Suburban
3 All other IE
4 All other NIR

OK it will never happen but if it did you can be sure things would improve on both sides as IE actually can maintain equipment correctly, so all the stuff NIR have lying around (1 * intercity train + 2 * 2250 hp 90mph locomotives) unused could be making money equally you don't see IE 29000 units breaking down while its direct relation the 3CK seems to fall over quite a lot despite the two have virtually the same underfloor equipment

How would you do it Mark?

All I know is that Translink employees are generally friendly and helpful (the ones I've spoken to) is that their only quality? I don't know anything else about them really.

Translink/NIR is said to have a better customer attitude than IE that said the Larne line farce, closed line to relay, relay takes several months, relay finished, NIR don't have enough drivers to provide a service on the line makes IE look like a top class outfit in comparison

Suburban fares are generally higher up north as well

Problem is the trains and infrastructure are in a poor state and no matter how good the customer focus is nothing will get you out of that kind of mess, its more of less the opposite of IE where you get decent infrastructure but non existent customer focus

That all said NIR are unique in actually reopening lines and building a new line to link Yorkgate and Belfast Central roughly equivalent problem to Heuston Connolly but without a Park Tunnel

Behind the scenes there is a lot of cooperation going on, having a common rule book across an international boundary is quite an achievement. It took only 2 test runs for IE to gain approval to run the 29000 units across both routes to Belfast. There are a few things that could have been done in the mid 1990's like standardised radio and cab signaling but they wheren't and can't be done now due to EU rules

From a passenger point of view I can't see much benefit really, you can already get a ticket from say Cobh to Bangor and it works, for all it matters Dublin Belfast looks as if it is run by a third company, its all but impossible to know if its IE or NIR operating the train you are on since its a common fleet.

It of course would be very good news for rail users on all parts of the island. The future of the network would be better securied, better services could be offered and more efficiencies in the system could be made.

But I dont think Unionists would really back the proposal for I.E to take over up north.

Maybe a new commerical company could be formed with backing from the two governments and the company committed to meeting certain critera set out by both governments. Would that really be popular down south ?

Whoever is running the northern operation, it won't make a blind bit of difference unless the UK/NI government is invensting in Rail, and that hasn't been happening for the last few years. There's no way IE could divert stock paid for by the Irish government to NI services. They had a unique oppertunity to upgrade the Enterprise relatively cheaply recently, and it was blocked because NIR couldn't come up with their share - and that was only a third since the cost would be split three ways with the EU.

The deal to lease the surplus Meridians was never going to work anyway, but it appears NIR are in quite a unique position where they can't lease equipment, strangely enough NIR have no problem leasing stock to IE

NIR are not well funded but if you look you will find a fleet of shinny new high spec trains, the line to Larne has been relaid, the Dargan bridge built, Great Victoria Street reopened the list goes on

The biggest opportunity missed was the recent railcar orders, IE and NIR should have done a joint order for the 2900 and C3K units. The units are designed to the same rule book and share the same basic design features, NIR used IE's fleet as a reference. Bigger orders result in cheaper prices plus a common specification makes life much easier, both trains share a lot of common parts.

The C3K would have been the ideal train for Dublin Sligo/Rosslare, Cork Tralee, Galway Limerick Rosslare, the intercity railcars are overkill on those routes, not to mention you would get a lot more kit for your money. Equally NIR could have got a few 2900 units which would replace the rubbish castle class railcars.

Thats about the only situation where serious cooperation could produce a serious cost saving which in turn converts into more rolling stock. Its common sense and its been done before

The political landscape won't let it happen but not so long ago Dublin Belfast was run by cross border body backed by the governments

Sorry Mark i cant let that one slip. :) North Westerners have suffered enough for too many years with IEs crap, please dont begrudge us our first decent piece of rolling stock. We are planning a parade and everything the day they arrive :)

I have to agree with Gavin - no offense Mark but thats total bull.

As for NIs track being better than ours - unfortunately I'd have to agree with that. They used what looks like a good quality concrete sleeper in recent relays with tight sleeper spacing.

Irish Rail on the other hand in OnTrack 2000 relays used a narrow cheap-ass sleeper with a ridiculously wide spacing. Doesn't that put more pressure on the trackbed or something?