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
|