Mark – I fully appreciate these are Irish Rail issues and that you are trying to get a better service for those who commute daily on the Rosslare line but even if the “route has currently by far the best trains ever to operate on it” it is still to a very poor level of service. All I can say is I pity the people travelling back in the 70’s!
To accurately compare bus times to rail times, please take a look at the Wexford Bus timetable, they can get you from Gorey to Dublin city centre in 1hr 35 mins versus Irish Rail which takes 2hrs. On the train you need to leave Gorey at 06:45 to get into Dublin later than a bus that doesn’t leave until 07:05! Don’t even get me started on the fact that the last train back out of Dublin is as early as 18:30 whereas buses are around the clock. Is there any other route in Ireland where the last train is that early?
I also cannot understand how there is no way to speed the trains up as we have often left our station 15 minutes late and still miraculously made it into Dublin at the same time. Do you honestly believe there is not buffering on the timetable when we sit outside Greystones for 10 minutes each day? 10 – 15 minutes might not mean a lot to most but when you are travelling 3hrs a day every minute counts.
Finally, an annual Arklow to Connolly ticket costs the same as a Dundalk to Connolly ticket and I know the pricing is down to distance rather than service. It is completely unfair however that we pay the same price for such an inferior service. There are only 7 Arklow to Connolly services yet 15 Dundalk to Connolly services per day and the Dundalk to Connolly takes 1hr 30mins versus 1hr 45mins for the Arklow service.
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