My point is it's not the road that's attracting people away from the train, it's the shoddy service on the train that's pushing people on to the road. If you need to get to Dublin for a 9am meeting, and you now you've only a 60% chance of making it on the train, then it's a no brainer, you take the car even if you have to leave an hour earlier to do it. It would be nice to have faster journey times, but I'd rather be able to depend on the current ones.
After that, I think service frequency is the next big issue. Sligo now has the same frequency as Belfast, which given the difference in population, makes no sense. An hourly service is a must.
Third I would put the on-board experience. Nobody wants to be squashed on like cattle, though increasing the frequency should help to solve that problem. Other factors such as comfortable seating, good on train information, lighting, toilets, catering, power sockets, quiet areas, and on-board entertainment (such as internet access) all contribute to passenger experience.
After we've got all those sorted out, we can start looking at the journey times, but I don't believe it will attract people back to the train as much as the above issues. Obviously, if IE are relaying track, they should do it to a standard that can take 125mph trains, because that's not a whole lot more expensive than maintaining he status quo. Similarly, if new trains are being bought, they should be capable of 125mph.
But reducing the journey times without fixing the other problems is just an exercise self delusion.
|