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Unread 01-03-2014, 13:02   #36
James Howard
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Sligo Line
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We're gone a bit off topic, but the 4 car ICR was more than adequate for the 1805 but the problem is the opposite running - the 0540 service from Longford. This has actually been a 4-car ICR all this week due to the flooding and it gets a bit tight after Clonsilla. The obvious solution is to make both this and the next Longford train non-stop from Clonsilla to Drumcondra. This would massively improve the Longford service and they could even cut costs without upsetting anybody by running a 7-car ICR as the 1805, stop the 1715 at Maynooth or possibly Enfield and then make both Longford services non-stop from Clonsilla as each half of the 1805 service.

It isn't just a matter of cutting - the only reason the Longford and Sligo service has any passengers at all is because of the poor economic situation (and consequent lack of professional employment in the area) and the fact that there is no real alternative. The fact is that a bus is more comfortable than a 29k, is cheaper and is less susceptible to occasional sessions of trapping passengers for 4 hours. So, sooner or later, somebody is going to step in and provide a decent bus service from Sligo / Longford to Dublin and at that stage, the line will drop into terminal decline.

It shouldn't be about Sligo or Longford versus Rosslare or Dundalk, but if you want to start that argument, Dundalk is typically close to a half-hour closer to Dublin than Longford. Rosslare and Wexford should be 22K services, no argument there. I personally can't see why anybody would take the train that direction instead of the Wexford bus
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