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Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson
All I can say is the Sligo Mk2 was in Connolly at lunchtime which suggests it went to Sligo this evening
They are desperately short of trains, this is just the start of the musical chairs game there is a deficit of at least 40 suburban railcars against promised improvements
Sean will be happy
Question is how the passengers will react and indeed the 15:55 on a Friday? Someone will lose capcity elsewhere to make it happen.
You could have done even better a citygold set could have been sent over and if the current enterprise mess, which the Sligo train covers for regularly continues you never know
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Happy? Delighted is more like it.
My thoughts on this news go something like this:
I suppose Irish Rail 'management' has finally figured out how utterly retarded it was to take functional, appropriate, comfortable rolling stock off Intercity duty and replace them with inappropriate low-grade commuter tincans while actual short-haul commuter lines are falling over themselves due to overcrowding and lack of capacity.
I only wish they'd got this fit of inspiration years ago before this inane nonsense ever started.
My only concern now is that it is my understanding that the set in question has been based out of Heuston for the last year, and we all know what time in Heuston does to Mk2ds. I only hope their condition hasn't slid too far in that time.
I've complained a lot about the Sligo line these days but it used to be pretty good especially up to and including 2005, with reasonably well scheduled timetable, comfortable trains and a decent speed, for example the old 18:10 ex-Connolly used to go non-stop to Mullingar and it made in in 1hr 1min.
As for this most recent news, even though it's only one set, I'm still happy to see the back of some of those rolling tincans, and from what I've been reading, there'll be plenty of people happy to get them in Clonsilla etc.
I only hope that this is the start of an upward trend for the Sligo Line.
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If they are so desperately short of trains why are they planning to scrap the Mk3s? Surely they are good for a few more years. The push pulls are as flexible as DMUs are they not so could be used on suburban services.
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Well, IE is getting more Intercity railcars to cover commuter services to Athlone, Carlow and Portlaoise which is great, but as for why IE now wants to scrap the P/P Mk3s when I know we in Longford/Westmeath/Kilcock/Enfield could put some of them to much better use, well, that's a matter for another thread.