Route's story

[drumcondra commuter]

There's a lovely piece in today's Irish Times about the Limerick / Waterford line. Charming but also sad; reminds me of the poorly-used network we currently have and how rail is thought of almost as a residual service.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...246310684.html

[comcor]

Strangely though it doesn't mention the most obvious drawback, which is that the service terminates at Limerick Junction.

I'd bet if it continued on to Limerick it would pick a decent number of people who want to travel Tipperary/Cahir/Clonmel/Waterford-Limerick.

[Thomas Ralph]

There is a reasonable number of Limerick Junction-Limerick shuttle services so I don't think this is a huge problem.

[comcor]

I just checked for tomorrow

For services to Limerick, the lay overs are 29 minutes, 18 minutes, 21 minutes and 13 minutes

For services from Limerick, the lay overs are 25 minutes, 23 minutes, 20 minutes and 22 minutes.

For a journey like Tipperary-Limerick, which is only 25 miles and when the direct bus only takes 40 minutes, I can't see too many rail users.

[drumcondra commuter]

All fair points Comcor but I had twigged this at all from the article. Must have been too early in the morning for me.

[Mark Gleeson]

The real problem is the lack of a Sunday service, a large portion of the intercity business is Friday and Sunday evenings and it ain't fun on the bus from Clonmel to Dublin I'll tell you the train would be faster if it ran. If I'm not mistaken there used to be a Clonmel - Waterford - Dublin train on Sundays in the 1980's

There is no local awareness of the service

[KSW]

Originally Posted by drumcondra commuter

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...246310684.html

I noticed that the Gorey or Rosslare annually figures do not appear on that article.

Does anybody know these figures.. ????

[ThomasJ]

I presume from that its not in the top 9 but above the bottom two. Would be interesting to see figures

I cant belive maynooth has breached the 4 million mark about to hit 5. The northern line is doing extremely well.

It will be interesting to see this years and next years figures with the impact the recession is having on the travelling public.

[Mark Gleeson]

Most recent numbers I have are from 2005

Approx 300k Dublin Wicklow
Approx 350k Dublin Rosslare

Also missing is the DART comes in at around 23 million which would match up with the 44 million carried if the entire Rosslare route carried 700k

For reference before the DART arrived the entire network didn't even break 12 million a year

[ThomasJ]

23 million is an extraordinary number. I presume though that when you break down the various sections of the line coupled with people making connections from the maynooth and northern line it makes sense.

[Mark Gleeson]

Actually it doesn't make much sense since the list is selective

Dublin Mayo is at least 600k
Dublin Sligo is pushing close to 1 million
Dublin Waterford is over 1.2 million

The DART is closer to 19-20 million which matches past numbers

[comcor]

I can never understand the numbers

Are passengers to Thurles included in the Cork, Limerick or Kerry numbers?
Are passengers to Athlone in the Galway or Mayo numbers?

I'd assume that they could be travelling on trains to any of the destinations, but by allocating them to any one, it can make certain routes look more profitable than others.

I hope track maintenance costs etc. are allocated in the same way as passengers!