European Commission Putting Pressure on Goverment to Tender Rail Services

[Jamie2k9]

The contract to run rail services in Ireland should be put out to international tender, the European Commission has proposed, a move that could have serious ramifications for Iarnród Éireann.

The Government is strongly resisting the idea, amid concerns it could cause major financial and industrial relations problems for the State.

Iarnród Éireann’s 10-year contract to run Ireland’s rail services is up for renewal in 2019. The contract is typically awarded to the State-owned body Iarnród Éireann, but the European Commission is arguing the Irish transport sector needs to liberalise further.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/t...nder-1.2301270

There is some support from other members.

[Mark Gleeson]

It was expected that the NTA would tender part of Irish Rail's operation in 2019 anyway. Many countries have done this already, plenty of railways in Germany operating under contracts and the service works.

This is not privatisation

Multiple major railway operators have looked at Ireland already and given the poor operating standards of Irish Rail its only a matter of time before they get replaced.

Cant wait until these guys tenders for the Dublin commuter belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR

[comcor]

Should they tender it as multiple parcels, how would it go?

The obvious break is between the Connolly and Heuston networks, but I can see how it would be desirable to have a single operator for all Dublin Commuter services, meaning you could break it into Connolly InterCity, Heuston InterCity and Dublin Commuter. Cork Commuter would be a grey area in that breakdown. It doesn't really fit with InterCity, but it's probably too small to be tendered in its own right and is geographically separated from Dublin Commuter.

I assume there wouldn't be anything smaller than that as any operator would need scale for it to be worth coming in.

[Mark Gleeson]

It's actually a mess

Looking at 4 groups
Dublin Belfast (remains with IE/NIR unless Stormont agree)
Dublin Connolly based services
DART
Rest of country

From a customer perspective splitting commuter and intercity will finally end the weekly theft of commuter trains on Fridays

[berneyarms]

I've always felt Limerick would be a good location to put out to tender:
- Limerick/Dublin directs
- WRC
- Limerick/Waterford
- Limerick/Ballybrophy

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by berneyarms

I've always felt Limerick would be a good location to put out to tender:
- Limerick/Dublin directs
- WRC
- Limerick/Waterford
- Limerick/Ballybrophy

At least one operator has looked at this already, but Limerick Junction shuttle only, not to Dublin