South East Ireland transport

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Derek Wheeler

For somebody from London who travels over, you sure have a lot of knowledge about the local situation.

May I ask you why you don't take a plane, as ferries are now just for trucks and cars. (your own admission.)

It must be a very time consuming and gruelling trip from London.

I'll say. I travel to Waterford a lot (was there last Friday in fact) and i dont know as much about the place.

But its nice to get an outside perspective on things - maybe i should start paying attention. What does PP think of Waterfords chances for Liam this year?

[purplepanda]

It's not a bad journey from Euston to Dublin nowadays, a month ago I got a t 11.45am train & was in Dublin port at 19.00 with the fast ferry for £52.00 return pay on the day fare. There's still plenty of passengers from N England Wales & the Midlands going the Dublin ferry routes.

By the time I would have got a train from central London to Stanstead & waiting about at the airport & travelling into Dublin city from the airport I doubt that it would have been much faster? Plus I don't get on planes unless I really have to for much longer trips abroad. If I'm travelling to Western Europe I get the Eurostar over connecting with the high speed services. Usually the plane is very expensive if you book late so rail can still be much cheaper.

Waterford airport fares are very expensive, so I have in the past usually got the train & ferry to SE Ireland although the trains times don't seem to meet up with the fast ferry on the Rosslare route And it is a much longer journey. I think in most cases in the future I would just get the Dublin fast ferry & meet up with friends in Dublin & get a train to Waterford or Wexford later on .

I was talking generally about the expanding Kilkenny side of the river regarding stations & transport links as I've read that some more of the area is up for redevelopment, it would be a long way into the future sometime after the new river bridge / city bypass is built at least before anything happens.

Friend of mine living in Helsinki for 11 years tells me that the nearby airport rail link took 5 years to build from inception, being from Cavan he's saying that the Navan rail link has been talked about for much longer & doubts if it will be built even in the time scale currently being mentioned

Would like to see Waterford win Liam & I think they have a good chance if they get used to Croker, would be cheering for the Yellowbellies as family is from SW Wexford first though! Hoping to be over for the Leinster semi against the Dubs if time permits.

[dermo88]

If Iarnrod Eireann do not want to run it properly, then its time for someone else to go in and do the job.

For all you enthusiasts out there, repaint all the rolling stock on it in GAA colours. Purple and Gold. New brandname D3W Rail Ltd.

Faster times, contractual obligations set in stone, proper connections between Bus and Rail.

10-15 years ago, after all the awful services with single Baby GM's, A Class breakdowns, the staff on this line would welcome this option.

Why pay 50 staff a bad wage, when you can pay 30 staff a better wage and have them wanting things to work better and they will work harder.

I know it sounds mad, but theres the answer.

[Colm Donoghue]

Originally Posted by dermo88

For all you enthusiasts out there, repaint all the rolling stock on it in GAA colours. Purple and Gold.

Eh,
Luas?

[dermo88]

A different shade, but Veolia can throw in a bid for anything IE don't want.

They have'nt done a bad job with Luas, in fairness.

[dowlingm]

I think one of the main reasons Waterford City has suffered over the years is that it's hemmed in by the surrounding counties and boundary extension fighting takes precedence over stuff like joint land use studies. Like Limerick, Waterford used to be at a crossroads of many railway lines, now it's barely three and could become one unless development is channeled along the Clonmel-Waterford-South Wexford axis.

The ferry traffic could go either way - it could be hit by Waterford airport's upcoming runway extension to take 737 sized aircraft or helped by future taxation and restriction of short range flights on the grounds of carbon emissions.

One side point - there was reference earlier to Martin Cullen being from Waterford etc. In Canada the Federal Cabinet has "political ministers" with responsibility for one large province or several small ones in addition to their regular job. This means that when they lobby for government projects they can do so with a *small* bit more credibility as they can fight for their region more openly rather than acting the snake within their own department, diverting their ministry to shoehorning spending into their area when their region might need something from another ministry more.

In such a case Cullen could act as a channel for the concern of all of the SE region at the cabinet table and bilaterally with his Cabinet colleagues, not just Waterford, although this would be hampered by his being a muppet.

[dermo88]

Looks like I was not far off the mark at all.

From the Wexford People.

Quote:
Vastly improved rail service for Wexford

Irish Rail chiefs have given a commitment to vastly improve Wexford's train service with brand new rolling stock, and five daily return journeys to Dublin by the end of 2008.
Michael Power, the service planning manager for Irish Rail, outlined the plans for the Wexford-Dublin line at a meeting of Wexford Borough Council on Monday.
An early bird' train, which could hook up with the existing 6 a.m. commuter train from Gorey was also touted as a possibility by the Iarnrod Eireann executive - but, would only be at the expense of the existing 8 a.m. service.
The company are also looking to have a day return connection between Wexford and Waterford in operation by May of next year.
Speaking to the meeting, Michael Power said that it wasn't his intention to come to Wexford to do a PR job' for the company.
Iarnrod Eireann have come in for ongoing criticism at the Borough Council for what the members have viewed as an ongoing downgrading of the Wexford line.
We will have all new trains on the line by the end of 2008. These trains will be of the exact same standard as trains on our other service and will have a very high specification for customer comfort,' he said.
He added that the company intends to increase the number of services from three return trips a day to Dublin to five return trains by the end of 2008.
I will look at the possibility of starting the trains earlier to get people into Dublin before 9.30 a.m. instead of 10.40 a.m.,' he said.
He said that Irish Rail had spent a lot of money in the last seven or eight years doing invisible work', improving the tracks, installing automated signalling, and extending platforms to cater for new rolling stock.
We have renewed all of the track from Rosslare to Dublin,' he said, noting that the continuous weld' track will protect the line for the next 50 years.
The next key piece of work is the renewal of the signalling system between here and Dublin,' he said, adding that all manual signalling will be replaced by automated signalling by the end of the year.
We will move now to the next phase of development, to provide a higher frequency of service and provide new trains,' he said.
Concerns raised by Councillors at the meeting included the need for an early train, to get commuters to Dublin in time for work and hospital appointments.
Cllr. Paddy Nolan also asked that the evening train leave Connolly a little earlier, so that the train will be on time for people to catch the evening ferry sailings.
A frequent service from Wexford to Waterford was also highlighted by Councillors as a necessary improvement, fitting with Wexford's hub town' status, while improved wheelchair access and the possibility of a commuter train stopping at Pearse Street instead of Connolly Station were also suggested as areas that Iarnrod Eireann should examine in the near future.