Galway <---> Limerick: The slowest train in Europe?

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Alan French

I take Dowlingm’s point about the line being done “on the cheap”, but this raises a more general issue. A few years ago, when we were Platform 11, there was a lot of talk about “Rolls-Royce” schemes – quality projects where there was always a suspicion that someone had over-designed or over-priced them, to make them less likely to happen. So do you design for high quality from the start, or do you build cheap and improve things later? There are pros and cons on both sides; consequently both methods can be criticised. But starting cheap puts places on the railway map.

One needs to be more careful about what is gold plated and what isn't.

Its important to get the basics right, spend money on them. Be more careful on spending money on shiny things. So declining the use of Mark 2s on the Sligo line because commuter trains were newer / shinier(sp?) or putting stations were very few people live or want to go - at the expense of places where many more people live or want to go - is succumbing to the shiny front end syndrome.

[corktina]

Like putting a station in Craughwell (well in a field outside it) instead of Oranmore you mean.... have to agree there. It amazes me that the stattion wasnt built alongside the level crossing just west of Craughwell on the old N road. I get the feeling it was built where theold station USED to be for no better reason than thats was where it used to be. A station west of the village would be on the mainline and have far more potential.


disclaimer...I'm not 100% sure of my geography here, so feel free to shoot me down.

[Colm Moore]

Station is here: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,550840,719812,5 Level crossing further north.

I imagine its down to they owned the land and they weren't going buying new land.

I was going to say its nearer more of the housing, but every boreen in the area is full of houses.

Operationally, its probably better to have the level crossing slightly away from the level crossing to cut down gate time, but I'll defer to others on that point.

Interchange-wise it is retrograde to have to drag buses off the N6.