Waterford-Rosslare reopening?

[Colm Moore]

There is no problem with Rosslare Europort being the terminus, but Wexford-Waterford has to have priority with the peak flows and have the generally better service.

So it could operate:
Rosslare Europort-Wexford-Waterford
Waterford-Wexford-Rosslare Europort

Felthouse-Killinick as a direct curve would only save 5km between Wexford and Waterford, but you would need to build 3km of railway, money that would be better spent elsewhere. It ran from here: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,706971,616107,6,3 to here: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,705249,613363,6,3

[Traincustomer]

I looked up Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the railways of Ireland. It states that Killinick Junction (also known as Orristown or Assaly Jct.) to Felthouse Junction opened on 1st August 1906 and closed to passengers on 1st July 1910, closing completely on 28th May 1911. It further says it was 2.1 miles in length.

As well as the Wexford – Waterford and vice versa peak flows (in fact the stronger flow is towards Wexford) I would contend that any new service ideally needs to check a number of other boxes to maximise its usefulness to the general public.

For instance:

• Connectivity with the other lines:
It should be possible to travel from any station on the line to the likes of Dublin, all Co. Wicklow, Co. Wexford stations and Kilkenny/Carlow/Clonmel and back again on the same day. No wait for a connecting train should exceed thirty minutes (ideally much less). I.e.

(i) At Waterford : the Waterford-Tipp-Limerick Jct line (with onward connections to Cork/Kerry/Galway).
(ii) At Waterford: the Dublin line serving Kilkenny/Carlow/Kildare.
(iii) At Rosslare Strand/Wexford: the Wicklow/Dublin line.
(I assume an occasional through service e.g. Rosslare-Limerick is out of the question? – am only working on the very sketchy info I know thus far).

• A basic Sunday service.

• A bus service linking Waterford railway station with the city centre (there is no need for subsidy to be wasted procuring a new Bus Éireann service to do this as there is already a city route operated by Kenneally’s/J.J. Kavanagh which passes the station) and runs to the city centre and regional hospital which appears to have spare capacity much of the time. Ideally the bus service should be available as an add-on much like the way the 90/Luas transfer from Heuston to the city works or like Plusbus up north and in Britain.

THE Institute of Technology link could be solved easy enough as only a morning and evening connecting journey would be needed.

• Local bus links:
Useful onward journeys can be created if existing local bus routes can be amended to serve railway stations. Two particular examples stick out: the commercially operated Wexford Bus route serves Bridgetown on its way to Kilmore Quay. It could perhaps call at the railway station to connect to/from certain trains.

Similarly the existing subsidised Bus Éireann 370 route could serve Campile railway station enabling the journey from places like Duncannon and Fethard-on-Sea to/from Waterford to be accomplished much faster. It could be redesigned to feed into local stations rather than run to Waterford.

• Connectivity with the Fishguard ferry at Rosslare:

In Wales/England there is a strong notion of places like Tipperary, Limerick, Cork and Kerry being obscure and difficult to reach by public transport from Rosslare (True about being rather difficult to reach). Lengthy coach journeys are not really an attractive option for many. This notion has been the case even when there was a train service on the South Wexford line. The reintroduction of South Wexford line trains gives an opportunity to tackle this head-on by a train ex Rosslare either itself running to Limerick or offering a good connection at Waterford into an onwards train.

And there is no conflict of interest between serving the ferry and local commuter traffic; by default a train from the Waterford direction will end up at Europort at some stage between 6.30pm and 8pm anyway.

To quickly digress the South Wexford’s raison d’etre was as a continuum between London, Wales and the South and South West of Ireland for the benefit of travel and tourism. Fishguard has dedicated onward rail connections the far side (the Pembroke route doesn’t). They connect with the ferry, work well and see good usage. No reason it can’t work this side for Waterford and onwards.

The country needs every visitor it can get. Britain is our largest tourism market source. Around half of the people who visit here every year come from Britain. Granted a majority will probably fly/drive but Rosslare needs to project itself more positively and proactively. If it has user-friendly onward rail connections to the south and south west it can validly do this. This means that visitors from several parts of England/Wales coming by sea and rail will opt for Rosslare rather than going via Holyhead-Dublin. In turn benefits accrue to businesses in the south-east, south and south west. People stop off and spend money.

The (Stena Line) ferry from Fishguard berths in Rosslare at 06.15 and 18.00 daily and sails ex Rosslare at 09.00 and 21.00.

Assuming there will be a few daily train journeys each way the French ferries will probably be fairly well covered by default.

[dowlingm]

I think it would be important that crewing be handled from Rosslare or Wexford to avoid the "but how will the crew get home" cutoff which wrecked connectivity with Dublin service and forced an arguably too early departure for commuters. Felthouse Jct would be nice but I think would be after stuff like automating LCs and increasing line speed - maybe if a freight flow from Belview to Wexford or points north was developed where a reversal would be an issue. Better line separation to permit more than 5mph on Wexford Quay would be nice too.

Is it technically possible to run Waterford-Rosslare Strand-Wexford on some/all services?

[Mark Gleeson]

Slight issue is it is not possible to have a train from Waterford and one to Waterford at Rosslare Strand at the same time as the track layout does not allow this and hasn't since the early 1970's

[dowlingm]

I wonder could the Waterford-Rosslare programme get some enviro funding by having "their" 2700s participate in this UK engine research programme for Cummins 855 engines.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/index....cf10e452692c30

I believe the same engines are in the 26s and 28s so IE could observe the performance of the refitted 2700 set(s) with a view to evaluating cost benefit of a fleet-wide upgrade.

[Mark Gleeson]

26/27/28 all already have mechanical gearboxes so much of the proposed benefits from this program have already been achieved here.

[2200DMU]

The meeting that was canceled in April will now take place on 20 June, some delay with docements. I can't help but think its pointless.

[2200DMU]

The meeting seem to go quiet well the other day. Survays will now be carried out with people to see suitable times and see fuel costs etc. The plan is to use 2700 DMU I think 7051 and 7053 and they will receive maintance in Waterford and a number of private operators are waiting for survay results before providing capitial. They also plan a Sunday service and all services will connect with Waterford-Dublin, Waterford-Limerick and ferries at Rosslare and operate to Wexford.

See full details on Facebook page

[dowlingm]

What sort of facilities are there in Waterford? Seems to me it would be better to contract IE Limerick Depot to do all but the daily checks with equipment swaps similar to those on the Ballina service - they've got the expertise and it might be worth it for IE to keep their hand in in case the 2700s needed to be reactivated in a hurry, for instance in a scenario where an existing fleet is discovered to have a class wide issue which would cause withdrawal for a significant period.