Western rail corridor (WRC) - Capital Plan

[dowlingm]

The balancing of Dublin's growth can come from strengthening western and southern urban centres, but Athenry-Claremorris is the middle or end of that process, not the beginning.

Athlone-Mullingar got greenwayed despite being materially more significant infrastructure than Tuam-Claremorris.
M3-Navan can't get done,
Youghal-Midleton can't,
Tivoli/Blarney/Blackpool can't, (Blackpool plan won a planning award ELEVEN YEARS AGO)
no passing loop at Sixmilebridge,
Killonan-Limerick Junction, Portarlington-Athlone, Athlone-Galway and Maynooth-Mullingar still mostly single track,
Waterford-Limerick Junction with loops lifted and an awkward terminus at both ends, plus ancient signalling and manual crossings (see also Nenagh branch)

I would do something about all of those *before* I would touch the Tuam route. Why not fill B&B beds with leisure trippers in the meantime?

Meanwhile Ireland is staring down the barrel of no-deal Brexit and the possibility of having to create from very little resources and less time a railfreight capability from Dublin Port to Belfast as some kind of help to the catastrophe a road border regime would create.

The fact, Goods, that you can link to article after article (and growth rates of trains operating in low double digit loads) does not indicate the likely success of such a venture. It only demonstrates the truth of the old saying "(local) paper never refused ink"

[Goods]

I agree that there are many rail priorities that have gathered dust over time probably the most inexplicable one is failing to extend the railway to Navan from M3 as was the intention.
Railways are more than just about the star performing lines they are also about transport infrastructure in the society that lead to future development and economic options. Knock Airport was rubbished often in the initial phase yet today it relieves traffic from the west going to a clogged Dublin everyday.
Galway is looking for solutions to deal with traffic gridlock, the railway link to Tuam is an option - the link to Limerick is a success already.
You rightly mention Brexit , the WRC is a north South option that could relieve the overused mainline south from Dublin and give access to Rosslare and Waterford ports for the future.
Railway is a transport solution that will become more important why not use infrastructure that is already in place and owned by the state. I take your point on different priorities whoever sets them

[Goods]

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...gain-1.3994455

Overcrowding on trains from the west today reinforce the point that rail will be used if the service is available. The counter argument is often made that we dont have the population for railways in IE. This is not the case, rail is the future but is currently run in a minimalist way and development like doubling track in places rarely happens.
I have used the network on all Ireland days and it was thronged yet IR say that "demand was unanticipated" this cant be the case as they have the data.
It looks as if the system is under strain but this should not happen if planning was in place to meet growing demand.

[James Howard]

It is basically impossible to provide seats for everyone on all-Ireland day at a reasonable cost. It's not like 20 years ago when they could haul out some battered old cravens that were only used once or twice a year.

The regular daily overcrowding is a different issue entirely but the example of all-Ireland day isn't particularly helpful since you can't meet that demand at any kind of reasonable cost.

[Mark Gleeson]

Up until the early 1990's there basically was a skeleton service on Sundays until the late afternoon, no suburban services at all. It was fairly easy to find a few trains spare to run extra services, even though at times this led to cancellations. Now trains are busy 7 days a week and there is limited scope.

There were massive complaints of overcrowding back then, anti social behavior, trains damaged. Irish Rail are not keen on Dublin football away games after getting a train completely trashed in the mid 1990's.

One of the major improvements Irish Rail made was enforcing a reservation only policy on extra trains

Anyone who shows on on all Ireland Sunday without a reservation is either going to stand or will be left behind, no sympathy.

[Jamie2k9]

They did say the 07.50 last Sunday was reduced from 5 to 4 car after a train failure.

The 09.45 has had many issues since introduced, victim of its own success!

Tricky to resolve unless they make extra capacity available on 14.45. They need to run non stop from Athlone.

[ACustomer]

I was surprised to see a discussion of overcrowding on a Westport-Dublin train appearing on the WRC thread.

Leaving that aside, I have just read the 2 Irish Times pieces (Friday Aug 23) on overcrowding. They refer to experiences on one service, the 0945 from Westport. Loads of human-interest stuff but no attempt to find out whether severe overcrowding was rare, occasional, or typical. Also one might think that before a journalist went on with the "why don't they put on more carriages?" thing, that they might inform themselves about the nature of modern trains, which are multiple units and cost millions and you just can't magic up an ould carriage and hook in on.

Of course the real reason for the overcrowding is the chronic inability of Shane Ross, the NTA, The Dept of Transport and no doubt other bodies to make investment decisions and actually implement them.