Irish rail route passenger numbers

[comcor]

As I understand it the way journeys are categorized can flatter one line over another. For example a Dublin-Thurles journey will be automatically counted and a Dublin-Cork line journey, even if the trip was taken on a Dublin-Limerick train. Pretty much every pairing on the line between Dublin and Cork sees that, except Dublin commuter journeys and trips between Mallow and Cork. Similarly, a generally poor performance of the Western Rail Corridor is flattered by the inclusion of Limerick-Ennis journeys regardless of the fact that line was opened long before it. There’s also no categorization for Cork-Kerry journeys, even though there are three direct trains a day.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by comcor

As I understand it the way journeys are categorized can flatter one line over another. For example a Dublin-Thurles journey will be automatically counted and a Dublin-Cork line journey, even if the trip was taken on a Dublin-Limerick train. Pretty much every pairing on the line between Dublin and Cork sees that, except Dublin commuter journeys and trips between Mallow and Cork. Similarly, a generally poor performance of the Western Rail Corridor is flattered by the inclusion of Limerick-Ennis journeys regardless of the fact that line was opened long before it. There’s also no categorization for Cork-Kerry journeys, even though there are three direct trains a day.

No the 3.15 is Dublin-Cork line (excluding Kildare-Park West), if it included Limerick/Tralee it would mean less than 2,000 traveling each way daily.

12 million total approx
Cork 3.150*
Limerick 0.900*
Tralee 0.619*
Waterford 1.266*
Galway 1.800*
WRC 0.134*
Waterford Limerick J 0.035
Sligo 1.380
Westport 0.550
Rosslare 0.450
Belfast 1.100

Total 11.35 million

* Actual 2017 published

Make off numbers are largely based on:
Trakee (Mallow-Tralee)
Mayo (Athlone-Mayo)
Waterford (Athy-Waterford)
Galway (Portarlington-Athenry)
Sligo (Sligo-Maynooth)
Rosslare (Graystones-Rosslare)
Cork (Portlaoise-Cork)
Belfast (Border only?)

[Ireland trains]

Belfast was 1.25m in 2016 according to irish rail documents.
Does rosslare include all south of greystones (eg wicklow)

[James Howard]

As I live on the Sligo line, the number there always jumps out at me but it is really quite amazing that a line to a town of 20,000 people with no major population centres en-route generates similar trip numbers as the Belfast line.

Presumably Longford commuter is lumped in with this but it does appear to be a pretty good result when you consider it's single line for most of the route, there are no late trains, first trains arrive in Dublin at 10AM Saturday, midday Sunday and the catering service is almost non-existent.

[Mark Gleeson]

Lack of a motorway helps

Dublin Belfast numbers really should be on a par with Cork but due to a combination of poor frequency, slow journey and the lack of historical flows of people due the border its lagging behind

[ACustomer]

All of the numbers quoted in this discussion are passenger-journeys, which are pretty meaningless when you compare suburban with long-distance travel. What you need to compute is passenger-kilometers, which avoids counting a journey from Blackrock to Pearse as equal to Dublin-Cork. Done properly you could also sort out the contribution of feeder routes to main routes, and also look at usage of various segments of long-distance lines.

If Irish Rail and the NTA have not done something like this then they are effectively flying blind.

[Jamie2k9]

They would havw a lot of data journeys made via online, annual and TMv transactions. The Portlaoise commuter just demonstrates connections. When there is Galway/Waterford/Cork services running the Portlaoise commuter from Newbridge south is well used by passengers connecting between routes. Its arguable one of the best service changes in recent years by them.

[comcor]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Lack of a motorway helps

Dublin Belfast numbers really should be on a par with Cork but due to a combination of poor frequency, slow journey and the lack of historical flows of people due the border its lagging behind

Although Belfast is a bigger city, there are a few drags on performance compared to Cork, largely based on the change in jurisdiction. Plenty of Cork-based civil servants have to travel to meetings in Dublin. That doesn't apply to those in Belfast. Similarly, anyone who has used the 06:15 or 07:00 trains will have noted the number of solicitors and barristers heading up to the Dublin courts. Again that doesn't apply.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Lack of a motorway helps

Dublin Belfast numbers really should be on a par with Cork but due to a combination of poor frequency, slow journey and the lack of historical flows of people due the border its lagging behind

There isn't that big a difference between daily numbers on the Dublin/Belfast and Dublin/Cork services if the recent NTA census is to be believed. It would appear that boardings at Cork are 1885 northbound with arrivals being 1795 from the Mallow direction. It seems likely that several hundred of these passengers are travelling to and from Mallow, a pattern that is clear to travelers on the 1725 from Cork to Dublin which empties substantially at Mallow.

Again using the NTA census as a source the daily numbers using Belfast services & crossing the border the numbers appear to be 1477 northbound and 1322 southbound.

Of course the cross-border service is only a small proportion of business on the Belfast line, the entire line (excluding DART) handles close to 10 million passenger journeys per annum.

The railway could be massively more significant along the north east corridor but for this to happen there will need to be faster and more frequent services. At a minimum strategic additional physical track will be required to give a much greater degree of separation from the 20 mph DART services which are such an impediment to a competitive longer distance commuter and cross-border service.

[Ireland trains]

About 1.525 million passengers used the enterprise in 2017 if i did thr maths correctly from the 2016+2017 census