[Article]Waterford commuter rail link 'would ease gridlock'

[janda]

http://www.unison.ie/wexford_people/...issue_id=14734

Waterford commuter rail link 'would ease gridlock'


Wexford Borough Council has called for a commuter rail link between Wexford and Waterford to help people avoid the nightmare gridlock in New Ross.
The proposal came from Cllr. Joe Ryan of the Labour Party at a Council meeting on Monday night. He said that with goodwill on the part of Iarnrod Eireann management, the service could be up and running within months.
Calling on Iarnrod Eireann to investigate the possibility, he said there was a significant number of people who would prefer this service rather than enduring daily gridlock at New Ross.
'I personally dread arriving in New Ross after 4 p.m. due to the delays. Commuters using the N25 spend at least 40 minutes most evenings stuck in New Ross', he said.
Cllr. Ryan pointed out that while Clonmel and Kilkenny are linked to Waterford by a regular train service, it is effectively impossible to travel the 50 km between Wexford and Waterford by train.
The South Wexford line has four stations at Bridgetown, Wellingtonbridge,Ballycullane and Campile. Trains do not link Rosslare Harbour to Cork or Kerry anymore and passenger numbers on the line are modest.
The Labour councillor said it made sound logical sense to link Wexford and Waterford using the present rail infrastructure. Without imaginative intervention to attract new traffic to the line, a question mark must hang over its future.
'I believe imaginative time-tabling would allow the restoration of links to the south west and the development of new ones through Waterford', he said.
According to Cllr. Ryan, rail cars that allowed a quick turnaround at Rosslare Strand could slash travelling times between the two towns to around an hour. 'The track is there. The stations are open'.
This would benefit students travelling to and from Waterford as well as shoppers from rural parts of County Wexford.
'As it is, the bus service to Wexford from rural parts of the county is poor and as a result, a car is a necessity', he said.
'With parking space at a premium and gridlock a regular feature in Wexford due to rising car ownership, extra traffic is not sustainable ito the future.'
Cllr. Ryan commented that Wexford was effectively forgotten by the Government in its Transport 21 proposals and said this was an opportunity to redress the imbalance.

[comcor]

What about a Waterford-Rosslare-Connolly service?

How competitive would that be with the train to Heuston? I know that people from Waterford often drive up the N11 depending on their destination in Dublin.

Until the interconnector is built, it could allow much better connections from Waterford onto the Dublin suburban network.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Rosslare-Connolly is fine till it hits Arklow, then the line speeds go to a crawl due to the geograpy and then from Bray we have to intigrate with the DART as well.

So I think Heuston may be the quicker option.

Of course Heuston is no-where really, as the business districts of the City go further and further EAST. Interconnecter may by the panecea.

[Derek Wheeler]

Mark Gleeson and I discussed this very issue a few months ago. At the time the IE online journey planner gave you an option to do it that way with the obvious one change. It currently doesn't provide an option. Our thinking behind it was that it opened up a huge area of Dublin by rail from Waterford aswell as providing a potentially beneficial local service in the south east. The journey time was approx. 3 hrs as far as Bray.

[comcor]

Originally Posted by Derek Wheeler

The journey time was approx. 3 hrs as far as Bray.

Is that assuming that the train would go the whole way to Rosslare Harbour or would it double back at Rosslare Strand? Presumably this could save 15 minutes.

Also, a direct curve from the Waterford-Rosslare onto the Wexford-Rosslare line would presumably save another 10 minutes (dropping any stop in Rosslare). How much would such a curve cost?

2hrs 40mins into Connolly could be competitive with the 2hrs 25mins or so it takes to get to Heuston currently.

[AZ1]

I've asked about (small) curves being built on other lines too: not only a curve to by-pass Rosslare, but also a curve to "correctly-curve" B/brophy Dublin-side (allowing direct runs to Limerick); a curve at Cheryville to enable trains to directly move from the Portarlingon side to the Athy side (also useful in case of breakdowns in commuter-intensive Kildare/Portlaoise area). For example, there is a curve that by-passes Kilkenny which allow trains to not waste time going into the Kilkenny triangle, but instead to run direct to Waterford. What was the strategy behind that particular curve?

Is it really THAT much of a deal to build a curve here and there at strategic points on the "network"? I mean, the land is IE's already. All told, the number of kms of new track is negligible. I know there are more urgent issues elsewere, but isn't this an overall infrastructure consideration? Ciao.

[comcor]

I suppose there's a problem with the station at the junction being missed, but seeing that this is a totally new service it would be tolerable.

Incidentally, there are maybe a few others to add to the list - a direct Cork-Killarney curve at Mallow, a direct Dublin-Clonmel curve at Limerick Junction

[TomB]

Originally Posted by AZ1

For example, there is a curve that by-passes Kilkenny which allow trains to not waste time going into the Kilkenny triangle, but instead to run direct to Waterford. What was the strategy behind that particular curve?

The more knowledgable members will no doubt answer this for you in more detail, but as far as I know the Kilkenny curve was built back in the days when there were container trains travelling from Waterford, as reversing a huge long freight train out of Kilkenny was probably a pain in the arse...

Looking at the fleet of trains that are on order, the fact that in a few years time the majority of trains will have driving cabs at either end perhaps makes this less of an issue. Although having seen the pedestrian way that IE drivers make this reversal (get out, have a smoke, chat with Joe the station master, have another smoke, get in cab at other end of train, finish the back pages of the Sun, then get moving) reversing railcars (the ones that you can drive from either end*) doesn't seem to be as seamless as it could be...

There used to be a bit on the P11 website about a Clonmel-Dublin direct service, but I can't find it now...

*yes I know you probably know that, but I worry sometimes that you need a silly amount of knowledge about trains to follow discussions on these boards that should be accessible to all...

[Thomas J Stamp]

*yes I know you probably know that, but I worry sometimes that you need a silly amount of knowledge about trains to follow discussions on these boards that should be accessible to all...

Shush..................... dont let it worry you, night night, see you in the morning.