Train carriages worth €44m not being used - PAC

[peter t]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0125/364...ain-carriages/

The Public Accounts Committee has asked for a report into why 21 train carriages owned by Iarnród Éireann and worth €44m are not being used.

PAC Chairman John McGuinness has asked the National Transport Authority to report back to the committee.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr McGuinness said this is all happening at a time when Iarnród Éireann was receiving a €36m bailout from the Government.

He said it was clear the company had over-purchased and over-estimated the travelling public.

However, a spokeswoman for Iarnród Éireann has said the surplus train carriages allow for maintenance and additional capacity during busy travel periods.

Jane Cregan said when the carriages were purchased back in 2008 it seemed demand would increase.

She said the economic decline could not have been forecast or that passenger numbers would fall as much as they did.

Mr McGuinness said it is unacceptable that these trains are not being used, and has called for a report into the procurement process and the cost of storage.

He also wants to determine what efforts have been made to lease the carriages.

However, he said there is a "serious problem" in terms of the gauge of the track, as the carriages are only suitable for tracks in Australia, India and Brazil.

[ThomasJ]

Heres the independents article including a dig on the food offering

CASH-strapped Irish Rail – which increased fares despite receiving a €30m Government bailout last year – has 21 surplus train carriages valued at €44m sitting idle at any one time.

The details of the surplus trains led TDs to question why Irish Rail doesn't sell them off to help its perilous financial situation, but the company says it has no intention of doing so.

It was accused of presiding over a "massive waste of taxpayer's money" and operating a "carriage graveyard". However, Irish Rail in turn claimed that the spare stock "future-proofed" the country's rail network.

It comes after the National Transport Authority (NTA) sanctioned a rise in CIE fares late last year to help ease the company's financial crisis.

The Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard an initial order worth €500m was put in with Mitsui, a Japanese train manufacturer, for a total of 234 railcars.

The cars, worth €2m each, were delivered in four tranches in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008, but not all of the last batch were needed because of declining passenger numbers.

They are the latest 'InterCity' carriages run on all major routes, except the Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Belfast routes, and Gerry Murphy, the CEO of the NTA, said they are worth €44m.

However, both the NTA and Irish Rail say the extra cars are alternated out of storage and used in service.

At the PAC yesterday, chairman John McGuinness questioned Mr Murphy about the unused carriages and described them as a "massive waste of taxpayers' money".

"Then you increase the fares instead of saying there will be no fare increases until you get your house in order," Mr McGuinness said. "I just can't fathom why you can't do that to put a stop to the carry on that is going on in CIE. A company in the private sector would be bust if they did that."

CIE was given a €36m bailout by the Government last year, with a massive €30m of this going to Irish Rail and €5.33m given to Dublin Bus.

Mr Murphy said the NTA commissioned industrial maintenance company Jacob's Engineering to assess what to do with the carriages, and it recommended keeping them in long-term storage, which would reduce maintenance costs.

Rotation

But an Irish Rail spokeswoman said the carriages are "rotated" and are "constantly in service".

"The order was given when the economy was in a different place," she added.

"When we have a pick-up in demand, we will have the carriages ready to go."

They are mostly stored in the Laois Traincare Depot – opened in 2008 – which does not cost any extra money.

Fine Gael TD Kieran O'Donnell claimed that some older people had to stand on a two-hour journey between Limerick and Dublin.

Mr O'Donnell, a TD for Limerick City, also said Irish Rail had to improve its services if it is to attract business customers, describing the food offered as "third world" and quality of internet wi-fi and mobile phone coverage as "appalling".http://www.independent.ie/national-n...e-3364350.html

[Jamie2k9]

Just how many buses are not being used, with all the service reductions from DB all buses can't be required but its ok to store them is it? Same could be said about BE with there new bues recently have all the older ones being withdrawn or stored.

[Mark Gleeson]

As usual our politicians are late to the game

The original 2007 delivery batch are being taken out of service when they fall due for overhaul and that is being back filled by the 63 new coaches in the most recent batch

Irish Rail can't afford the overhaul costs so is playing game of moving the units around to minimize costs, good business but bad for passengers

All comes down to the usual - Irish Rail management will not publicly complain or condemn its political masters

[Jamie2k9]

Not his biggest fan but at least he has some level of sense when to comes to Transport.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakin...es-582456.html

[Thomas Ralph]

Random rent-a-quote TDs...

[Mark Gleeson]

There is lots of rubbish going around this morning

1. CIE did not get 36 million in 2012, it didn't no matter what anyone wants to claim the CIE bank account did not receive any supplementary payment

2. Every single coach of the 234 ordered has been in passenger service, there are no 'new' trains parked, all of the recent 63 coaches are in service, its the low numbered units which entered service in 2007/8 which are hitting millage limits

3. Net available fleet is +15 even allowing for the 2700 units parked up

[Inniskeen]

As presented this ia all a bit a nonsense - a bit like berating somebody for buying a house at the height of the boom. IR had reasonable expectations that its business would continue to grow. It would have been hard to fully predict the calamitous drop in traffic arrising from a combination of

• The Malahide viaduct collapse.
  
• The opening of the inter-urban motorways
  
• The celtic tiger collapse and the Euro crisis.

The PAC have the numbers wrong anyway as there are also the 2700s, loads of DARTs, a good portion of the 201 class and around 100 Mk3s hanging about the place as well.

[Thomas J Stamp]

when i first spotted the headlines I thought it was a proper story, eg about the mark3 and 201's.

there is a story within this though of lousey stock allocation whcih we have all seen since the new timetable came in. if that is atill going on after a month then you have a real story.

[karlr42]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Irish Rail can't afford the overhaul costs so is playing game of moving the units around to minimize costs

That's hardly a long term solution is it? What happens in a few years time when they end up with more of the fleet being up for overhaul and not enough newer units to take over?

[Mark Gleeson]

The rough saving for doing this is approx. 3 million euro

Its not a long term solution but it does deliver a significant short term cost saving. Overhauls have to be undertaken to maintain the active fleet size

[redeye99]

The politicians are just looking for columns in the newspapers to justify their existence so this non-story is ideal for them. As others have said IE placed the order during the Celtic Tiger expecting the good times to continue but now times are a lot different.