WRC (Ennis-Athenry) timings
 

Would anyone have a rough idea of anticipated station to station timings likely when the abovementioned stretch of the WRC opens.

Here's my prediction - WoT will accuse IE of writing a slow timetable to intentionally sabotage the service, but like Nenagh IE will end up adding yet another 20mins because they use the "Brian Lenihan book of sums" when adding journey times together.

IE have been given over €100 million to restore the 35 mile Athenry to Ennis railway which will give them a through connection from Galway to Athenry (13 miles)at 80mph - from Athenry to Ennis (35 miles) at 60mph and from Ennis to Limerick (24 miles) at 50mph. Door to door - 72 miles. Is it unrealistic to hope they might cover the 72 miles in less than an hour and a half.

Interesting that the WRC is costing about €3m a mile while the new line to Middleton cost €13m a mile. Is'nt it?

Lets not set the bar too high for Iarnrod Eireann as regards the timetable on the WRC. Lets consider the time it would take in 1950 according to the CIE timetable at the time and see if they can beat that?


We know today trains go Galway to Athenry in 13 minutes
Time for Driver to change ends 5 minutes
In 1950 trains went from Athenry to Craughwell 9 minutes
Stop Time 1 minute
In 1950 Craughwell to Ardrahan 9 minutes
Stop Time 1 minute
In 1950 Ardrahan to Gort 10 minutes
Stop Time 2 minutes
In 1950 Gort to Ennis 26 minutes
Stop Time 2 minutes
In 1950 Ennis to Limerick 38 minutes

Total 1h56m

CIE records show that in 1970 this time was reduced to 1 hour 46 minutes.

Can Iarnrod Eireann with €100 million improve on 1970 jointed track, manual signals, hand operated level crossings and lumbering diesel locomotives?

Can they break the 90 minute barrier - the 100 minute barrier or even the 1950 steam age barrier?

Sadly I am led to believe the trip from Galway to Limerick will take almost two hours. GUBU

If such is the case the campaigners for the re-opening of the railway have every right to scream "Foul" and "Skullduggery".

That assumes there are no other trains to running on the network, as soon as you add in a train going the other way, add 5 minutes, add 10 more to cover IE laziness, subtract for the better train and track, roughly 1:50 is the best you will see

I accept your analysis as very valid.

There isn't a station every 4 km on the WRC, well not quite anyway. :) Nor is much of the track doubled, nor does it involve partially upgrading all the cobh branch stations, etc.

Don't forget the Lower Glanmire Road bridge which probably cost a few bob but is likely being counted as part of the Glounthaune-Midleton cost.

Google Maps put the road journey time between Limerick and Galway at 1 hour and 29 minutes. What about Bus Eireann?

It's all the more bizarre to re-open a rail line that never had a chance of beating the other two main forms of transport in journey times. The money could have been better spent elsewhere. The reasons are well documented, I'm just restating the obvious.

What would €100m have done to journey times on Cork - Dublin - Belfast? And for argument sake what would it have cost to re-open the line and have a competitive journey time?

I would suggest that spending €100m on Cork - Dublin - Belfast would have done nothing for journey times. CIE/IE have had millions to spend on both lines for years now and timings are worse than they were 20 years ago!

Bus Eireann is painfully slow (2 hrs 15 mins - 2 hrs 30 mins) as they have to serve all the little bypassed towns and villages as well as diverting into Shannon Airport on the way. However, the Citylink private bus service is only 90 minutes.

One of the big problems they're going to have is breaking the mindset of bus users. Bus Eireann still transport far more passengers from Cork to Kerry, even though the train is faster and cheaper. People don't consider the option. And even among those that do, they seem frightened of the (sometimes needed) change at Mallow, believing they're going to get stranded by a missed connection.