Waterford/Rosslare Strand Railway reaches the buffer stops (again)!

Judgement Day

The Waterford/Rosslare section was visited by the weedspraying train last week and there are some decent pictures of 079 + train on the "Save the Whale" page here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=182785145102327&set=o.367387502018&type=1&theater for all you dribblers. Another year or two and it will be of interest to me again as a footplate trip over the route will have become 'exciting'by then.

seekers

The ploughing championships are due to be held a few miles from the line in 2012 either Campile or Wellington bridge would be ideal for Arrivals and departures, a lot nearer than Portarlington is to thge present site

dowlingm

seekers wrote: »

The ploughing championships are due to be held a few miles from the line in 2012 either Campile or Wellington bridge would be ideal for Arrivals and departures, a lot nearer than Portarlington is to thge present site

Given the state of the south Wexford road network, that doesn't make much sense. Wellington Bridge is 18km from Heathpark via a single carriageway road with no hard shoulders (see Street View for examples). The closest station is Ballycullane but the road is then worse again. Enniscorthy by contrast is 25km by a better road, Waterford 35km, Thomastown 32km.

Oliver1985

Do the staff come back for a day to operate those cabins?:eek:

parsi

I spent Easter weekend in Wexford so had a good look at the Rosslare service.

Couple of points:

- Wexford and Rosslare Strand had good traffic going to Dublin,
- sweet all folk seemed to be going to Rosslare Europort (a hole),
- the layover in Rosslare Europort is very long, why isnt the DMU shutdown ?
- whats with all those wheel-less buses ?

Cookie_Monster

4 months since save the rail last posted.

Has anything changed here, will this private enterprise (ever) happen?
Is it still all hushy hushy between apparent private interests or has it all just fallen apart now?
Yis could probably buy 165 and a couple of mk3s now to service it
Starting to miss the summer tourist season...

trail man

for years the limerick to tralee line was tried to be kept open as a going concern. but cie ran it into the ground and on its final year painted up all the stations along the route to put the cost against the viability of the line to keep it open..its long gone now but even having it reinvented as a walkway cycle way cie still own the line and are almost impossible to deal with..The company has had its own way for far too long and until competition is allowed into the network nothing will change..
see www.southerntrail.net
:cool:..

purplepanda

IE / CIE should be made to hand any railway lines it doesn't want to run passenger & / or freight services on back to the government instead of being allowed to let them become overgrown & not seriously maintained at all.

With the latest news being the potential closure of Waterford - Limerick- Ballybrophy this needs to be done urgently before the lines are unusable!

The goverment should offer long term leases to any potential private companies that want to run passenger / freight services on any lines that are closed. Instead of a potential private rail company having to rely on IE / CIE for keeping the line in safe operating condition, the new operator would be responsible for railway maintainence themselves.

These closed railways at deserve a second chance of a future away from IE, without being left to rot without trying other options first. Any railway line which doesn't attract interest should be made available for conversion to Greenways at a later date.

I'm still convinced that a Rosslare / Wexford / Waterford service to Limerick & further westwards would attract sufficent passenger numbers if marketed properly, particularly with local traffic added to increased tourist / visitor numbers coming from SW Wales & Britain in the future.

Judgement Day

Are the rats jumping ship? A certain Admin appears missing on Save the Rail's Facebook page and the standard of posts seems to have gone off the rails altogether.

http://savetherail.org/wordpress/ no post since December 2010!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/367387502018/......sorry but you seem to have to be on Facebook to access the page.

topnotch

Amazing how they achieved absolutely nothing despite
all their trumpeting.:rolleyes:

Our man in Havana

The weeds will now be 8 foot tall and the Barrow Bridge unserviceable.

It was just a side show from IE to attempt to shut people up.

OurLadyofKnock

topnotch wrote: »

Amazing how they achieved absolutely nothing despite
all their trumpeting.:rolleyes:

It was doomed to failure from the moment they refused to demonstrate against the IRRS Farewell Special.

That could of been a historic moment and a real turning point. Instead they actually welcomed them.

The Mark Gleeson Awareness Group were down there too I think.

DWCommuter

OurLadyofKnock wrote: »

It was doomed to failure from the moment they refused to demonstrate against the IRRS Farewell Special.

That could of been a historic moment and a real turning point. Instead they actually welcomed them.

The Mark Gleeson Awareness Group were down there too I think.

The whole thing is a shocking example of how genuine people with a genuine grievance, get sucked in by trainspotters (there really is no other word to accurately describe them) and end up accepting the inevitable, after a few farewell specials and a facebook page that becomes a shrine to every last sad individual who likes posting pictures that are actually irrelevant to the original cause.

I respect the original ethos, but find the surrender of it to enthusiasts and the compromise that it brings, very unfortunate.

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

Are the rats jumping ship? A certain Admin appears missing on Save the Rail's Facebook page and the standard of posts seems to have gone off the rails altogether.

http://savetherail.org/wordpress/ no post since December 2010!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/367387502018/......sorry but you seem to have to be on Facebook to access the page.

The standard of posts is as expected nearly a year ago. It is now nothing more than yet another online drop off point for saddo's, while the grass grows between the rails.

Niles

I see Swift mention they aim for better services on the Rosslare-Dublin route. Anyone know if they have any representation in these areas (Gorey, Enniscorthy, Wexford, ideally the County Wicklow towns too)? Up till now I was under the impression their membership is mainly South Wexford based.

OurLadyofKnock wrote: »

It was doomed to failure from the moment they refused to demonstrate against the IRRS Farewell Special.

Demonstrate against the IRRS special?

corktina

what else tyou'd call it I dont know, but they celebrated the death of the line instead of trying CPR on it. Not logical really was it!

Hungerford

DWCommuter wrote: »

The whole thing is a shocking example of how genuine people with a genuine grievance, get sucked in by trainspotters (there really is no other word to accurately describe them) and end up accepting the inevitable

What I found really shocking was that they entered into a community rail partnership with IE for the Gorey to Rosslare stretch of the Dublin-Rosslare route. It might work in the UK but in Ireland, it appears to be a window dressing exercise to conceal closure by stealth.

They should have fought the community rail partnership offer, not embraced it.

trail man

looks like it will be left to rot in its trackbed and maybe in 20yrs time become a rail trail like the tralee to limerick direct line..IE are a disgrace..

OurLadyofKnock

DWCommuter wrote: »

The whole thing is a shocking example of how genuine people with a genuine grievance, get sucked in by trainspotters (there really is no other word to accurately describe them) and end up accepting the inevitable, after a few farewell specials and a facebook page that becomes a shrine to every last sad individual who likes posting pictures that are actually irrelevant to the original cause.

I respect the original ethos, but find the surrender of it to enthusiasts and the compromise that it brings, very unfortunate.

The woman who ran it refused to keep a tight reign on the trainspotters who jumped on board and offered their "advice" - which was 90% all about UK solutions which is no more relevant to Ireland than it they came from Mars in terms of workability and statutory realities.

It then collasped into the Titfield Thunderbolt on steroids delusions and once the IRRS did their undertakers role for CIE management then it was over.

I saw this coming about 6 years ago when certain rail activists "trainspotters" in the region attended a meeting and called Platform 11 "headcases who are against the Western Rail Corridor!!!" while he was on the phone getting his orders from the mainland about community rail partnerships.

OurLadyofKnock

Niles wrote: »

Demonstrate against the IRRS special?

Oh yes. that would of caused a media sensation and rattled the Bisto out of CIE/Irish Rail management who traditionally send the IRRS down to administer the coup' de grace. I suggested the group held a giant fabric banner across the tracks in Waterford and other stations with IRRS UNDERTAKERS GO HOME - THE PATIENT IS NOT DEAD.

This would of been a historic moment and the first battle CIE would of ever lost when it came to killing off a railway line. Journalist from all over ther world would have decended on Wexford and then the real story could of been told. They would be delighted with soundbites about "trainspotters actually celebrating the closure of a railway" and so on. Goodbye CIE/IE. They would be seen globally for the disgrace they are. No government would of tolerated them after that.

The reason for the destruction of the service is the cozy relationship between trainspotters and Irish Rail management. That is how it works. They get shown around Inchicore Works now and again and this buys their eternal devotion to Irish Rail management and unions and their anti-rail agenda. They will never complain and by going on these farewell specials - they are then psychologically and culturally entrenching the notion that the line is dead.

The IRRS is about old guys (many of them CIE managers and staff) who don't care about the future of the network as they'll be all dead soon. So their look up old photos and timetables and talk about things like. "Oh Larry Grace the porter at Enfield! A real Church of Ireland man... Do you recall the time he had to chase a tinkers horse off the line up as far as the junction!!!"

Then they help CIE/IE managers close railways.

OurLadyofKnock

Hungerford wrote: »

What I found really shocking was that they entered into a community rail partnership with IE for the Gorey to Rosslare stretch of the Dublin-Rosslare route. It might work in the UK but in Ireland, it appears to be a window dressing exercise to conceal closure by stealth.

They should have fought the community rail partnership offer, not embraced it.

Precisely. CIE/IE managment are such devious bastards that they somehow extended the closure to the Rosslare - Gorey section which wasn't even part of the original campaign! This was to culturally entrench the notion that the all the railways in Wexford are now history.

What a class act eh.... But they knew they were ulmitately dealing with trainspotters and therefore "useful idiots".

Judgement Day

IE's attitude was that it was better to have the opposition inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in! Very smart move.

Niles

Hmmm... a few interesting povs there. I'm not sure the IRRS was "celebrating" as such, to be honest I'd more hold IÉ to blame.

Have to say though looking at the FB page it seems to have become a bit of a joke, no disrespect to those on it but the random posting of train pictures (some not even Irish!) only serves to trivialise the cause (if there even is one at this stage)... (not getting at enthusiasts in general, that would be fine on the likes of the Boards train forum or Irish Railway News, but on a serious lobby group?). It just gives the impression they want to keep the line for the sake of it.

As for the Rosslare-Dublin line, would IÉ really get away with closing it? I'd like to think they wouldn't but their current timetable leaves a lot to be desired... There certainly seems to be little will to do anything with it, yet at the same time they're letting not one but two bus companies run circles around them. I'm from the north end of the county myself, but I've heard locals from the other end suggest that a reluctance to combat coastal erosion could ultimately see the Wexford-Rosslare end disappear in the years to come.

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

IE's attitude was that it was better to have the opposition inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in! Very smart move.

And they have RUI in the same tent.

dowlingm

So... is it time to move this to Train/Rail Systems or do we have to wait for the NTA to declare the Barrow Bridge can be made impassable?

-Chris-

dowlingm wrote: »

So... is it time to move this to Train/Rail Systems or do we have to wait for the NTA to declare the Barrow Bridge can be made impassable?

Have your say here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056344453

Discussing it here is off-topic

save the rail

well there seems to be a lot of b**ching and sniping going on here :eek:. We are still trying to save this line - we are meeting another new operator later this month to try sort things.
As for the rosslare/dublin line the NTA asked us to try help improve things and work with IR in order to do so. As a result of this there is now extra carriages on bank holidays, ticket machine to be installed in Rosslare, free parking in Wexford town and at least one train is now meeting the ferries. Sorry if that does not suit but we will continue to fight for decent services on that line and fight to restore the rosslare/waterford line. :rolleyes:

Niles

save the rail wrote: »

As for the rosslare/dublin line the NTA asked us to try help improve things and work with IR in order to do so. As a result of this there is now extra carriages on bank holidays, ticket machine to be installed in Rosslare, free parking in Wexford town and at least one train is now meeting the ferries.

Well that's something I suppose, fair play. I understand this group developed from the Save the South Wexford lobby. Out of interest (in terms of the Rosslare-Dublin aspect), does it include representation from non-South Wexford areas (ie Enniscorthy northwards)?

DWCommuter

save the rail wrote: »

well there seems to be a lot of b**ching and sniping going on here :eek:. We are still trying to save this line - we are meeting another new operator later this month to try sort things.
As for the rosslare/dublin line the NTA asked us to try help improve things and work with IR in order to do so. As a result of this there is now extra carriages on bank holidays, ticket machine to be installed in Rosslare, free parking in Wexford town and at least one train is now meeting the ferries. Sorry if that does not suit but we will continue to fight for decent services on that line and fight to restore the rosslare/waterford line. :rolleyes:

I can't say anything positive about your campaign or some of those that got involved in it, and I'll refrain from saying anything negative. However accept that there are negative opinions and I'm quite sure that they will be expressed by others.

dowlingm

Hard to see a future for Belview-Rosslare given the rumour posted here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056364929