Make CIE Work for You - ALL COMMUTERS JOIN THE IRRS/IRPS

FlameoftheWest

Seems to me that when they are not endangering the lives of their fare paying commuters or treating us like crap they are bending over backwards to deliver whatever the trainspotters desire.

I reckon if we all join either the IRRS or the IRPS CIE/Irish Rail will provide us with all our earthly desires.

Cookie_Monster

Have fun with that
:P

return ticket

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

Seems to me that when they are not endangering the lives of their fare paying commuters or treating us like crap they are bending over backwards to deliver whatever the trainspotters desire.

I reckon if we all join either the IRRS or the IRPS CIE/Irish Rail will provide us with all our earthly desires.

I'm a new poster here but I've been following threads here for a while.

Some of the comments put up here beggar belief. But why do you find a need to have a go at preservation societies? One, not all preservationists fall into the 'trainspotter' category. Too, where is there evidence to suggest that CIÉ/Irish Rail will bend over backwards as you put it for these groups? Its very easy to sit behind a keyboard and rant about these groups but do ever consider these are just people who give up their free time to do something constructive, instead of spending their time ranting on boards.

Also, your "endangering the lives of their fare paying commuters" comment needs a bit of evidence to back it up. Ireland has one of the safest rail networks in Europe, its been decades since someone died in a rail accident in Ireland. You claim to have been a lecturer on another thread, then surely to have got that far in academia you should know to back up your argument with relavent facts rather than just make an unfounded statement. A few threads back you gave out about CIÉ putting on a bar for rail enthusiasts. If you had researched your facts more you would have known this was run by a preservation group on board their own train, but you found it easier just to make an unfounded statement on this site without any thought.

And before some of you start ranting on about how I'm one of those types who think CIÉ is perfect, no I don't. But they're not 100% wrong either. They have their faults, lots of companies do. In some ways they're deserving of criticism, in others not. But you can't just slag off posters who don't agree with CIÉ not being 100% wrong. And having a go at voluntary organisations who happen to work with CIÉ seems rather petty in my opinion.

dowlingm

return ticket - since you feel strongly on this and you don't have a listing in the conflicts of interest thread, hopefully you would answer a couple of questions:

1. Are you a member of a preservation society?
2. What is your opinion about IE returning a Mark 3 set to service solely to run a railtour at a time of serious capacity issues on some routes?
3. How do you feel about the fact that IE are willing to let preservation societies run "their own trains" but are not open to other companies operating on their network apart from their fellow monopolists, NIR-Translink?

return ticket

1. No I'm not a member.
2. The mk3 issue...yeah I can see your point. I think its been used for charity pruposes. But a valid point nonetheless. However, this railtour has yet to run and perhaps in time we may see the set being used to cover capacity problems. I'm on the fence until it actually comes to pass.
3. I don't have a problem with it. The trains run by preservation groups are not in competition with IÉ and on a limited basis. So its different to private commercial operators like in the UK. Whether or not privatisation is a good thing or not is a different issue but the way it stands is that IÉ has responsibility for rail passenger services in the Irish republic. Its more of a state thing than IÉ but ultimately preservation societies are different to full blown commercial operators. Even before privatisation it was allowed to various extents on British Rail to have preserved traisn operating.

I'm just angry that some posters would start having ago at organisations that have nothing to do with CIÉ's problems.

Transportuser09

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

paying commuters or treating us like crap

Ah now come on. It could be better but compared to some countries its not so bad. I've seen pictures of trains with people hanging from the roof! Even a packed commuter train from Pearse isn't that bad! Most lines have new raiclars in the last ten years anyway.

BenShermin

I do recall IÉ banned all railtours (RPSI excepted) a few years back to ensure all drivers had the time to learn to operate the new rolling stock. I wouldn't call that bending over backwards to please the preservation societies to be honest.

If IÉ let a preservation society run a MK3 on a railtour at a time of capacity issues for regular passengers then surely people should have a go at IÉ and not the preservation group in my opinion.

FlameoftheWest

That's priceless and so typical of the CIE mentality. Comparing our rail system to the Third World and using this as their benchmark to prove how fortunate we have it. Have you considered becoming the editor of the IRRS Journal.

CIE/Irish Rail is horrible when comepred to the UK/Europe. Horrible management, horrible unions, only good for spending and wasting vas sums of public money. And for what? Slower trains than 50 years ago. Please accept this - they are rotten to the core. The first step to any cure is admiting their is a problem to begin with.

Run_to_da_hills

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

CIE/Irish Rail is horrible when compared to the UK/Europe. Horrible management, horrible unions, only good for spending and wasting vas sums of public money. And for what? Slower trains than 50 years ago. Please accept this - they are rotten to the core. The first step to any cure is admitting their is a problem to begin with.

'The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, no matter where you go to in Europe unless its Germany or Switzerland you will get the same problem with rail management and service.

It took me a grueling 8 hours to get from Holyhead to London last year because of engineering works, break downs etc involving having to change several trains via Birmingham including being packed into a two carriage DMU for two hours. I swore never to take this journey again.

With regard to IR's policy to heritage societies, they anything but bend over back wards, they are only interested in transporting the public from A to B. If they did they would have a designated tourist line devoted to heritage runs that wouldn't interfere with regular schedules, A lot of restrictions on classic runs particular with the ITG boils down insurance and ridiculous health and safety regulations of which costs are prohibitive. Travel to the UK or the North and you will see a lot more effort put into preservation and heritage.

My guess is that Heritage societies are a thorn in the side for IR, if that was not the case they wouldn't have recently banished all that active vintage rolling stock owned by the ITG by truck to Moyasta which is 30 miles my truck away from any national line.

paulm17781

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

'The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, no matter where you go to in Europe unless its Germany or Switzerland you will get the same problem with rail management and service.

I wasin Sweden once. At the airport in Copenhagen (different country), there were two platfoms and lot's trains coming in to different places, none had a destination on them. I asked a guy how I'd know which train was mine, he looked at my ticket and said "It will arrive ay 16.43." That's reliability we can only dream of.

FlameoftheWest

In India the rail service is light years ahead of Irish Rail.

Notice how I mentioned "service". It's looks shabby and chaotic, but it runs like clockwork. The morning suburban services into Mumbai are amazing in terms of frequency and realibility.

Run_to_da_hills

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

In India the rail service is light years ahead of Irish Rail.

Notice how I mentioned "service". It's looks shabby and chaotic, but it runs like clockwork. The morning suburban services into Mumbai are amazing in terms of frequency and realibility.

You are talking utter bunk. India has the highest accident and rail fatality rate than any other country on the face of this planet. Health and safety dose not exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-6Uc2NYQk

FlameoftheWest

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

You are talking utter bunk. India has the highest accident and rail fatality rate than any other country on the face of this planet. Health and safety dose not exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-6Uc2NYQk

That has nothing to do with how Indian Railways operate. This is a cultural issue the people there don't give a **** they try to beat on coming trains. Do not blame the railways. The actual functioning of Indian Railway services are amazing. I have used them. 90 second headways into Mumbai station on 20 coach comuter trains and it's a dead end station IIRC?

Like I said, it looks chaotic, but the Indian railways themselves do not function chaotic. They provide a very good serivce in terms of timetabling and connections.

BTW that video wasn't of Indian Railways. Try getting your countries correct.