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[Article] Galway to Limerick rail route to run at €2.4m loss

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Comments

  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    Is there going to be a Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Is there going to be a Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service?

    Er No!! Unless you change trains at least twice and have a day to spend admiring the pines in Limerick Junction, savouring the delights of Hell Limerick Station and then a leisurely jaunt along the WRC. Then there is the matter of cost.
    Bus Eireann run an hourly service between the two cities during the day which takes about 4 hours 20 minutes: http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202290116-51.pdf


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    IE dont do joined up thinking (or joined up trains come to that!)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    What about Tuam!?


    The issue is Oranmore having trains pass through it constantly - the rail commuting town of the greatest potential West of the Shannon not currently served by rail remains so and most likely always will thanks to WestonTrack and their small army of tourists. It's certain people from places such as Tuam along with this Fantasy Railfreight Psychosis who are behind this whole campaign is the reason why we have this mess. Nothing against the Tuam people or their town - it's their local victim professional victim complex in all these places who are the problem.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,110 ✭✭✭KevR


    Then why is there nothing been done about it? I thought the plan was to have a P&R complete with Station come the opening of the WRC?

    I did too.

    There have been whispers of a totally seperate bus P&R for Oranmore and in Doughiska. I think either of these would be a massive mistake.

    I love Galway which is why it's really hard for me to watch the city sabotage itself.

    Stuff like this sickens me
    The group said the construction of the next phase of the WRC from Tuam to Claremorris in Co. Mayo was "imperative"for the West of Ireland in term of "supporting balanced regional development," and would support a significant number of high-skilled jobs and boost tourism.

    as it couldn't be further from the truth. The fact is a proper P&R setup in Oranmore and a station with connecting bus services in Renmore would contribute a lot more to balanced regional development and support a lot more highly skilled jobs than a Claremorris line ever would.

    The main city in the West of Ireland (Galway) is choked with traffic and has dire public transport options, no solution to this is forthcoming. As a result, the regional development gap (between the East coast and West coast) is only going to get wider. Who in their right mind would setup a business in the West of Ireland when the East has much better transport options in and around it's main urban areas?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,110 ✭✭✭KevR


    The issue is Oranmore having trains pass through it constantly - the rail commuting town of the greatest potential West of the Shannon not currently served by rail remains so and most likely always will thanks to WestonTrack and their small army of tourists. It's certain people from places such as Tuam along with this Fantasy Railfreight Psychosis who are behind this whole campaign is the reason why we have this mess. Nothing against the Tuam people or their town - it's their local victim professional victim complex in all these places who are the problem.

    This can never be highlighted enough.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,032 ✭✭✭DWCommuter


    KevR wrote: »
    This can never be highlighted enough.

    And just for the record KevR, Platform 11 (rail lobby) presented this to West on Track in 2005 and asked them to include it in their campaign and they said no.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    Er No!! Unless you change trains at least twice and have a day to spend admiring the pines in Limerick Junction, savouring the delights of Hell Limerick Station and then a leisurely jaunt along the WRC. Then there is the matter of cost.
    Bus Eireann run an hourly service between the two cities during the day which takes about 4 hours 20 minutes: http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202290116-51.pdf

    Surely it is via intercity like that which would have seen the biggest demand from service. There should be at least a twice daily Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service. It is on services like this the demand is especially from tourists and students. It looks to me like another unmitigated Irish rail disaster and they'd have been as well off putting the money into a Limerick - Cork motorway when they aren't going to be bothered running a proper service. I also suppose they never even bothered to electrify the route either.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    DWCommuter wrote: »
    And just for the record KevR, Platform 11 (rail lobby) presented this to West on Track in 2005 and asked them to include it in their campaign and they said no.

    Incredible mentality that. Yet on their website are images of trains with "KNOCK AIRPORT" on the destination signs.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Surely it is via intercity like that which would have seen the biggest demand from service. There should be at least a twice daily Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service. It is on services like this the demand is especially from tourists and students. It looks to me like another unmitigated Irish rail disaster and they'd have been as well off putting the money into a Limerick - Cork motorway when they aren't going to be bothered running a proper service. I also suppose they never even bothered to electrify the route either.

    i dont know about that...you would have thought the Kerry trains would be 14 coaches and packed if that was the case.

    Where did this notion of electrification come from all of a sudden? there is absolutely no chance ever of that...probably not even for Duclin to Cork...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Surely it is via intercity like that which would have seen the biggest demand from service. There should be at least a twice daily Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service.
    Direct Limerick-Cork service is precluded by the track layout at Limerick Junction. However, this would be okay if IE were timetabling Limerick Junction-Galway as a through service (they aren't).
    I also suppose they never even bothered to electrify the route either.
    Electrification? hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha. You here are new, yes?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    Stinicker wrote: »
    I also suppose they never even bothered to electrify the route either.

    You must be new to all this.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Surely it is via intercity like that which would have seen the biggest demand from service. There should be at least a twice daily Cork - Mallow - Limerick - Ennis - Galway service. It is on services like this the demand is especially from tourists and students. It looks to me like another unmitigated Irish rail disaster and they'd have been as well off putting the money into a Limerick - Cork motorway when they aren't going to be bothered running a proper service. I also suppose they never even bothered to electrify the route either.
    There are already coach services serving Limerick to Galway at far higher frequencies, shorter journey times and I'd imagine cheaper fares. A new section of the M18 will open by the autumn, reducing the bus journey times more.
    Also the N/M18 doesn't close for a few weeks every year if it rains.....

    The train service is so much of a joke it's not even funny any more.
    As for the train to Cork from Limerick, once the M20 is built, the train will be slower and less frequent than the bus services, and probably dearer too.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,372 ✭✭✭steamengine


    Incredible mentality that. Yet on their website are images of trains with "KNOCK AIRPORT" on the destination signs.

    Very 'Brunelesque' - just to mention some parallels (including the name GWR) from railway history ! Brunel the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway was asked some hard questions at a directors' board meeting in London in 1835. One of the directors' concerns was the length of the GWR line from London to Bristol to which he reputedly replied - " Well gentlemen - Why not go from London to New York" - which he achieved 10 years later with the steamship "The Great Western". Not for long though due to financial difficulties.

    However the GWR stood the test of time, so perhaps if one aims for the sky, one may hit the top of the trees !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    Very 'Brunelesque' - just to mention some parallels (including the name GWR) from railway history ! Brunel the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway was asked some hard questions at a directors' board meeting in London in 1835. One of the directors' concerns was the length of the GWR line from London to Bristol to which he reputedly replied - " Well gentlemen - Why not go from London to New York" - which he achieved 10 years later with the steamship "The Great Western". Not for long though due to financial difficulties.

    However the GWR stood the test of time, so perhaps if one aims for the sky, one may hit the top of the trees !

    What?


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    dowlingm wrote: »
    Direct Limerick-Cork service is precluded by the track layout at Limerick Junction. However, this would be okay if IE were timetabling Limerick Junction-Galway as a through service (they aren't).Electrification? hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha. You here are new, yes?

    What is wrong with the track layout? It is easy to change and a few sets of points and a new layout could be done in weeks without costing the earth.

    I beleive when they went to the bother of reopening a line they should have electrified it and run electric trains on it. What sort of morons are Irish Rail, they could easily achieve a train service from Cork to Galway via Limerick, Ennis and Mallow and just run a double DMU set with 6 cars and run it 4 to 6 times a day as a West Coast Express.

    It could be a great success due to the population centres served:

    Ok heres the population stats:

    Cork City Metro: 380,000 people
    Mallow Station: 8,000 plus 140,000 Kerry people
    Limerick Junction: Rural area but connections to Clonmel = another 16,000
    Limerick City Metro: 90,000
    Ennis: 25,000
    Galway City: 72,000

    A Cork - Galway Intercity train would directly service 575,000 people directly along the route and over 750,000 people indirectly. Such a train route is badly needed as part of regional balancing and if priced and promoted properly €20 max return from Cork to Galway would be a massive success.

    Only in Ireland could such a massive market go untapped and trains are operating in other parts of the world on less numbers. The world does not evolve around Dublin and unless a Cork - Galway service is not launched they may as well forget WOT. The advantages of the line could have massive economic, tourism and social benefits but like everything in this country it is being done half arsed and against the will of the Railway company.

    Irish Rail should be stripped of the line and let another operator run it as CIE exists as jobs for the lads and as an inefficient and useless bloated public sector disaster. Deutsch Bahn in Germany would but them idiots to shame in how to run a railway publically unlike the gravy train that CIE operates. Thank god for Motorways and being able to drive and my sympathies for anyone dealing with these shower on a daily basis.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    Stinicker wrote: »
    What is wrong with the track layout? It is easy to change and a few sets of points and a new layout could be done in weeks without costing the earth.
    A couple of points? Have you not noticed the back road doesn't exist anymore? The only way you could do it is to send a train towards Thurles then reverse to the Limerick direct curve? This isn't Bord na Mona we're talking about. EDIT: Turns out I was full of crap there. See below.

    As for electrification - are you even familiar with the network? (Given your comment above you'll forgive my doubts). There is zero electrification west of the Belfast-Rosslare line. Not Maynooth, not Kildare. None. Why the feck would you electrify an isolated section of single track with 10 movements a day??


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 228 ✭✭wild handlin


    dowlingm wrote: »
    A couple of points? Have you not noticed the back road doesn't exist anymore? The only way you could do it is to send a train towards Thurles then reverse to the Limerick direct curve? This isn't Bord na Mona we're talking about.

    There's still a set of points in Limerick Junction providing a direct connection with-out reversing at LJ if running from Limerick - Cork - Limerick.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    Stinicker wrote: »
    What is wrong with the track layout? It is easy to change and a few sets of points and a new layout could be done in weeks without costing the earth.

    I beleive when they went to the bother of reopening a line they should have electrified it and run electric trains on it. What sort of morons are Irish Rail, they could easily achieve a train service from Cork to Galway via Limerick, Ennis and Mallow and just run a double DMU set with 6 cars and run it 4 to 6 times a day as a West Coast Express.

    It could be a great success due to the population centres served:

    Ok heres the population stats:

    Cork City Metro: 380,000 people
    Mallow Station: 8,000 plus 140,000 Kerry people
    Limerick Junction: Rural area but connections to Clonmel = another 16,000
    Limerick City Metro: 90,000
    Ennis: 25,000
    Galway City: 72,000

    A Cork - Galway Intercity train would directly service 575,000 people directly along the route and over 750,000 people indirectly. Such a train route is badly needed as part of regional balancing and if priced and promoted properly €20 max return from Cork to Galway would be a massive success.

    Only in Ireland could such a massive market go untapped and trains are operating in other parts of the world on less numbers. The world does not evolve around Dublin and unless a Cork - Galway service is not launched they may as well forget WOT. The advantages of the line could have massive economic, tourism and social benefits but like everything in this country it is being done half arsed and against the will of the Railway company.

    Irish Rail should be stripped of the line and let another operator run it as CIE exists as jobs for the lads and as an inefficient and useless bloated public sector disaster. Deutsch Bahn in Germany would but them idiots to shame in how to run a railway publically unlike the gravy train that CIE operates. Thank god for Motorways and being able to drive and my sympathies for anyone dealing with these shower on a daily basis.

    A massive sucess at €20 a ticket? Have you any idea what the cost of your suggection would be to the taxpayer (ie ME) ? Have you any idea how much electifiaction would cost> Have you any idea?:rolleyes:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    corktina wrote: »
    A massive sucess at €20 a ticket? Have you any idea what the cost of your suggection would be to the taxpayer (ie ME) ? Have you any idea how much electifiaction would cost> Have you any idea?:rolleyes:

    Well if Irish Rail wasn't such a Public service behemoth paying their useless lazy workers such high wages proper pricing like this could be applied. I recently took a train from Germany to Amsterdam the journey lasted about 3.5 hours and would be comparable to say Cork to Dublin or Dublin to Kerry. I paid €21 single and could have got €37 return if I wanted. In Ireland the average price is about €75 and often over €100.

    Michael O'Leary can transport you as far away as Greece for less than Irish rail charges to go to Dublin, his Boeing 737's cost tens of millions yet he still turns a nice profit without a subsidy and he has competition unlike CIE. The reason why so? his staff are not constrained by unions and he pays them a wage appropriate to what they do, Irish rail staff are heavily over paid and most inefficient.

    If I wanted to get from Dublin from either locations I can fly with Ryanair or Aer Arran cheaper or drive for less despite the tolls and high petrol prices. One of the main reasons rail is so unpopular in Ireland it the massive cost of travelling on it.

    In Germany you can walk into any Deutsch Bahn station and expect a level of service and punctionality, in Ireland if your lucky you will not get abuse from the staff. I have also noticed that Deutsch Bahn employ young staff also instead of the sort of closed unionised shop that Irish rail are. Wages in the public sector throughout Europe are far lower than Ireland but these people happily except it as a trade off for job security. They hire younger staff and operate normally, unlike in Ireland, where these PS jobs are a gravy train and to get one you must either be in a railway family or a FF hack.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    There's still a set of points in Limerick Junction providing a direct connection with-out reversing at LJ if running from Limerick - Cork - Limerick.
    can you provide detail/a diagram?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    so far as I know a train for Cork would arrive in the main platform,,to run to Limerick, would it have to go out on the main line and then reverse into the bay? It should have been proeprl;ey sorted out years ago if thats the case,,,what about the down trains from Dublin to Limerick?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    wiki offers this

    8zmo9c.png


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Wiki's map is hopelessly out of date: apart from the removal of the Waterford Bay and connection to, the Up platform is also out use with all trains using the former Down platform. That said I thought it were possible to travel from Cork via the former Down platform and onto the Limerick line but it's probably just advancing senility kicking in. :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    i have to admit I thought there was a connection there too.....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,316 ✭✭✭KC61


    Platform 1 (the main platform) is directly connected to the line to Limerick.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    That's terrific news - I didn't pay attention to the track layout the last time I was at the Junction as I was going to Dublin. However now I know what to look for I see it in the 2005 OSI shot. Apologies wild handlin for being a doubting thomas there.

    When was that done? Do Dublin-Limerick trains go into 1 and then reverse out to Limerick?

    Unfortunately until the east platform is built I doubt IE will want to put Cork-Galway trains in there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,316 ✭✭✭KC61


    The connection is rarely used as Dublin/Limerick trains bypass Limerick Junction via the direct curve east of the station.

    It was used several times daily by the Waterford/Mallow beet trains, and some years back by the short lived Limerick/Cork service.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,009 ✭✭✭✭Run_to_da_hills


    RTE's clip art caption depicts electrification and a dual track for the Western Rail Corridor. :p

    http://www.rte.ie/business/2010/0329/rail.html


  • Site Banned Posts: 5,904 ✭✭✭parsi


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Well if Irish Rail wasn't such a Public service behemoth paying their useless lazy workers such high wages proper pricing like this could be applied. I recently took a train from Germany to Amsterdam the journey lasted about 3.5 hours and would be comparable to say Cork to Dublin or Dublin to Kerry. I paid €21 single and could have got €37 return if I wanted. In Ireland the average price is about €75 and often over €100.

    Michael O'Leary can transport you as far away as Greece for less than Irish rail charges to go to Dublin, his Boeing 737's cost tens of millions yet he still turns a nice profit without a subsidy and he has competition unlike CIE. The reason why so? his staff are not constrained by unions and he pays them a wage appropriate to what they do, Irish rail staff are heavily over paid and most inefficient.

    If I wanted to get from Dublin from either locations I can fly with Ryanair or Aer Arran cheaper or drive for less despite the tolls and high petrol prices. One of the main reasons rail is so unpopular in Ireland it the massive cost of travelling on it.

    In Germany you can walk into any Deutsch Bahn station and expect a level of service and punctionality, in Ireland if your lucky you will not get abuse from the staff. I have also noticed that Deutsch Bahn employ young staff also instead of the sort of closed unionised shop that Irish rail are. Wages in the public sector throughout Europe are far lower than Ireland but these people happily except it as a trade off for job security. They hire younger staff and operate normally, unlike in Ireland, where these PS jobs are a gravy train and to get one you must either be in a railway family or a FF hack.

    LOL at that - DB are as unionised as hell, quite alot of old staff, fares are quite expensive unless you manage local special offers , they have destroyed the Berlin S-Bahn for the last year and that was such a fine service.

    DB are also culling lines (as are most of the incumbent operators around Europe).

    Oh.. btw - FR don't fly to Greece...


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,686 ✭✭✭JHMEG


    parsi wrote: »
    Oh.. btw - FR don't fly to Greece...
    6 new routes next month, for a fiver. Beat that, IE!


  • Site Banned Posts: 5,904 ✭✭✭parsi


    PWND .. lol


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,102 ✭✭✭Stinicker


    parsi wrote: »
    LOL at that - DB are as unionised as hell, quite alot of old staff, fares are quite expensive unless you manage local special offers , they have destroyed the Berlin S-Bahn for the last year and that was such a fine service.

    DB are also culling lines (as are most of the incumbent operators around Europe).

    Oh.. btw - FR don't fly to Greece...

    Don't they??

    Yes Deutsch Bahn are unionised and have old staff but so does every company, my point is they also take on new staff and quite alot of the staff I last encountered were in their twenties. My point is that in Europe their Public service is controlled and their staff are happy and trade off the lower wage for job security.

    In Ireland all they want is constant pay rises without any productivity increase etc. Irish Rail is a systemic failure and despite the problems of other railways they could not be as bad as the Irish setup if they tried.

    In Germany if the train does not arrive within the minute the users are p'd off wheras in Japan if it is not within 10 seconds they are annoyed. In Ireland anything within half an hour of the schedule is considered a success and most trains are nearly always ten minutes late.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 88,972 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    How the hell does it take 2 hours to get from Limerick to Galway?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,032 ✭✭✭DWCommuter


    mike65 wrote: »
    How the hell does it take 2 hours to get from Limerick to Galway?

    Slow line speed due to the nature of the line and the fact that the route is less direct than the road, because when originally built, it was not designed to carry direct trains between both cities.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 88,972 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Right so its only any use for tourists/daytrippers. Can't see shoppers using it as both cities are basicly the same in that respect and too slow for one-day buisness to be conducted. I assume the bus is cheaper and quicker if non-stop service, so even non train spotting tourists might give it the swerve


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,316 ✭✭✭KC61


    The word filtering back is apparently that the running times in the timetable are far too generous and that 1 hour 45 minutes or even less would be far more realistic, which would suggest that if some more level crossings were eliminated that 1 hour 30 minutes would be possible.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,316 ✭✭✭KC61


    Bus times:
    Citylink - 1 hour 30 minutes
    Bus Eireann - 2 hours 20 minutes (operates via Shannon Airport)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    Is it just me, or during the RTE interview with Dempsey does he catch himself before he says it "people of the West use it or lose it..." ????????

    I think he did!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 309 ✭✭FlameoftheWest


    mike65 wrote: »
    How the hell does it take 2 hours to get from Limerick to Galway?


    Ah, but this is about social justice not transport services...


  • Site Banned Posts: 5,904 ✭✭✭parsi


    Stinicker wrote: »

    Aha. I wasn't pwned after all - they're not from Ireland ;) Anyway if Mick was billed the full cost of the infrastructure then it would cost more than a fiver ..


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Yes Deutsch Bahn are unionised and have old staff but so does every company, my point is they also take on new staff and quite alot of the staff I last encountered were in their twenties. My point is that in Europe their Public service is controlled and their staff are happy and trade off the lower wage for job security.

    In Ireland all they want is constant pay rises without any productivity increase etc. Irish Rail is a systemic failure and despite the problems of other railways they could not be as bad as the Irish setup if they tried.

    In Germany if the train does not arrive within the minute the users are p'd off wheras in Japan if it is not within 10 seconds they are annoyed. In Ireland anything within half an hour of the schedule is considered a success and most trains are nearly always ten minutes late.

    I always thought that DB was a paragon of efficiency but yet its standards are slipping (the S-Bahn in Berlin which serves a population greater than Ireland won't be fully back in service until 2011) and this is probably due to a much greater focus on the old bugbear - costs.

    The private railway companies in Germany are facing revolt from their unions - once again - Costs.

    This months Todays Railways has quite a litany of how much-respected companies failed to cope with the winter and all in the name of cost-saving - point covers removed (to save), vent covers removed (to save), heated sheds not used (to save) - these were all obviously provided during the good times...

    Anybody can run a successful railway if they throw a fortune at it - we need to be looking at the operators who can run a successful railway with tight budgets, apathethic politicians, disjointed thinking.

    Whatever about all that - with the running times proposed I don't foresee a lot of traffic unless they do a "Galway Bay" tour every Saturday with an A-class and a rake of Park Royals........


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,842 ✭✭✭crushproof


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Well if Irish Rail wasn't such a Public service behemoth paying their useless lazy workers such high wages proper pricing like this could be applied. I recently took a train from Germany to Amsterdam the journey lasted about 3.5 hours and would be comparable to say Cork to Dublin or Dublin to Kerry. I paid €21 single and could have got €37 return if I wanted. In Ireland the average price is about €75 and often over €100.

    Michael O'Leary can transport you as far away as Greece for less than Irish rail charges to go to Dublin, his Boeing 737's cost tens of millions yet he still turns a nice profit without a subsidy and he has competition unlike CIE. The reason why so? his staff are not constrained by unions and he pays them a wage appropriate to what they do, Irish rail staff are heavily over paid and most inefficient.

    If I wanted to get from Dublin from either locations I can fly with Ryanair or Aer Arran cheaper or drive for less despite the tolls and high petrol prices. One of the main reasons rail is so unpopular in Ireland it the massive cost of travelling on it.

    In Germany you can walk into any Deutsch Bahn station and expect a level of service and punctionality, in Ireland if your lucky you will not get abuse from the staff. I have also noticed that Deutsch Bahn employ young staff also instead of the sort of closed unionised shop that Irish rail are. Wages in the public sector throughout Europe are far lower than Ireland but these people happily except it as a trade off for job security. They hire younger staff and operate normally, unlike in Ireland, where these PS jobs are a gravy train and to get one you must either be in a railway family or a FF hack.

    Hmmmm, strange one that, the last time my friends and I travelled Dublin to Cork return it cost us €20 each return, which was booked a few hours before departure and saved us money on a taxi to and from the airport. Don't recall booking a flight hours before departure with Ryanair and paying only €20 :rolleyes: And you cannot get to Greece from Ireland via Ryanair, cheapest is €170 via Aer Lingus to Athens.

    And wow, I've been harrassed so many times by station staff, I mean even the time I late for my train and they held it while I got my ticket or the time I left my bag behind in the station and they sent it up to me on the next train to Heuston. How awfully rude of them.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    crushproof wrote: »
    Hmmmm, strange one that, the last time my friends and I travelled Dublin to Cork return it cost us €20 each return, which was booked a few hours before departure and saved us money on a taxi to and from the airport. Don't recall booking a flight hours before departure with Ryanair and paying only €20 :rolleyes: And you cannot get to Greece from Ireland via Ryanair, cheapest is €170 via Aer Lingus to Athens.

    And wow, I've been harrassed so many times by station staff, I mean even the time I late for my train and they held it while I got my ticket or the time I left my bag behind in the station and they sent it up to me on the next train to Heuston. How awfully rude of them.

    Sure you had to buy a ticket - you sound like you work for the company? :D


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