Work is Continuing to save the Rosslare To Waterford railway Line

RobitTV

A delegation from Wexford are working with a group from Wales to try to save the Waterford to Rosslare railway.

Irish Rail want to close the line because they say it's not viable however there is huge local support for maintaining the connection.

The Save the Rail Group arranged a meeting with a community group in Fishguard following a recommendation in the South East Regional Authority's report.

Chair of the group Tanya Fenlon says they want to replicate what is in operation in South West Wales.

She says they will have to wait til next year before they can apply for EU Funding.

Tanya Fenlon says the train in Fishguard is used by a huge amount of ferry passengers because it is such a good service.

ziedth

Here is my .02 cent on this, off the bat I'm not fully read up on it as it's of no real interest to me so if I'm miss informed someone please point it out to me and I'll appreciate it.

Now, Irish Rail are a business and surely if the line was profitable then they would be keeping it open ya? I don't understand what the issue is to be honest. It's an unfortunate situation for the people who use it granted but that's business.

Irish Rail are not a charity, I'd love a line open from kilmactomas to Waterford and in sure it would make allot of people happy but it wouldn't make any money.

Or am I missing something?

looksee

Possibly you are missing the fact that it only has two trains a day, at not very useful times.

The ferries leave Rosslare at 09.00, 15.00 and 21.15
They arrive in Rosslare at 6.15, 13.00 and 18.00

The train goes from Rosslare to Waterford at 7.00 arriving 8.20

The trains go from Waterford to Rosslare at 17.20 arriving 18.35

So you could get the 7.00 train to Waterford off the 6.15 ferry
None of the other arriving ferries are served.

The evening train to Wexford does not serve any of the ferries, except possibly the 21.15

The Dublin train that passes through Wexford arrives 10 minutes too late to get the connection to Waterford, the evening train from Waterford is just too early for commuters to Wexford, and anyway they miss the connection by half an hour.

And the commuting is more likely to be in the opposite direction anyway with students going to WIT.

They are not even trying.

Psychedelic

ziedth wrote: »

Here is my .02 cent on this, off the bat I'm not fully read up on it as it's of no real interest to me so if I'm miss informed someone please point it out to me and I'll appreciate it.

Now, Irish Rail are a business and surely if the line was profitable then they would be keeping it open ya? I don't understand what the issue is to be honest. It's an unfortunate situation for the people who use it granted but that's business.

Irish Rail are not a charity, I'd love a line open from kilmactomas to Waterford and in sure it would make allot of people happy but it wouldn't make any money.

Or am I missing something?

Yeah you're missing a lot. The line was losing money alright, but that's down to Irish Rail's poor management and promotion of the line. Here's a few handy links for more info:

Save the Rail submission to the National Transport Authority:
http://savetherail.org/wordpress/submissions-to-nta/

Open letter to Irish Rail:
http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9859&Itemid=9

Save the Rail facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=367387502018

Bards

ziedth wrote: »

Now, Irish Rail are a business and surely if the line was profitable then they would be keeping it open ya?

Irish Rail are not a charity, Or am I missing something?

Yep - they are a Semi-State Dinasour that is full of over paid staff who have no interest in serving their customers

danjo-xx

A rail link to/from a busy port such as Rosslare should be a godsend but as outlined above....it wasn't obviously marketed or targeted towards commuters I guess.

Maybe it was originally just used as a freight service in the past but I maybe wrong on that.

hardybuck

Even if the port wasn't there there are loads of people who work in Waterford all the way up as far as Rosslare. With the last train leaving at 5.20 how are people working supposed to get on it?

ziedth

I see,

And is it still used for trains to and from the port?

I could see there being a benefit for the boat over for sure.

tombliboo83

Bards wrote: »

Yep - they are a Semi-State Dinasour that is full of over paid staff who have no interest in serving their customers

Glad to see you're not generalising in regard to your deep knowledge of IEs pay structure. Enlighten us all as regards contracted hours and payscales please

merlante

It was not pushed, marketed, funded or considered in any way. They have been trying to close it for years.

They have never done the obvious thing: sell integrated train/ferry tickets to Wales, London, etc.

They have also never tried to establish a commuter service from Wexford to Waterford via Rosslare -- which would be fine timewise if they had not let the line fall into neglect.

tombliboo83

[QUOTE

They have never done the obvious thing: sell integrated train/ferry tickets to Wales, London, etc.
[/QUOTE]

They do, it's called sail and rail. Tickets from can be bought from Waterford to Paddington via Fishguard and Dunlaoighre to England via Holyhead. This has been the case for a long time however most passengers now drive so no need for the rail. But agreed in that the connections are ridiculously bad with no evening connection in Rosslare on return etc. Most sail marketing is done from the point of enticement of the car passenger with little for the foot passenger. IE doesn't market this ticket at all (sail rail)

merlante

tombliboo83 wrote: »

[QUOTE

They have never done the obvious thing: sell integrated train/ferry tickets to Wales, London, etc.

They do, it's called sail and rail. Tickets from can be bought from Waterford to Paddington via Fishguard and Dunlaoighre to England via Holyhead. This has been the case for a long time however most passengers now drive so no need for the rail. But agreed in that the connections are ridiculously bad with no evening connection in Rosslare on return etc. Most sail marketing is done from the point of enticement of the car passenger with little for the foot passenger. IE doesn't market this ticket at all (sail rail)[/QUOTE]

Fair enough, I assumed that considering the rail connections between Waterford and Rosslare are so poor, that such a ticket would not exist. In any case, as you say, it is not marketed. In order to make a success of it, you need to have good rail connections with Rosslare and to plaster Waterford with advertising.

Waterford Airport spent a lot of money on advertising to establish the airport in people's minds, before they automatically go to the Ryanair site. The same should have been done with Waterford-London/wherever via rail and ferry. It simply is not in the public's consciousness. I also have a strong suspicion that the trains on Waterford-Rosslare are pretty poor and old as well. If this is the case, combined with the fact that the service is so slow, you would really have to be pretty patriotic to take the service.

You have to put in a proper service and then market it. You don't let the service decline, fail to market the service (which is pointless at that stage anyway) and then close the line because nobody is using it.

Odats

They don't use the intercity trains only them commuter train two carriage ones which are designed for urban routes like greater Dublin area same as DART really not distance routes. As merlante said provide infrastructure along with the marketing and reap the rewards. Maybe a two/three carriage intercity train to Rosslare would reduce times and better service. (Same as direct Dublin train in morning).
Better timetabling helps aswell and the commuter aspect only relates to those working in City Centre or attending WIT so proper buses should be available on this route aswell to bring workers from train station to WIT,IDA, Carriganore etc and return service picking them up aswell.

tombliboo83

The trains aren't the problem, the line speed would be if quick services were desired, but even at 40mph it's still quicker to get to campile and ballycullane especially. An early train from Wex to Waterford was 'tried two years ago but was ran at a poor time imo, hence it was a flop. The biggest problem is lack of marketing.

Odats

Did they upgrade all the tracks for the new trains and line speed or did they just do the Waterford Dublin line and leave it at that.

tombliboo83

Waterford to Dublin got continuous welded rail laid in the early90s, to Limerick Junction has a few miles left to lay but to Rosslare strand it's all jointed rail. All the gate signals would have to be repositioned at a cost of millions if they wantes to increase lineside speed. The NTA decision is due in weeks, I recommend following the story in depth on the commuting and transport forum

danjo-xx

Cant see it having a snowballs of a chance of surviving sadly....as it wasn't promoted during the tiger years.... what hell of a chance has it got now.


The only thing worth investing in now is Ferryports and Airports so we can all emmigrate:mad: