Limerick-Galway Railway

yachtsman

What an own goal by Iarnrod Eireann in their failure to run any special train tomorrow or indeed two weeks ago between the heartland of Galway hurling Gort - Ardrahan and Craughwell and Dublin for the All Ireland Hurling Final. Their incompetence is breathtaking. I am sick and tired of their fake concern and hand-wringing about low passenger numbers on this route. Their indifference, if not deliberate sabotage of the route, is something that the Minister for Transport, who recently threw them a €36m lifeline, should rectify.

foggy_lad

yachtsman wrote: »

What an own goal by Iarnrod Eireann in their failure to run any special train tomorrow or indeed two weeks ago between the heartland of Galway hurling Gort - Ardrahan and Craughwell and Dublin for the All Ireland Hurling Final. Their incompetence is breathtaking. I am sick and tired of their fake concern and hand-wringing about low passenger numbers on this route. Their indifference, if not deliberate sabotage of the route, is something that the Minister for Transport, who recently threw them a €36m lifeline, should rectify.

The match would be over by the time you'd get off the western rail corridor!

dowlingm

That there is no connecting service this Sunday between Gort and Athenry before the scheduled 1055 arrival is unfortunate, but it looks like the Galway special and service trains (0730/0745/0805/0830/0905) have saturated the capacity between Athenry and Athlone.

I would also observe that whether Craughwell and Ardrahan could fill 8 trains tomorrow is irrelevant - stations should be able to earn a decent portion of their keep every month, not just in September (see also Nenagh Branch)

corktina

that rather neatly illustrates the need for more capacity on the Galway -Dublin line

LoonyLovegood

Dublin-Galway is as full as it can be unless they do something about the single track between Portarlington-Athlone. It's a disgrace, but one that nothing can be done about.

Jamie2k9

that rather neatly illustrates the need for more capacity on the Galway -Dublin line

of course there will be thousands travling from Galway to Dublin everyday of the week for a match. If anything Galway will do well to sustain 8 services daily next year. Its the only rail route which has major compitation and the train comes in last. A ticket inspector onboad told me passengers numbers contuine to fall and people think more services are needed. Would like the see passengers stats so far this year compared to last year.

dowlingm

bang on. In this case if you expand Athenry-Athlone you basically have to either increase all the way to Portarlington or reopen to Mullingar and expensively solve the issue of no platform at Athlone East (and houses in between) or reopening Athlone West (inefficient). Having only two active platforms in Galway is probably going to mean a bit of shunting on Sunday morning?

What is unfortunate is that a line which is open to traffic (Limerick-Waterford) cannot take advantage of the boost GAA traffic brings because IE's refusal to operate Sunday service because of the continued need for crossing gate openers and the cost of a comprehensive automation of those gates.

Sligo Quay

Is this a new WRC thread yawn........

kildarecommuter

CTYIgirl wrote: »

Dublin-Galway is as full as it can be unless they do something about the single track between Portarlington-Athlone. It's a disgrace, but one that nothing can be done about.

They could renew Athlone - Mullingar that would solve their capacity on athlone portarlington !

Jamie2k9

Thats just moving the problem to another line at capacity.

corktina

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Is this a new WRC thread yawn........

i rather thought we were discusing line capacity on the Dublin line....

LoonyLovegood

The capacity is at an all time low. I'm currently on the 8.30 Dublin-Galway train, and we're sitting outside Clara because we've hit a bottleneck. Oh, IE, at least have two platforms in every station. To make life easier on everyone, sure it'd probably improve capacity somewhat.

GerardKeating

CTYIgirl wrote: »

The capacity is at an all time low. I'm currently on the 8.30 Dublin-Galway train, and we're sitting outside Clara because we've hit a bottleneck. Oh, IE, at least have two platforms in every station. To make life easier on everyone, sure it'd probably improve capacity somewhat.

Is the train full/empty ??

LoonyLovegood

GerardKeating wrote: »

Is the train full/empty ??

Mine? Pretty empty, it must be said. I'm in the top carriage, maybe 10 others here? A lot are getting off in Athlone to go to Westport.

GerardKeating

CTYIgirl wrote: »

Mine? Pretty empty, it must be said. I'm in the top carriage, maybe 10 others here? A lot are getting off in Athlone to go to Westport.

There are a few "specials" this morning, from Galway to Dublin, they are most likely the case of your delay.

dermo88

Sligo Quay

Is this a new WRC thread yawn....

I hope not, its been enough over the last 8 years, even for me.

Wow......that long. I could have even been using dial-up to make posts.

dowlingm

CTYIgirl wrote: »

The capacity is at an all time low. I'm currently on the 8.30 Dublin-Galway train, and we're sitting outside Clara because we've hit a bottleneck. Oh, IE, at least have two platforms in every station. To make life easier on everyone, sure it'd probably improve capacity somewhat.

You'd think the dope who held the portfolios of Taoiseach AND Min for Finance could have found IE a few bob for some more passing track in that neck of the woods... :rolleyes: