Limerick - Nenagh - Ballybrophy - Railway line

Deedsie

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone here would be interested in this or would have any comments on how this train line could best serve its route. I sent the following to Irish Rail but was considering sending to my local municipal district. I added a list of TD's and municipal districts served by the route at the bottom of the page...

Would it be possible to approach Irish Rail to try and request they change the time the train departs Limerick Colbert station on weekday mornings to 05:30 am on the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line?

· A commuter train arriving in Dublin Heuston at 10:00 am is not much use to any employees wishing to work in Dublin City or anywhere else between Nenagh & Ballybrophy or between Ballybrophy and Dublin.
· For students, 10:00 am is too late for anyone trying to get to college/university in Dublin or accessing a transfer to Maynooth.
· An earlier train that would arrive in Dublin Heuston before 09:00 am would receive far more customers and reinvigorate the Limerick – Nenagh - Ballybrophy line.
· With the imminent reopening of the Phoenix Park Tunnel, it would be possible to travel from Castleconnell, Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan or Roscrea to Grand Canal Dock in the heart of Dublin city centre rather than just Heuston station as is the current situation in just over 2 hours.
· With a transfer at Kildare, Sallins, Hazelhatch or Cherry Orchard, commuters from the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line through the phoenix park tunnel will have direct access to the following stations: Drumcondra, Connolly Station, Tara Street and Grand Canal Dock.
· From these stations, commuters could transfer to the DART Network and access Dublin North and South.
· This could be very useful infrastructure to people from the Limerick East, Nenagh, Thurles/Templemore, Borris – in – Ossory/Mountmellick & Portlaoise
· If the Limerick – Nenagh - Ballybrophy line doesn’t make some changes it will surely close eventually.
· Irish rail and individual municipal districts could easily advertise this commuter train with slogans like “Avoid the N7 traffic” or “Avoid the M7 roadworks” when the M7 widening project gets underway.
· A journey on a train would be more economical, better for the environment and could potentially save the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line from inevitable closure. The line is not working as it is, time to try something different with the timetable.

I would love to hear your comments relating to the above suggestion.

Thanks

Municipal Districts, County Councils & Dáil TD’s representing the area served by the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy Line.

Municipal Districts:

Metropolitan District of Limerick

Nenagh

Templemore – Thurles

Borris - in – Ossorry/Mountmellick

Portlaoise

County Councils:

Limerick City & County Council

Tipperary County Council

Offaly County Council (though there is no station in Offaly, Cloughjordan & Roscrea would be the local stations for people in South West Offaly)

Laois County Council

Dáíl constituencies:

Limerick City - 4 TD’s

Willie O’Dea

Maurice Quinlivan

Michael Noonan

Jan O’Sullivan

Tipperary – 5 TD’s

Michael Lowry

Mattie McGrath

Jackie Cahill

Séamus Healy

Alan Kelly

Offaly – 3 TD’s

Barry Cowen

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy

Carol Nolan

Laois – 3 TD’s

Seán Fleming

Charles Fleming

Brian Stanley

Xenophile

Deedsie wrote: »

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone here would be interested in this or would have any comments on how this train line could best serve its route. I sent the following to Irish Rail but was considering sending to my local municipal district. I added a list of TD's and municipal districts served by the route at the bottom of the page...

Would it be possible to approach Irish Rail to try and request they change the time the train departs Limerick Colbert station on weekday mornings to 05:30 am on the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line?

· A commuter train arriving in Dublin Heuston at 10:00 am is not much use to any employees wishing to work in Dublin City or anywhere else between Nenagh & Ballybrophy or between Ballybrophy and Dublin.
· For students, 10:00 am is too late for anyone trying to get to college/university in Dublin or accessing a transfer to Maynooth.
· An earlier train that would arrive in Dublin Heuston before 09:00 am would receive far more customers and reinvigorate the Limerick – Nenagh - Ballybrophy line.
· With the imminent reopening of the Phoenix Park Tunnel, it would be possible to travel from Castleconnell, Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan or Roscrea to Grand Canal Dock in the heart of Dublin city centre rather than just Heuston station as is the current situation in just over 2 hours.
· With a transfer at Kildare, Sallins, Hazelhatch or Cherry Orchard, commuters from the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line through the phoenix park tunnel will have direct access to the following stations: Drumcondra, Connolly Station, Tara Street and Grand Canal Dock.
· From these stations, commuters could transfer to the DART Network and access Dublin North and South.
· This could be very useful infrastructure to people from the Limerick East, Nenagh, Thurles/Templemore, Borris – in – Ossory/Mountmellick & Portlaoise
· If the Limerick – Nenagh - Ballybrophy line doesn’t make some changes it will surely close eventually.
· Irish rail and individual municipal districts could easily advertise this commuter train with slogans like “Avoid the N7 traffic” or “Avoid the M7 roadworks” when the M7 widening project gets underway.
· A journey on a train would be more economical, better for the environment and could potentially save the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy line from inevitable closure. The line is not working as it is, time to try something different with the timetable.

I would love to hear your comments relating to the above suggestion.

Thanks

Municipal Districts, County Councils & Dáil TD’s representing the area served by the Limerick – Nenagh – Ballybrophy Line.

Municipal Districts:

Metropolitan District of Limerick

Nenagh

Templemore – Thurles

Borris - in – Ossorry/Mountmellick

Portlaoise

County Councils:

Limerick City & County Council

Tipperary County Council

Offaly County Council (though there is no station in Offaly, Cloughjordan & Roscrea would be the local stations for people in South West Offaly)

Laois County Council

Dáíl constituencies:

Limerick City - 4 TD’s

Willie O’Dea

Maurice Quinlivan

Michael Noonan

Jan O’Sullivan

Tipperary – 5 TD’s

Michael Lowry

Mattie McGrath

Jackie Cahill

Séamus Healy

Alan Kelly

Offaly – 3 TD’s

Barry Cowen

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy

Carol Nolan

Laois – 3 TD’s

Seán Fleming

Charles Fleming

Brian Stanley

I complement you on your post, you have put a good deal of energy into a subject you feel passionate about . Well done !

questionmark?

What you say makes sense but their is two issues with it.

First, could you show/prove that people would use it. The WRC has been a bit a disaster and once bitten twice shy for those TDS supporting lines like this.

Secondly,Irish Rail often runs lines like this with the aim of closing it down. It's not put out in the press by IR but it's well known. Just Google a bit about their attitude.

Deedsie

questionmark? wrote: »

What you say makes sense but their is two issues with it.

First, could you show/prove that people would use it. The WRC has been a bit a disaster and once bitten twice shy for those TDS supporting lines like this.

Secondly,Irish Rail often runs lines like this with the aim of closing it down. It's not put out in the press by IR but it's well known. Just Google a bit about their attitude.

Ya I have been reading quite a lot about it of late as I think it would be a massive loss to Northwest Tipperary if the line closed. Irish Rail actually trebled the number of trains in 2012 after pressure from Alan Kelly. This included a train leaving limerick at 05:00 am and arriving in Dublin before 08:00. No one used it but as far as I can see the efforts to advertise the service left a lot to be desired.

It should be advertised that there will be a Limerick - Nenagh - Ballybrophy line train every weekday morning arriving at Heuston station no later than 08:30 for transfers to Luas and Dublin bus. It should also be advertised that there will be a stop at Kildare station for those wishing to transfer onto the Phoenix park line and direct access to Drumcondra, Connolly, Tara, Pearse, Grand Canal Dock and the DART network in the heart of Dublin city.

questionmark?

Deedsie wrote: »

Ya I have been reading quite a lot about it of late as I think it would be a massive loss to Northwest Tipperary if the line closed. Irish Rail actually trebled the number of trains in 2012 after pressure from Alan Kelly. This included a train leaving limerick at 05:00 am and arriving in Dublin before 08:00. No one used it but as far as I can see the efforts to advertise the service left a lot to be desired.

It should be advertised that there will be a Limerick - Nenagh - Ballybrophy line train every weekday morning arriving at Heuston station no later than 08:30 for transfers to Luas and Dublin bus. It should also be advertised that there will be a stop at Kildare station for those wishing to transfer onto the Phoenix park line and direct access to Drumcondra, Connolly, Tara, Grand Canal Dock and the DART network in the heart of Dublin city.

I totally agree. I think that public transport is totally under used in Ireland and we are too car dependant. People need to be encouraged onto the railways and Irish Rail need to do their job and get people onto the trains with trains timed to suit the commuter not the staff, attractive ticket prices, comfortable trains and service that is a viable alternative to the car. At the moment they are failing. A good example outside yours is try to use the Limerick to Waterford train for getting to work!

mikep

OP your post makes lots of sense, so therefore i fear it is doomed!!

Perhaps you should get on to Alan Kelly as he did claim ownership of the service by getting the new times as previously mentioned.

I suspect the lack of advertising is a big issue.

Good luck with your endeavours!