Rosslare-Gorey Rail marked for closure

vicwatson

I agree, first stop should be pearse station in town, not greystones already served

Del.Monte

Agree with the need for innovation but talk of building a new direct line between Arklow and Wicklow is nonsense and there is no disused line. What is there is all that can be used/developed and that's where imagination is required.

The existing route is probably the most scenic on the Irish raiway system but nothing is made of it. Alongside the speeding up of trains there should be station reopenings at Avoca, Woodenbridge and Ferns. Nothing expensive just bare platforms and bus shelters to start with - even make them request stops if needs be. This was always the reasoning behind the development of railcars - cheaper to operate and flexible - both things which CIE choose to ignore. How many visitors do CIE/IE bring to Ballykissangel?

McLoughlin

The amount of Irish railways and stations that has being closed down in the past 100 years is what around 50 % ?

irish government never really invested in the railways outside Dublin area and the decline will probably continue

Marhay70

the kelt wrote: »

All thats needed is a little bit of thought.

First off the timetable is out of sync with what people need, ferries etc.

Secondly im not sure if theres a disused train line between Arklow and Wicklow, the fact is the diversion of the northern bound train line into Rathdrum adds significant time to the train journey. I dont know the answer to be honest but if there was an opportunity to run straight along the coast from Arklow to Wicklow rather than the current diversion it would cut significant time and surely a connector commuter train from Rathdrum to Arklow/Wicklow could be used if required. Again ive no idea if thats feasible but it always struck me the amount of time used diverting to rathdrum added to the journey.

Again why does the commuter train need to stop at the likes of Greystones and Bray, these are already connected by the Dart? It should be a city centre service and nothing else. Ive seen it first hand in London where trains were city centre trains, no suburb stops, got you the city centre in good time and make your way from there.

The issue with the train at the moment is 3 things:

1.Speed
2.Timetable
3.Cost

Im convinced if it was a quicker service with a better timetable it would be used more. Surely it would be worth trying rather than shutting down the service.

But then again that means putting Iarnroad Eireann and a bit of thought into the same sentence.

Irish rail will argue that it's all about bums on seats and my experience is that quite a substantial number of passengers board and alight at Bray and Dun Laoghaire in particular, these would be passengers travelling to or from points south of Greystones. It would make sense, if the intention was to retain a through service to Dublin, to maintain these stops. I also agree that stations at Ferns, Avoca and Glenealy could be reopened as halts, there has been quite a lot of development in and around these areas and, for Avoca and Glenealy, there is virtually no public transport service which is ridiculous when a train is running through their town. I think there was a review of the situation in the mid 2000s but the crash put an end to that. As for meeting the ferries at Rosslare, Irish Rail have stated that altering the schedule during the summer months has not led to any significant increase in foot passengers. This, of course may be a case of a self fulfilling prophecy coming to pass as people have got used to the idea of there not being a train to meet the ferry and so have tailored their journey to suit that.
Railcars are not unknown on Irish railways, I remember well, in my youth, the old GNR railway ran a railcar between Connolly and Howth. A railcar for the distance between Greystones and Rosslare might not be the most comfortable method of transport but certainly a two car set of the current or even the previous train model would be suitable. The train runs via Rathdrum because it was a major source of goods traffic at the time the railway was built, some also say that C.S. Parnell had an input in ensuring the train delivered him to his home but how true this is I don't know.
Really the main problem with speed on the line is the need to fit into the DART schedule, I don't see any way to relieve this and it will only get worse if and when Irish Rail manage to increase frequency on the DART. The only real solution is to increase the carrying capacity of the line by increasing the number of tracks out of Connolly and this is not feasible or cost beneficial, just to suit the Dublin-Wexford line.

purplepanda

Seems to me that more travel options are needed to increase rail passenger numbers. The buses are proof that there is a potential market & they have their own problems with timing delays.

Whilst there probably isn't the extra slots in between DART services to allow more direct services to Dublin from Wexford stations, there should at least be able to consider running more daily return services to Greystones or even Bray to connect to central Dublin via the DART.

Start with one or two extra return off peak services connected to met the DART at Greystones / Bray. Even at weekends or summer months.

More journey options could attract passengers who wish to travel onward to the Greater Dublin region & beyond who can't currently use the line outside the current available connections south of Greystones.