Tension over future of Rosslare-Waterford rail route

...astonishingly expensive and environmentally impossible to get over the line in the planning process....

...as many hgv's off the roads altogether, rail just makes sense...

...we re entering a new phase of human existence, what was once viable, will more than likely become unviable, such as road transport, and what was once unviable, becomes viable, such as rail, a common part of more modern advanced economies, is an extensive rail network, in all its guises, even counties that have modernised extremely quickly such as china, have realised this to, and have invested heavily so.... we re seriously behind on this one, and if we dont modernize quickly, we ll find ourselves in the sh1tter quickly to, go ask intel!

Road is simply more flexible. It wins hands down for moving people and moving freight. The only viable freight use of rail in ireland is large scale consistent flows of bulk - such as the tara mines and timber. Tara mines looks like it is winding up so that is that gone. And timber is somewhat variable now.

Even with passengers, why would anyone get in car to drive to the outskirts of their town, to get on a train that drops them on the outskirts of whatever place they work in so they have to get a bus/taxi/lift at the far end. It would be easier to just drive the whole way when you start the journey in your car anyway.

What the train fanbois can't seem to grasp always is that people aren't going from train station to train station. That is only one snippet of the journey. They are going to business parks, retail places that are some distance from the train stations. It is simply too convoluted and awkward to get public transport to where you are going most of the time. And a train is the most inflexible form of PT available.

...this is clearly not the case, again, as many countries have been heavily investing in their rail networks for decades, if not centuries, by maintaining this stance, all we re doing is screwing ourselves over in continual investment from major investors such as intel, as they decide to go to other countries that already have these advanced transport networks in place!

...you might wanna look at that intel situation a little closer, why didnt they expand into galway, and decided to go to germany instead, what has germany got over ireland!

....and sea, and rail, and air freight, and and and and....

...or maybe germany has a far more advanced transport system, including rail.......

Again, you're thinking of this as a separate line, the way Irish Rail ran it when they wanted it closed. Any reopening should be an extension of the Limerick to Waterford service as it was done for years.

Again it would make no difference. I have been on LJ-Waterford trains. Quite often they are running along empty. Most of the towns and villages along the route are souless kips where anyone with a bit of ambition left years ago. Tipperary, Carrick On Suit, Cahir are all holes with no reason to travel there.

Intercity jouneys between Limerick and Wexford would be few and far between.

And again, foot passengers using rosslare port are a tiny number. It is just not the way people travel any more. So forget that as an argument for linking to Rosslare. In all honesty, who in their right mind wanting to go Limerick to the UK would want to get on a train in Colbert and then spend 3 hours going to Rosslare, having to deal with antisocial behaviour and people with mental illnesses, only to spend a further 3 hours getting sick on a ferry, only to be landed in at the arsehole of fúcking wales having get get another bus or train on to wherever it is they want to go. That is right - next to nobody.

The N24 Limerick Waterford road is very busy, but very little of that is actually going Limerick to Waterford. They are going to various towns and off-line places and are just using the N24 for a link in the journey. And even what Limerick to Waterford traffic there is, they are probably travelling to somewhere that is in a business park, or outlying suburb or in the rural hinterland of the city rather than somewhere a 5 minute walk from the train station.