i seen one today

"centra will be closing at 4pm on monday 24th december"

hope this nothice is relevant:D

Once again I do my annual teethgrinding that IE will shut down the network for 55 hours or so, not only foregoing the revenue but not even doing major works on the 26th to get some value out of it.

Meanwhile, in these parts...
VIA Rail Canada Statutory Holiday Schedule 2012/13
GO Transit Holiday Schedule

Different countries have different traditions about Christmas. It just happens that in Ireland we tend to take it pretty seriously and a huge proportion of people just take it easy for a few days around Christmas. In the US, they would definitely take Christmas less seriously. To be honest, I reckon relatively few people take Christmas as seriously as the Irish.

The demand for rail travel on the 26th would tend to be exceptionally low so if Irish Rail can save a few quid by shutting down for the day and hence provide an extra service for the other 363 days of the year, then I reckon the majority of people would be entirely happy about that.

Limited DART and Cork regional is not to much to ask. Every other transport operator run on 26

Even operation after 3pm on the 26th.

I would have expected reasonable InterCity demand for people who need to be back at work on the 27th. Plus a lot of people go out on the night of the 26th and Dublin and Cork commuter are used to get into the city centres.

Nobody should have to work on the 25th/26th. Two days off a year is not much to ask.

Is there going to be service on New Years? If not we're down another day. EDIT: it seems there will be some service, though not on the Nenagh or Clonmel branches.

As for Christmas/Stephens Day - a total shutdown on Stephens Day is a bit much. There should be AM/PM peak commuter service running at weekend levels for those who have to work plus a limited service for those who need to visit relations or whatever but have had to give up running a car because of financial circumstances or who don't want to drink and drive. Heuston trains could be one departure an hour of 2 x 22Ks with trains splitting en route so that Cork gets one service per two hours and Tralee/Limerick/Galway/Westport/Waterford one per three/four.

While Ireland might not be multicultural the way UK and US cities are, the reality is that there is a growing population who pay their taxes like everyone else and who are totally discommoded not just for one day but in the case of the rail system for two full days in a row. Meanwhile Aircoach ran a near-normal schedule last year.

So all the Health, Garadi, Fire staff should be given the days off, what about the thousands of use who will be working on 26 at airport.

Trains are pretty useless to Health, Gardai and Fire staff anyway given their shift patterns. The same goes for airport staff I should think.

I think that offering some form of commuter service as far as Maynooth / Drogheda / Kildare and Greystones would be reasonable on the 26th. I know nothing about Cork commuter services so couldn't comment. InterCity isn't really necessary given that there are buses running on the same routes. But I guess shutting the system down entirely offers consider savings.

However, Irish Rail might be doing themselves long-term harm by making airport passengers try out bus services that go directly to the airport and probably offer more convenience and quicker times due to not having to trek from Heuston to the airport with baggage.

if IE operated in a co-ordinated system, I would agree. but it works in a competitive one.

In years gone by there was one train in each direction on some lines (certainly Dublin-Cork) on St Stephen's day

In theory, opening the line for a couple of runs should be less of an issue nowadays. As recently as two years ago, opening the Sligo line required dragging dozens of level crossing operators out of bed and a few years before that they were a dozen or so signalmen. But the staffing levels are dramatically lower now.

Still need to staff 2 level crossings in Dublin

The only route which can operate really is Howth Bray, 4 control staff and a few drivers is all you need

Greystones/Malahide adds more staff

Are there only 2 manual level crossings on the maynooth line now?

i can, barely, remember the dublin buses running on christmas day. was there a train service on christmas day ever?

DART managed St Stephen's day until the early 1990's

DART (as in electric services) never ran on St Stephen's day.

CIE generally ran trains on St Stephen's day at least up to 1970.

By 1964 the only line south of the border to operate on Christmas day was the Belfast line with one service in each direction serving Dundalk, Drogheda, Balbriggan and Donabate !

All lines in Northern Ireland, other than cross-border, were operating on both Christmas day & St Stephen's day until at least 1967.

For good measure, it looks like the 05:05 and 6:15 Cork-Dublin services are gone on the 27th, so I'll be on the GoBé service to Dublin...

Demand out of Cork last year was barely double digits so cut based on proven lack of demand

It's nothing to do with demand or providing extra services, it's adhering to tradition. A tradition that is sacrosanct, in all circumstances.

Absolutely everything stops in Ireland on 25 December. Not even an airport is open. From searching transport services in other countries for the day, I could not find any country where there is no public transport available of any kind. Heathrow/Paris is open on the day and flights are in operation.

And you still won't get the extra service from IR that taking the siesta on the 26th might indicate.