They can't even organise the trains such that they can match hospital shift hours going into Dublin so that nurses further out than Maynooth can use the train to commute to the big Dublin hospitals so it might be a while before they manage to organise trains that match the shifts in Sligo.
What any business should be doing if faced with a lack of trade is to find out the reasons they are giving people not to use the service. To do this, they should be visiting large employers near stations (if sufficiently large - near the line with a view to adding a station) and finding out what they can do to increase commuting business. Things like shuttle buses, special deals on parking - even just visiting a company and doing a presentation with a few free tickets is how you build business.
The odd thing about this is that I perceive a distinct jump in the level of business on the trains I use on the Sligo line over the last few months. The 1805 to Longford is consistently jammed now with people standing all the way down the aisles and a need to arrive before 1750 to be guaranteed a seat. The same goes for the 0545 from Sligo. A year ago, I could be fairly sure of having a bay of four seats to myself as far as Enfield if not Kilcock but lately I rarely have the bay to myself after Mullingar. On Monday this week I had to share a bay of seats when I got on in Edgeworthstown.
As far as the 1805 is concerned, I know that the 1817 only has a handful of passengers going beyond Maynooth but if these get displaced onto the 1805, it is going to be well beyond capacity.
I don't know where this coming from and if it is just my own perception but it would seem to be to be a good idea to leave the resources on the Sligo line while it is doing well with the hope of growing overall business. They also desperately need to get online booking in place so that they do something about pushing some of the demand onto the less used services.
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