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Unread 24-03-2016, 22:24   #11
Inniskeen
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson View Post
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As you no doubt know a direct Limerick Nenagh Dublin service was provided in recent years providing a 0825 arrival at Dublin Heuston.

It has been alleged a (former) government minister bypassed the established procedure and left Irish Rail with no choice but to add the service. The very first document on file concerning this change was an email sent by RUI querying rumors of a timetable change, there then followed a pile of communication, which captures the make it up as it went on routine.

The service was subsequently altered to a 0833 arrival without the approval of the National Transport Authority in breech of contract requirements. It was withdrawn fairly quickly due the significant costs in running the service with minimal passenger take up as well as significant negative impacts on other services

Unless 30-40 million in capital funding can be found the line is not viable and any plan should focus on Limerick and not Dublin. Far more people in Nenagh going to Limerick than Dublin.

No intercity trains will use the Phoenix Park Tunnel route, it will be for Dublin area commuters only.
While there was an early morning through service from Limerick via Nenagh, the journey time was pathetic and reliability poor. The line suffers from a combination of bad order track, low speed limits, minimal service frequency and hopelessly uncompetitive journey times.

I am not convinced that salvation lies in services oriented towards Limerick bound commuters unless there was to be a substantial increase in frequency and a significant reduction in journey times. Traffic towards Dublin is less driven by frequency than by scheduling both in terms of journey times and suitability for commuters, students and shoppers. The most significant thing that could be done in the short term would be to re-orient the junction at Ballybrophy to face Dublin rather than Cork - this alone would save of the order of twenty minutes and if combined with fast running on the mainline would provide moderately competitive journey times from Dublin to and from Nenagh and Roscrea.
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