[dowlingm]

If closure was off the table then here's my suggestion in lieu of the status quo: if a 2800 was based/crewed in Nenagh and departed 0545 it could arrive ~6 mins before the 0653 departure to Heuston ex Cork. If it departed back toward Limerick at 0656 then it would arrive in Limerick 0850 approx.

Now that's not great, granted, but if the 30mph running Nenagh-Ballybrophy was sorted then you could be looking at something nearer an 0600 departure and arrival back in Limerick nearer the current 0840. Roscrea-Limerick commuter is something BE and JJK don't offer - according to the (admittedly sometimes inaccurate) getthere.ie there is no Roscrea-Limerick service which departs Roscrea between 0240 and 0840 whereas in the Nenagh-Limerick market IE competes with both and doing so both Dublin and Limerick commuter duties in a single set/crew.

It also removes the embarrassment of an 0505 ex Limerick train making it to Dublin barely before one which departs 1h15min later. The stabled 2800 could position Limerick-Nenagh in service in the evening which might be more useful to people in Castleconnell who might opt for a taxi to catch a mainline morning service.

This would raise two issues:
1. Can a train be stabled overnight without making Nenagh a full block post?
2. What happens to the 0625 Limerick-Nenagh-Ballybrophy - how patronised is that both at the endpoint and to/from intermediate stops, and could it be moved a bit without affecting its popularity?

I'd also recast the evening schedule to reinstate a decent commuter service (perhaps connecting to an extended Portlaoise service rather than a Dublin-Cork to work around passing loop issues) although that might need further works like making 2nd platforms accessible, making Nenagh a block post etc.

I've been wondering about IE's motivation for basing a 22000 in Limerick for the direct service - are they running into capacity issues for dispatching trains from LTC and it's single point of failu... err... exit?