View Single Post
Unread 04-01-2012, 03:05   #19
Colm Moore
Local Liaison Officer
 
Colm Moore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 5,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lyle Langley View Post
I have often wondered would it make sense to reopen the Clonmel-Thurles line.
Not really. A new railway or a re-opening of a long closed railway tends to cost a multiple of upgrading an existing railway.

If you wanted to build an 80-100mph railway from Clonmel to Thurles (26 miles), for the same price you could upgrade the vast majority of Waterford to Limerick (77 miles) for the same price, delivering a full intercity service to Clonmel, connecting at Limerick Junction and Waterford.

Building Clonmel-Thurles would cut 40 minutes off the Clonmel train journey, it would do nothing to improve Clonmel-Waterford or Clonmel-Limerick. The only places big enough to be served would be Clonmel and maybe Fethard. The matter of timetable slots for the trains would be important and there would be no guarantee of direct services - look at Tralee (one direct return train a day to Dublin) or Ballina (no direct services), although Ennis is slightly better in that there is a choice of routes, but sometimes two connections to be made. Then Cashel would want its line re-opened. You can't easily do a Clonmel-Cashel-Thurles line as the ground levels change too much.

Rebuilding Waterford-Limerick to 80-100mph railway would cut the full journey time from 2h-2h15 (sometimes 4h30 in practice, depending on connections) to 1h-1h15 and deliver a time saving on Clonmel-Limerick Junction of 0h20 and a similar saving on Clonmel-Waterford. It would deliver a modest time saving for Limerick-Limerick Junction.

However, if you have a spare €100-200m or more lying around, let them know.
__________________

Last edited by Colm Moore : 04-01-2012 at 13:18. Reason: Tidy up
Colm Moore is offline