Galway-Limerick slow speeds

[dowlingm]

Bit hypocritical to be firing at Galway-Limerick. Don't remember ever reading about one of those trains turning back because it ran out of customers, as the Nenagh branch (or "LGV Kelly") has done at Birdhill from time to time as I understand.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Bit hypocritical to be firing at Galway-Limerick. Don't remember ever reading about one of those trains turning back because it ran out of customers, as the Nenagh branch (or "LGV Kelly") has done at Birdhill from time to time as I understand.

That's right but this route has the business at the start and the end, just nobody want's to use the middle of the route.

[Inniskeen]

Took a bit of a ramble from Galway to Dublin via Limerick and Nenagh a few days ago.

The numbers using varying services were interesting

1345 Galway/Limerick - 40 passengers leaving Athenry, 14 off, 18 on at Ennis.
1420 Limerick/Galway - 30 passengers off at Ennis, 25 departing Ennis

1540 Limerick Junction/Limerick (1400 ex Dublin, 1420 ex Cork) - 34 passengers arriving at Limerick.

1622 Limerick Junction/Limerick (1520 ex Cork) - 3 passengers.

1655 Limerick/Ballybrophy - 16 passengers leaving Limerick, 8 off at Castleconnell, 3 on, 2 off at Nenagh, 1 on, 2 off at Cloughjordan and 1 off at Roscrea.

1720 Cork/Dublin - 100 passengers leaving Ballybrophy.

1945 Heuston/Portlaoise - 55/65 passengers

2030 DART ex Howth, approx 500 seats, about 40 passengers inbound at Clontarf Road.

[Thomas J Stamp]

More interesting than you'd think.

you were very lucky with that ballybrophy service considering there was no service 8,9,10,11, and 15th July.

any idea how many of the passengers you observed were full ticket price paying?

is 25 or 16 passengers an acceptable figure?

Is a figure of 3 on a shuttle service acceptable?

the 100 passengers at ballybrophy would be paying a lot of money as they would ahve got on before then and would be going to dublin. Of course there would be a certain amount of Free passes on that too, maybe students.

is 40 an acceptable number on a frequent mid-evening post peak city service, as opposed to a mid afternoon intercity service?

what can be done to increase those numbers. None of them really are any good. Perhaps all of those services should be cut.

[Thomas J Stamp]

we should also read this thread in conjunction with these posts

http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=14815

[Jamie2k9]

The Limerick J to Limerick shuttle when I have travelled on it, they have very light loads. I have being on the last 4 evening departures towards Dublin over the last year any and it's very common for below 15 on the services. At most 25 on afternoon services via the Junction from Dublin.

From being on the 17.20 from Cork a lot of the traffic is make up of a Rail tour group and OAP's with some commuter traffic to Mallow.

What we do know is that IE will need more savings from services next timetable so something will have to change.

Cork, Limerick and Galway will surly have to give some savings, It would be a bold and very unjustifiable move to cut Waterford again and IMO they can't as numbers on most services are quiet good and the fleet reconfiguration will save costs.

The numbers on some Galway services are appalling at times.

[comcor]

I'm not sure that the point hasn't been reached where cutting a service will cut revenue enough that it's self-defeating.

From that point of view, they'll either need to look at increasing revenues or cutting costs in other areas.

For revenue, there really are a few areas that you would think of as easy wins - selling newspapers on InterCity trains, selling hotel rooms on the website (all this needs is a link and an affiliate code) or extending that to rail/hotel packages. Yield management is more challenging, especially with the number of free passes around.

Costs? Well, do they have any form of continuous improvement system? That tends to be an all round good idea. Staff think they get listened to and are more accepting of change. The company gets to see reduced cost.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

The Limerick J to Limerick shuttle when I have travelled on it, they have very light loads. I have being on the last 4 evening departures towards Dublin over the last year any and it's very common for below 15 on the services. At most 25 on afternoon services via the Junction from Dublin.

From being on the 17.20 from Cork a lot of the traffic is make up of a Rail tour group and OAP's with some commuter traffic to Mallow.

In the evening peak, most Limerick-bound passengers would be using the direct trains from Dublin.

[Goods]

The LIM - Galway line was a really forward decision and it years to come will be a great advantage in the west of Ireland. Numbers are increasing on the line and of course if it was also used for freight at night it would really add value joining Rosslare to Galway. Business men in these cities should insist on freight on this line giving fast access to Rosslare container terminal or even Cork thats why the lines were installed originally. In addition line to Foynes should be reopened for the same freight reasons.