Connolly Side Services - Draft Timetable

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Irish Ferries don't do sail/rail through Rosslare

If there was meaningful services, might they?

[Traincustomer]

Originally Posted by Colm Moore

If there was meaningful services, might they?

Leaving aside the current lack of integration at Rosslare I think the key reason for no SailRail on this route is that Pembroke Dock station is some distance from the Irish Ferries terminal (approximately a mile). There used to be SailRail on this route some years ago. Furthermore the Pembroke to Rosslare sea passage is half an hour longer than Fishguard-Rosslare. Following on directly from this is the fact that trains to/from Rosslare have a greater need to connect with the Stena Line sailings to/from Fishguard due to the Fishguard route offering an integrated and ease of transfer facility (ferry & rail station same building - ship literally overshadows the terminal-station).

Fishguard has trains connecting both to and from the daytime & overnight conventional ferry (Stena Line) to/from Rosslare seven days a week.
Additional trains are to be introduced to Fishguard this September. Whilst primarily catering for the population of North Pembrokeshire one train each way will offer a connection into the seasonal Stena Express to/from Rosslare.

Holyhead which has a far superior level of train service daytime doesn't even offer an overnight train to London (one would have to wait around from after midnight till 0425).

The Pembroke-Rosslare ferry (Irish Ferries) now facilitates two coach routes between Britain and Éire - the longstanding Eurolines Route 890: Cork-Waterford-Wexford-Cardiff-London and the very recently launched Megabus Rosslare-Carmarthen-Swansea-Cardiff-Newport-Bristol-London route.

However there is a proposal (in the public domain) to move the ferry operations to Milford Haven (also rail connected) which would offer a shorter sea passage and presumably a better rail connection.

[jscales1]

I was hoping for better integration of the Dublin-Maynooth train and the Dublin to Sligo train. I feel that the 18:37 ex connolly should be timed better to suit the 19:05 train to Sligo i.e 5 minute wait for the train going west of Maynooth. This then could be repeated for all the services west of Maynooth. There is always seats on the 19:05 train when the first stop of Maynooth is cleared. With the current economic climate you'd feel it would be time to open the pheonix park tunnell to commuter traffic and have services running from Kildare to Maynooth integrating with the M3 services. The reason I bring this up is that with the trains that are now going to be out of service they could be put to use on Kildare-Maynooth to see is it a viable service

[ACustomer]

jscaLes1: your post mentions integrating "Kildare to Maynooth" trains with other rail services, by using the Phoenix Park Tunnel. Even by using the tunnel, it is not possible to run from Kildare to Maynooth (except via a reversal in Connolly). If there is a demand for public transport between Kildare/Newbridge and Maynooth, I would guess that a bus service would be hte natural choice.

[Traincustomer]

Just wondering what the implementation timeframe for the new timetable is likely to be. If the process mirrors that of the "Heuston side" services I'd say early-October.

[Mark Gleeson]

Start September is probably most likely, that was a traditional change time in days past.

4 weeks consultation, 4 weeks revision and 4 weeks notice, June/July/August

[Traincustomer]

Seems reasonable.