Iarnród Éireann funding crisis puts lines at risk, report warns
 

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/t...arns-1.2840355

I presume the brief was to create a scary report where even things like Dublin-Galway and Dublin-Kerry were threatened to create a bit of a fuss.

I have the impression that Irish Rail would gladly be rid off Limerick Junction to Waterford, Ennis to Athenry, Limerick to Ballybrophy and at least Wexford to Rosslare anyway.

We had a report like it a few years ago......I would expect it will be business as usual.

IE are in a catch 22 situation with Limerick-Wateford and BB-Limerick, Wexford down south won't close, whats a couple of miles of track going to cost them considering the major costs are much further up in terms of coastal problems.

Do the NTA cover the full costs of WRC, BB/Waterford-Limerick?

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Commentary: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/t...rack-1.2843329Yes, Irish Rail aren't doing them for the fun.

Closing a line doesn't make financial sense

Line A takes in revenue X and makes loss Y
NTA pays PSO at value Y (give or take %)

IE closes line A
IE loses revenue X and PSO Y
IE has to pay out redundancy
IE head office costs remain the same but now spread over fewer lines

Prior to the arrival of EC1370 and the NTA IE would be up Y - X - redundancy in year 1 and Y - X in year 2 (Assuming that the subsidy is greater than revenue)

Blessington?

How many people live there?

That hardly seems like a good investment.

There are 6 or 7 large towns round the Dublin and Cork areas that should definitely be ahead of it.

IE are due to get over 50 million in 2017, according to papers yesterday as well. It's clear they will get the loins share of the 650 by 2021. Question is why did Ross leak the report, test waters for possible closures.

I guess the NTA have more to gain by getting rid of lines but who is typically behind touting such closures IE or NTA?

That report is so obviously kite-flying but I'd say it is seriously likely that North Tipp and Limerick Junction to Waterford's days are numbered. Things simply can't go on as they are and it will be a matter of either automating the lines or closing them. Ennis to Athenry is a different case given that the operating costs aren't quite as crazy.

There is a fundamental issue though where Irish Rail are charging 35 euro for an open return for a 70 mile return journey from my station on trains that are for the most part packed and extremely lightly staffed. Yet every train requires a subsidy. Demand is obviously very high yet nobody can afford the fares. The real nub of the issue is that until some way is found to pay for the large numbers of people travelling for free (legally or otherwise), the railway system will remain in crisis.

Tell me more - people travelling for free (legally):eek:

GW: yes, we're the >65s! Don't worry, some day you will benefit too. :D

Note that I didn't suggest the over 65's don't travel for free although I seriously doubt that this facility will be extended to me when I reach that age. The issue is that Irish Rail isn't receiving a fair price for this facility which would cost me something like 6,000 euro a year to pay for myself. This needs to be addressed by either increasing the free travel contribution from state funds or by asking users to contribute a portion of their fare.

As a taxpayer, I personally don't mind a bit more of my tax going into the free travel as it a good use of state funds - the health benefits (and resulting HSE savings) of keeping older people active are pretty obvious. As somebody who pays a lot of money to travel by train, I do however resent part of my fare being used to subsidise other peoples' travel.

Fares - particularly open returns have reached a point where they are getting pretty unaffordable yet the trains are generally pretty busy and still Irish Rail can't make money. Something doesn't add up. Either too few people are buying tickets or Irish Rail are spectacularly inefficient.

JAmes Howard: you are right. In many respects the Free Travel scheme is administered in a completely shambolic way as far as the CIE companies are concerned. Basically it is now a lump-sum payment, so the marginal revenue to Irish Rail from more passengers is zero. The transport companies should be paid for each over-65 they carry: not a lot , just to cover at least the marginal costs of off-peak passengers. Over-65s should have only limited access to peak services.

Needless to say there there is total political cowardice when it comes to these issues. MAybe I can't blame the politicians too much when I can guess how the whingeing media would react.

Yes, it won't be too far off now, my point is that they are not actually travelling for free (we) have made our contribution over all the years of working.

Scrap, car parking changes at stations and people will use the train more. Travelling by bus is just as quick and no car parking changes.

That's fair enough, but the problem is that over 65s have made their contribution to the Government, but the Government haven't handed over a fair share to transportation services.

Anything that is free at the point of use is at risk of being misused / abused.

That may very well be the case - however it discourages people from travelling by train (where I live in Celbridge) nobody is going to drive to the station (1.5 miles from town) and pay for parking on top of the train fare - it's far easier to hop on a bus. There are no parking charges in Clondalkin / Fonthill station and the parking there is not abused.

That's because it's miles from anywhere useful.

I agree parking charges are a problem but regular users get reasonable deals and I think continued promoting of this is required.

Now that would be an idea - free parking where stations 'are miles from anywhere' should be free - ie Hazelhatch/ Celbridge

While regular users used to get very reasonable deals on annual passes, this has gone up by 50% over the last 4 years. Since it's now down to about a 40% discount on 12 monthlies, that will be eroded entirely over the next 3 to 4 years at this rate.

I do think that on principle, you should be charged a bit extra to park a car at the station but for some stations enforcement costs must come pretty close to the revenue. By the time you've factored in the revenue lost this has to almost entirely absorb the income stream from parking.

My understanding is that Irish Rail get about a million euro a year from parking. This is the revenue gained from about 250 to 300 long-distance passes or about 40,000 day returns. I tend to encourage friends and neighbours to use the train when travelling to Dublin as it is so much easier than driving but the most common reason people give for driving aside from the train not going where they need to go is the parking charges.

4.50 on top of 25 euro for a journey than can be done on 20 euro of diesel tips the balance for a lot of people and makes it senseless to use the train if two people are travelling.