Quote:
Originally Posted by James Howard
How many Mark IVs are still in storage? Putting these back in service would release a few more 22k units which would in turn release commuter units?
Irish Rail really need to get out of this habit of storing perfectly good train units until they rot. Of course they can't because of financial pressure from the government but it is a criminal waste of public money to end up having to replace rolling stock barely half-way through its lifespan.
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The two remaining sets are being put back into service to allow the PPT service commence this Autumn.
What exactly do you expect IE to do? They frankly had no option as they did not have the funds to maintain all of the rolling stock in service. The government subvention was significantly cut back - that is fundamentally what has caused this issue along with the shorter DARTs and the ICR reconfiguration.
People immediately blame IE yet don't seem to recognise that this is as a result of the cuts in public spending that happened as a result of the recession.
The capital cost of the PPT project, and the increased PSO funding includes the cost of restoring the remaining Mark 4 sets to service.
There are insufficient 29k sets available to operate all of the Connolly commuter services - hence the need for ICRs to operate some of them. Those ICRs usually then operate some Intercity services before/after the commuter services.
What is needed is to get the 2700s back in service. For the 2700s to return to service (and cascade the 2800s back to Dublin) more government funding will be needed in the form of increased PSO monies. That has yet to start happening.