Later evening service to Portlaoise

[Mark Gleeson]

Seems like the empty trains piece in the Sunday Tribune has got a result, though Irish Rail denied it was possible at the time http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=4844

New Late Evening Service for Portlaoise, Portarlington and Monasterevin from Monday 3rd November. by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that a new late evening service to Portlaoise will be introduced from Monday, 3rd November.

The new service, departing Heuston at 22.15hrs, will be a huge boost for Commuters to Monasterevin, Portarlington and Portlaoise in particular, as the last train for Portlaoise currently departs at 21.00hrs.

The new service will also serve Newbridge and Kildare, giving an added late evening option for commuters from these towns. The schedule will operate, from Monday to Friday as follows:

Heuston 22.15hrs

Newbridge 22.45hrs

Kildare 22.50hrs

Monasterevin 22.57hrs

Portarlington 23.04hrs

Portlaoise 23.14hrs

With this late departure, commuters along the route can work, study or socialise late in the city, and have a convenient option available to commute home. This service will increase the attractiveness of commuting by rail, and look forward to strong support for this extra late evening train from the commuters it will serve.

[ThomasJ]

Good news for portlaoise but Mullingar should be next on the list, a 21:00hrs ex pearse is a runner!

[Mark Gleeson]

Certainly a step forward, though it must be remembered that 4 weeks or so ago when pushed Irish Rail tried to cover up the empty train. Its a pity they had a chance to say yes its coming day x

They circulated a pdf file around yesterday

The big question is will a clear pa be made on the morning trains from Portlaoise on Monday?

[plant43]

Great news!

[Derek Wheeler]

Apparently it has nothing to do with the Tribune piece.

[dowlingm]

Well it's not news that the Traincare Depot would lead to more trains being stored in Portlaoise and therefore being convenient to run and terminate there, the issue is whether the timing was altered as a result of the publicity. Certainly the snotty individual deployed against Mark G on the Last Word gave no indication that a service would start as soon as it is doing.

The question for me is whether a similar or smaller depot should be planned for Mullingar, in conjunction with double tracking, to facilitate increased service and later service to that area. Once EMUs start running in town there might be a shortage of storage for DMUs anyway. It might also be a good excuse to reinstate the junction towards Moate/Athlone with a view to keeping that corridor option open if there was more convenient land on that line than on the Sligo side.