Western rail corridor (WRC) - Capital Plan

[Goods]

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...gain-1.3994455

Overcrowding on trains from the west today reinforce the point that rail will be used if the service is available. The counter argument is often made that we dont have the population for railways in IE. This is not the case, rail is the future but is currently run in a minimalist way and development like doubling track in places rarely happens.
I have used the network on all Ireland days and it was thronged yet IR say that "demand was unanticipated" this cant be the case as they have the data.
It looks as if the system is under strain but this should not happen if planning was in place to meet growing demand.

[James Howard]

It is basically impossible to provide seats for everyone on all-Ireland day at a reasonable cost. It's not like 20 years ago when they could haul out some battered old cravens that were only used once or twice a year.

The regular daily overcrowding is a different issue entirely but the example of all-Ireland day isn't particularly helpful since you can't meet that demand at any kind of reasonable cost.

[Mark Gleeson]

Up until the early 1990's there basically was a skeleton service on Sundays until the late afternoon, no suburban services at all. It was fairly easy to find a few trains spare to run extra services, even though at times this led to cancellations. Now trains are busy 7 days a week and there is limited scope.

There were massive complaints of overcrowding back then, anti social behavior, trains damaged. Irish Rail are not keen on Dublin football away games after getting a train completely trashed in the mid 1990's.

One of the major improvements Irish Rail made was enforcing a reservation only policy on extra trains

Anyone who shows on on all Ireland Sunday without a reservation is either going to stand or will be left behind, no sympathy.

[Jamie2k9]

They did say the 07.50 last Sunday was reduced from 5 to 4 car after a train failure.

The 09.45 has had many issues since introduced, victim of its own success!

Tricky to resolve unless they make extra capacity available on 14.45. They need to run non stop from Athlone.

[ACustomer]

I was surprised to see a discussion of overcrowding on a Westport-Dublin train appearing on the WRC thread.

Leaving that aside, I have just read the 2 Irish Times pieces (Friday Aug 23) on overcrowding. They refer to experiences on one service, the 0945 from Westport. Loads of human-interest stuff but no attempt to find out whether severe overcrowding was rare, occasional, or typical. Also one might think that before a journalist went on with the "why don't they put on more carriages?" thing, that they might inform themselves about the nature of modern trains, which are multiple units and cost millions and you just can't magic up an ould carriage and hook in on.

Of course the real reason for the overcrowding is the chronic inability of Shane Ross, the NTA, The Dept of Transport and no doubt other bodies to make investment decisions and actually implement them.

[Goods]

Yes I think that the lesson is that we should not be continuously surprised by such an event it’s down to absence of analysis and planning using the data that must be available to predict when there is demand.
For decades we have been told by the Dublin set that IE is too small for a train service and that the branch lines are uneconomic yet now we see that demand cannot be met.
If the service is provided it will be used and I agree that from certain stations like Athlone non stop trains are needed.
I’m aware that the argument will be made that traffic near Dublin is too high and capacity restricted which brings me to the option of opening Athlone - Mullingar route to Dublin and providing other north south options like WRC.
There is a need to think outside the box rather than the add on another carriage solution!

[ACustomer]

The key is to identify the constraints to service improvements. Before you can make much use of extra rolling stock, you have to tackle track capacity. For Galway/Mayo services the Athlone-Portarlington section is critical. Doubling even over a limited part of the line would enable significant service improvements. No hint that this is on any official radar screen however.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by Goods

Yes I think that the lesson is that we should not be continuously surprised by such an event it’s down to absence of analysis and planning using the data that must be available to predict when there is demand.
For decades we have been told by the Dublin set that IE is too small for a train service and that the branch lines are uneconomic yet now we see that demand cannot be met.
If the service is provided it will be used and I agree that from certain stations like Athlone non stop trains are needed.
I’m aware that the argument will be made that traffic near Dublin is too high and capacity restricted which brings me to the option of opening Athlone - Mullingar route to Dublin and providing other north south options like WRC.
There is a need to think outside the box rather than the add on another carriage solution!

It justified the case for IE to manage and invest in what they have before wasting money on WRC that will deliver a lower ROI.

Originally Posted by ACustomer

The key is to identify the constraints to service improvements. Before you can make much use of extra rolling stock, you have to tackle track capacity. For Galway/Mayo services the Athlone-Portarlington section is critical. Doubling even over a limited part of the line would enable significant service improvements. No hint that this is on any official radar screen however.

The CEO made reference to double tracking that section not long ago. Its on there radar but not happening anytime soon.