Limerick Ennis Suspended until further notice

[Colm Moore]

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/news_ce...ew&news_id=330

Ennis to Limerick line closed due to flooding by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann has advised that the Ennis to Limerick rail line is closed currently due to flooding on the line between Sixmilebridge and Ennis near Ballycar.

Iarnród Éireann apologies to customers for the inconvenience caused, and advise that train services between Ennis and Limerick will be replaced by bus transfers while the line in flooded.

The rail line will be monitored on an ongoing basis and Iarnród Eireann are hopeful of an early resumption of train services.

[Mark Hennessy]

From RTE:

Ennis rail services postponed until Sunday
Thursday, 7 February 2008 13:24

Iarnród Éireann has said there will be no rail services between Ennis and Limerick at least until Sunday,
because of flooding on the railway line.

Heavy rain has meant that a section of the line at Ballycar, between Ennis and Sixmilebridge is submerged under at least 12cm
of water, and there has been no improvement since yesterday.

The company says they are monitoring the situation on a daily basis, but given the flooding levels at present
they do not see the line opening so that services can resume before Sunday.
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Around 600 commuters living and working in both Ennis and Limerick use the nine daily services on the line.

[Colm Moore]

RTÉ - "Ennis rail services postponed until Sunday" - cue about 50 trains all arriving in Ennis tomorrow. Looks like nothing will happen tomorrow.

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/news_ce...ew&news_id=330

Ennis to Limerick line closed due to flooding by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann has advised that the Ennis to Limerick rail line is closed currently due to flooding on the line between Sixmilebridge and Ennis near Ballycar.

Iarnród Éireann apologies to customers for the inconvenience caused, and advise that train services between Ennis and Limerick will be replaced by bus transfers while the line in flooded.

The rail line will be monitored on an ongoing basis and updates will be displayed on this website.

[Tadhg17]

I live not far from where the line is flooded at Ballycar and went down to see the flooding on Saturday. As far as you can see is just all water. There is way more flooding compared to what was shown on tv. By the looks of it, it could be a few weeks before the flooding has gone. Flooding on this part of the line has not happened in probably 10-12 years. It was stated that the line would be raised when they redid the line four years ago but to me it doesn't look like it was raised at all.

It was'nt nice travelling on the train through December and January on that section of the Ennis-Limerick line. The water was up near the tracks and even in the darkness in the evenings you could see light from the train bouncing off the water below

[Tadhg17]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0212/rail.html


Two weeks before Ennis rail resumes
watch Tuesday, 12 February 2008 20:21

Iarnród Éireann has said it may be two more weeks before rail services between Ennis and Limerick resume.

Flooding on the track which forced its closure last Tuesday has worsened, with over a foot of water now covering the track in places.

Jim Gallivan, business development manager with Iarnród Éireann in Limerick, said raising the track will be considered after engineers carry out an examination.
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That examination will take place when the floodwater subsides.

The some 600 rail passengers who normally use the route daily are now forced to continue to travel on buses

[ACustomer]

There is more to this than meets the eye. While it was very wet in January, it has been a lot drier recently and floodwaters should be receeding, not getting worse.

This is worse than any flooding since the line re-opened for passenger services. The problem was well-known, even back to the early 60s when they used steam locos to get trains through floods. In that case why was the line not raised a foot when the relay was done a few years ago?

Is there a problem because of negligence in mainitaining the drainage? By the Co Council, by a local landowner, or by IE itself?

Has some injudicious planning decision by the Council lead to development which has messed up the drainage or increased the runoff and put existing drainage under extra pressure?

Quetions, questions: will we get any answers?

[Colm Moore]

Pardon me, but flooding comes and goes.

I saw some graphs of flood patterns in the Tolka valley (affects Clonsilla-Dunboyne) and the flooding return periods worked almost like clockwork, random clockwork, but if a place flooded 5 times in the last 20 years if will flood 5 times in the next 20 years also. Of course, more serious flooding is estimated at 50 and 100 year periods.

I don't know about the particular location, but some some of the problems include surface run-off from road and urban areas and encroachment on and obstruction of traditional flood plains. The most infamous example of this is the Mississippi where the river is now 100 miles shorter than it used to be and levees box in the floods. All that water has to go somewhere. And when it goes over the levee, its heartbreak or worse.

[Colm Donoghue]

closed due to flooding by Corporate Communications

I think the real issue here is why the corporate communications wing of Irish Rail flooded the track.....

[Colm Moore]

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/rail/story.asp?ID=3888

19/2/2008 Ennis to Limerick Line to Reopen End of Feb

The Ennis to Limerick rail line is likely to remain closed until the end of February.

Currently, the line is closed due to flooding between Sixmilebridge and Ennis near Ballycar.

Bus transfers are operating instead.

[Rashers]

It's gas that the AA has more information then the IE website!

[Thomas J Stamp]

end of feb is only next Friday

[ACustomer]

Latest on the IE Website (Wed 21 Feb): "Following inspections of the area with the Office of Public Works, it is expected that the rail line will regrettably remain closed for a number of weeks".

No explanantion of why. What is going on? Sounds as if someone has messed up the drainage system bigtime.

Is there any remedial work under way? Or are they just going to wait forever for the waters to recede?

[Colm Moore]

If the OPW are involved its about the flooding and they are likely to engage in a major exercise. Now, I wonder if they'll use the time for maintainence / improvement work while the line is closed.

[dowlingm]

Now, I wonder if they'll use the time for maintainence / improvement work while the line is closed.

No call for that kind of sarcasm.

[Thomas J Stamp]

wonder how the ballast is doing?

[Derek Wheeler]

And to think that this line will soon be an inter city route 'tween Galway and Limerick. "Closed for weeks" wouldn't be very appealing then would it?

A cheap line from a cheap age, with expensive expectations.

[sean]

But remember its going to have 2700s running the "Intercity" service. So it's a cheap line from a cheap age, with cheap junker trains. All that's missing is the cheap political BS and hype ... oh wait.

[comcor]

So it turns out to have been a problem since 1864...

Is this Ireland’s oldest infrastructural problem?

By Conor Ryan
“YOU may talk of Columbus’s sailing across the Atlantical sea.


“But he never tried to go railing from Ennis as far as Kilkee.”

So sang Percy French when scorning delays on the old west Clare railway.

Now, a century later, a mini Atlantical sea has put a month-long stop on the line from Ennis to Limerick.

Iarnród Éireann expects its 600 daily customers will have to rely on buses for at least another three weeks.




But back in 1864, when French was 10 years old, the same flooding problem closed the line and was due to be resolved by channelling the problem basin near Newmarket on Fergus.

A drainage scheme was mapped and a public-private funding package arranged.

Unsurprisingly, the plan was derailed, and now, 144 years later, the rains came again and a new generation of engineers are trying to reach a similar solution.

“It is a limestone area which is landlocked so there is nowhere for the water to go. When it rains a lot it fills up. It seems the underground channels get blocked and the water levels rise,” said Canon Reuben Butler of Newmarket on Fergus.

Last week he told the local archaeological society about the first public meeting to discuss the cyclical floods — in Ennis Courthouse on Thursday June 16, 1864 (10 years after the line opened). On that day Lord Dunboyne, of Quin Castle, outlined a £100 proposal to keep the train tracks flood-free.

“To drain the lands at Lisduff, I propose a drain of six feet deep and two feet wide. The water sinks underground in the townland of Ballycar and rises in Newmarket and for this, the most expensive portion of the district, I propose to cut a tunnel 8x6 feet high.

“The remainder of the works are of the ordinary character and merely consist of deepening the drains... and will not be an expensive operation,” he said.

At Ballycar Station he suggested the railway company deepen its drainage channel. He said this would be worth it “owing to the benefit the Limerick-Ennis railway will derive from being free from water”.

Immediately, powerful local landowners pledged £70, and £50 was to come from the Board of Works. Lord Dunboyne promised the value of the land would increase — but two men dissented.

Hugh Hickman, the owner of Fenloe Lake, said it “would be rather injurious” to the scenery and would drain the lake. Michael Riedy said it would weaken the flow to his mill.

Despite these complaints the plan won majority support but was never acted upon. Lord Dunboyne lacked the Board of Works approval. A century and a half later, the board’s modern day equivalent the Office of Public Works examined the flood basin.

Last week Irish Rail said it hoped the OPW can find a long-term solution as it is reopening the old Galway to Limerick line shortly.

OPW spokesman George Moir said engineers were working on the problem: “Our engineer said it is caused by a swallow hole and after heavy rain this year the water is not running off as normal. He will be back with recommendations.”

Lord Dunboyne may have saved the OPW the hassle. His assessment is contained in reports in the Clare Journal (June 20, 1864) and the Limerick Chronicle (June 21, 1864), kindly made available by the local studies’ sections of the Limerick City and Clare County libraries.

Flooding remedy: Five-and-a-half tonnes of spuds

Question: What would it have cost to fix the flooding problem blighting the Ennis to Limerick line?

Answer: The same price as five and a half tonnes of fine new potatoes on the week the drainage plan was first discussed in 1864.

It would be a mathematical nightmare to convert the price into today’s values, but it can be put in perspective.

Engineer John McMahon told the Ennis Courthouse meeting that £100 would get the drainage project started. At the time, men earned £15-2s-0d a year.

Alongside the Clare Journal’s report on the meeting, a note said a pound of “very fine new potatoes” was got for 2p in Limerick — 0.008% the budget for the work. Today, the same weight of spuds in Thomondgate, Limerick, cost €0.22 and farmers can get a wholesale price of €1,650 for the 5.5 tonne of potatoes, which would have covered the 1864 project.

However, in 1864, the gap between rich and poor was vast. Sociologist Karl Marx studied the bank balances among Ireland’s elite. That year 387 people in Ireland earned more than the £1,006 it would have cost to purchase the 989 acres in Newmarket on Fergus affected by the flooding. According to the plan’s author, Lord Dunboyne, land values would have gone up by 15% for every acre affected. Today, the same area of 18sq/km is under water with no solution in sight and nearby agricultural land is selling for €25,000 per acre.

[Mark Hennessy]

Line will remain suspended for another two weeks.

[dowlingm]

Who would have thought that you could bring down the mighty WRC with a garden hose. Oh yeah, anyone who's driven through there when it's been wet.

Add "flood prone" to the list of "tramway built, twisty, loads of LCs..."