Letters

Dublin to Wexford rail services

Some joined-up thinking is required

Fri Apr 05 2024 - 00:05

Sir, – Further to “NTA considering proposals to end direct rail services between Wexford and Dublin” (News, April 2nd), it was interesting to read that the Wexford-Dublin train has more than doubled its number of passengers in the last 10 years and is now facing closure between Greystones and Dublin, with passengers having to alight and get a Dart train instead.

I presume that if the train service had been even more successful in recent years, the plan would be to close it altogether? – Yours, etc,

FINBAR KEARNS,

Piercestown,

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Co Wexford.

Sir, – The proposal for Rosslare trains being operated as a shuttle, where passengers have to change trains at Greystones, represents a worse service as the change will add at least seven minutes to the journey time and be disruptive. The line already has the worst service in the Greater Dublin Area.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan is cancelling the N11 upgrade and urging greater use of public transport along the same route!

Six years ago I produced a plan for a tripling of rush-hour rail capacity, at limited cost, on this line but this has been ignored by Irish Rail. A shuttle train was used previously from Bray to Greystones and it failed to attract users. A proper plan to improve the service is needed, including some double-tracking. – Yours, etc,

Cllr DEREK MITCHELL,

Fine Gael,

Greystones,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Your report that the National Transport Authority envisages train services from Rosslare and Gorey terminating at either Wicklow or Greystones, with passengers changing to the Dart service for onward travel, is astounding.

The Irish Rail spokesman gives the rationale: " . . . delivering additional frequency on the Rosslare to Dublin line has always been challenging in the context of a high-frequency Dart service . . . and this challenge will increase with improvements in Greystones Dart frequency”.

The solution on offer: when demand increases, make the service worse, so that fewer people will wish to use it.

The problem is slotting the Rosslare trains between the more frequently stopping and slower Darts. Indeed, the speed at which the Rosslare trains presently trundle from Connolly Station to Bray shows the impossibility, with the present track layouts, of any overtaking.

Just build a couple of passing loops, to permit the Rosslare trains to run both more quickly and more frequently, overtaking the Darts which would stop for a couple of minutes once every hour. There is plenty of Irish Rail-owned space for a third track before and after Grand Canal Dock station. The city side of Dún Laoghaire station has space for a third track. Slightly more ambitiously, the Luas green line, now terminating at Bride’s Glen, should be extended by 3km to the rail station being built at Woodbrook, with a connection to the Dart and the Rosslare trains stopping there too. The existing third track at Bray could then be used as a passing loop for Rosslare trains, while linking the Luas and Dart would permit people travelling to and from the southeast to access Sandyford Business Park, Dundrum and the south inner city.

Of course, the increased passenger numbers might again prove “challenging”. – Yours, etc,

E Ó COFAIGH,

Dublin 4.

A chara, – Might I suggest some joined-up thinking on scheduling the proposed train and Dart switch somewhere in Co Wicklow? Have the connecting service waiting to pick up passengers from one to the other leaving within five minutes of arrival, including announcements of any delays on both beforehand. Unlike what currently often happens at bus terminuses at Luas and other transport destinations, where connecting buses gleefully sail away in view of arriving passengers. – Yours, etc,

FRANK McMULLAN,

Dublin 8.