An open letter to Iarnród Éireann from South East Chambers of Commerce
The Irish people (through the Government) entrusted the railway system to you to manage on our behalf.
Implicit in this trust was the expectation that you would organise and manage this highly valuable part of our national infrastructure in an efficient, professional and effective manner to transport passengers and goods all over Ireland.
This obviously means having a rail network reaching out as far as possible all over the land.
You have failed us in many respects. You closed down railway lines with great enthusiasm during the middle of the last century, including the beloved Waterford/Tramore line which was actually showing a profit and the callous closure of which the local people are unforgiving. It was part of our life.
The Rosslare/Waterford line is also part of our life but is of even greater magnitude because of its strategic importance as part of the national rail network connecting all parts to the Europort at Rosslare. Is this to suffer a similar fate? If so, shame on you.
Instead of exploiting the asset entrusted to you, you ran it down and practically ignored it. One train each way on weekdays only is not a proper service and even this paltry service was never promoted.
We have one of your ads dated 12 years ago dealing with the rail services in County Wexford and it refers only to the Rosslare/Dublin line with never a mention of the Waterford route. The ignoring of this line goes back that far and way beyond.
Then in 2002 you decided you wanted to shut down the Waterford/Limerick Junction line and effectively leaving the large town of Clonmel and all South Tipperary without a railway connection.
This was vetoed by government (when Seamus Brennan, RIP was Minister for Transport) and you were rightly sent packing and told to get on with running a rail service to connect the south east with Cork, Limerick, now Galway and many other places.
You seem to be doing this with severe reluctance, again with no promotion and no Sunday or public holiday services whatsoever. The inevitable consequences of this lack of enthusiasm are that this part of the line is also lightly used and you have recently cut back the schedule from four round trips on weekdays to three (25 per cent reduction). Is this another part of your covert plans for further closures?
This whole approach makes absolute nonsense at a time when such great strides are being made to modernise the railroad with vast amounts (of taxpayers money) being invested in reopening lines around Dublin, Cork and in the west – lines that you abandoned years ago.
Indeed, one of the justifications for reopening the Western Rail Corridor was to connect the north west with the south east, with Rosslare Harbour a particular target as it is the closest port to the European mainland and therefore the main access point by sea to Europe.
Trains can only run where there are tracks and there is no sense in opening up tracks in one direction while closing them in another. It is a national system.
We totally reject your proposal to substitute busses. This is not acceptable. Road transport is subject to traffic delays and is therefore less reliable.
Rail is the preferred mode of public transport. Look at the great success of the DART and LUAS and you will see how properly managed rail transport attracts a greater volume of passengers than busses.
The substitute bus service now proposed requires very little investment which could mean very little by way of commitment and the proposed service could also be contracted after a period.
Wear and tear on the roads from a HGV like a bus is immense while the rail lines would be lying idle.
Environmentally, the proposals also fly in the face of Ireland’s commitment to the Kyoto protocol to reduce carbon emissions. Greater use of rail should be the objective if we are to go anyway near achieving our targets as regards reducing carbon emissions. Rail is quite simply more green friendly.
What do we want? Let us explain.
We obviously want an end to this reckless foolishness. Instead, we want you to consult with the public and regional stakeholders (something you have never done in any meaningful way) and design a service with a minimum of three round trips every day.
This service will have to connect with the ferries where we are informed there is a growth in foot passengers and also with inter-city trains, e.g. at Waterford. It will have to cater for the needs of the people of south Wexford who traditionally commute to Waterford.
It should link the hub town of Wexford (population: 20,000) with the gateway city of Waterford. It should also link closely with the Waterford/Limerick Junction portion of the line that serves Clonmel, the rest of South Tipperary and from Limerick Junction many other towns and cities.
The infrastructure needs to be upgraded to allow for quicker trains and shorter journey times, so as to compete successfully with road transport.
Management of the undertaking needs to be given to a qualified talented person based in the south east. Management from an ivory tower in Dublin has not worked.
What is needed is an empowered person who possesses all the entrepreneurial skills necessary to reinvigorate and sustain this business.
Promotion of the line would involve creativity, e.g. the Rosslare Strand station is 100 yards from the wonderful beach and seaside specials could be run to bring passengers from South Tipperary to the sea for the day, while shopping trains, and special event trains are just some other initiatives that proper management would undertake. There is no management of this nature at present.
We are serious about this and we will be shortly placing our case before the National Transport Authority and the Minister. We have consulted with the various local authorities and they also are opposed to your reprehensible proposed action.
Needless to say, we would be very happy to meet you to discuss productive ways of making full usage of this very valuable piece of infrastructure.
The Chamber of Commerce movement represent the business community of the South East and we are adamant that this vital asset is not just saved from closure but is put to optimum use.
What papers was this in, out of interest? - Oisín
Comment by admin — May 27, 2010 @ 9:26 pm
it will be in next weeks New Ross standard and was released to national papers also
Comment by Tanya — May 27, 2010 @ 10:32 pm
Powerful enough commitment on their part isn’t it. We now need the support of more local businesses to uphold that commitment.
Well done by the way Oisín, nice job…
Comment by Cyril Newsome — May 27, 2010 @ 11:06 pm
As much as I’d like to copy and paste from another site owing to copywrite laws, I won’t!
But what are our neighbours over the water in the UK doing? See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8099912.stm
See also:
All the related Links in the sidebars on how the UK Rail Operators and related Passenger Rep. bodies work in harmony to work for the people.
This Government and any future Governments of Ireland need to grasp the Nettle called CIE/IE and bring them into line with the rest of an ever expanding EU.
For years now, successive Governments of this country have plundered the finances offered by the EU to improve the infrastructure of this Country, only to squander it on Road developments which have increased Carbon Emmissions.
From The Sustainable Energy in Transport Authority we have this statement:
“Energy in Transport 2007
•Road freight experienced the largest growth in transport energy use since 1990 increasing by 255%. Private car transport increased by 119% over the same period.
•During 2006 private car ownership per 1,000 population increased by 4.5% resulting in an increased car ownership of 420 cars per 1,000 people. This translates into 1.2 cars per permanently occupied dwelling in 2006, a 54% increase on 1990.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Mr Eamon Ryan T.D. said “These statistics show us that reductions in energy-related carbon emissions are possible; that through concerted action by all sectors we can achieve our Programme for Government targets. Transport remains, however, an increasing area of energy use. Even without the spectre of climate change, we will have to alter how we travel and how we fuel that travel. With oil at record prices and the peak in global oil production on its way, we will have to change our ways. Inaction is not an option.”
David Taylor, Chief Executive, SEI said: “Embracing green sustainable energy is fundamental to Ireland’s economic development. The growth of transport related CO2 emissions is of clear concern and the initiatives taken by Government in last week’s Budget are an important step in addressing overall emissions targets.”
From a sectoral perspective energy related CO2 emissions from industry increased by 0.6 % in 2006, representing a modest increase in a sector which has recorded an overall improvement in energy efficiency of 15% since 1995. Similarly the residential sector also showed improvements with a decrease in energy use of 1.2 % recorded during 2006. Renewable energy use in the residential sector did however show positive growth, rising by 12%, albeit from a small base, resulting from the initial benefits of the Greener Home Scheme.
In addition to growth in energy use of 7.2% in 2006 the “Energy in Transport 2007 Report” shows that energy use in the transport sector grew by 167% between 1990 and 2006, (6.3% per annum on average and rising to 7.2% in 2006). Factors contributing to this growth include a three and a half fold increase in road freight transport energy use, a more than doubling of private car use and more than two and a half times increase in energy use by air transport.
Mr. Taylor added “It should also be noted that Ireland is dependent on the international automotive industry to deliver energy efficiency gains through technology advancements, while at the consumer level well informed, transport use and purchase decisions are vitally important if we are to realise the benefits of these technological advances. Also of note is Ireland’s high dependency on oil which at 56% of total energy use should be of considerable concern and reinforce the requirement for continued investment in renewable energy”.
Most car journeys in Ireland consist of single occupancy when travelling to and from work. A practise, if Rail improvement and usage was adopted would drastically reduce the emmisions and we’d also see a serious reduction in road deaths.
Comment by Cyril Newsome — May 29, 2010 @ 11:21 am
As an afterthought I also found this on Wikipedia:
“Freight trains in the UK are very fuel efficient compared to the road equivalent, therefor the emissions released into the atmosphere is reduced, in fact, the average freight train is 70% more efficient than road transport. The heaviest freight train in the UK, is equivalent to 160 lorry loads.
UK freight trains are going to get heavier and bigger over the next few years to increase efficiency even more and to attract more freight onto rail.”
Comment by Cyril Newsome — May 29, 2010 @ 11:44 am
Well done in highlighting the closure of such an important line. The line was a lifeline to me for several years when returning home as I did not drive(I have lived in England since the 80’s). You are right in that it was not advertised, I know of the line because I grew up near Campile. It is a shame that when the rest of Europe is trying to encourage train travel rather than plane that Ireland takes a step backwards. When people I have met over the years wish to explore Europe, I always beg them to go to Ireland, but am embarresed at the lack of transportation on offer, if this worsens, I am not sure how Ireland will compete in the tourist market.Thanks for your campaign..will keep an eye via facebook. Good Luck.
Comment by Rose Parle — May 30, 2010 @ 9:57 am
i have travelled on this line for the past 50 years since a child . i used to work for BR in overseas travel and could never understood the reluctance of cie to connect with any scheduled sealink/stena sailings let alone any extra services . the crews of the ferry used to look in wonder at the waterford train departing as the ship docked at rosslare . they have never offered any oppurtunity for leisure travel with trains in the day for people shopping in waterford, any decent connections with trains at waterford , no adverising , no publicity or any imagination whatsoever . it is also ineresting to compare connections at fishguard where there is talk of extra trains to camarthen look up the north pembrokeshire rail forum on google . the latest indignity of moving the station from the harbour is the final straw these people don,t deserve to run a railway .what really offends me as someone with strong waterford family connections is the obvious bias against the city compared to the more favoured cities such as galway , cork,etc. how can they spend millions opening up a line in the west and then ignore and close by stealth and incompetence a line in the southeast . best of luck inyour endeavours .
Comment by peter hunt — June 6, 2010 @ 12:20 am
I commend your efforts to save the South Wexford line but I must ask when this campaign started. The service on this line has never been user friendly since the line opened. I suspect that very few communications were made to IE to press them to improve the service until quite recently when the threat of closure was made. I also suspect that the poor and inconvenient service has prompted the local population to ignore the railway almost completely. It reminds me of the campaign to save the Hill of Howth Tram in 1959 when most people who attended the protest meeting at The Summit travelled to it by car! Did anybody protest when the station at Rosslare was moved to suit the convenience of the truckers? Did anybody kick up a row over the years about the complete lack of a service between Wexford and Waterford or did they complain when an inconvenient one was provided. Probably not. More than likely they continued to jump on one of the many buses that ply the route daily via New Ross. I hope the present initiative is successful but I have a horrible feeling that it is all too late. Good luck.
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