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.