Arup to undertake all-Ireland rail review

[spudfan]

Arup to undertake all-Ireland rail review | News | Railway Gazette International

[airfixfan]

Will exclude Donegal.and the North Weat as usual!

[DiveController]

Hooray a review!

A great fat nothing to emerge from that in terms of even a mile of track built I'd imagine.

Glad to be proven wrong. We'll wait and see (breath holding  NOT recommended)

[Mayner]

 

5 hours ago, DiveController said:

Hooray a review!

A great fat nothing to emerge from that in terms of even a mile of track built I'd imagine.

Glad to be proven wrong. We'll wait and see (breath holding  NOT recommended)

It looks like a logical follow on from the  "Irish Strategic Rail Review'' Booz Hamilton 2001 which marked a major change in Irish Government thinking which had previously focused on the losses made by CIE/IE rail services with no long term planning to retain and develop the existing rail network let alone develop new services.

The future of rail in Ireland was in doubt during the 1990s with both the IE & NIR systems approaching the point of collapse, there was little Irish Government commitment to maintaining or developing rail services, overdue track renewals and improvements such as the Arrow & revived Enterprise were largely dependent on EU funding.

The Irish Government had implemented a policy on no major investment in rail (with the exception of completing the Cork Line CTC and MK3 Intercity Coach projects) under the Building on Reality" programme of the 1980s, this policy was not finally reversed until the Government implemented some of the recommendations of the review which lead to the loosening of the purse strings and a shift to a Commuter and Intercity  passenger railway with major investment in new rolling stock, infrastructure renewals which lead to more frequent train services.

 

 

 

[jhb171achill]

As often before, my own contacts from within those areas of governance and railway management whose thoughts would be the final arbiter on anything that happens in the future, suggest that nothing in the following has changed:

1.  The Green Party taking a leading role ion anything but Dublin bus lanes and cycleways; no interest in railways.

2.  At best apathy, at worst hostility; but in both cases and rather worryingly, a total lack of knowledge about railways, amongst NTA persons.

3.  No more chance of Fine Gael ever promoting rail transport than there is of Arlene Foster joining Sinn Fein, Donald Trump uttering an articulate sentence of truth, or Boris Johnston becoming a communist. Little better chance with Fianna Fail.

The above is especially the case when it comes to rail freight.

So, like before, more taxpayers' money to consultants to produce a weighty volume made of half of a rain forest, which will languish on my own shelf along with all the others, to be sold on ebay in 2035 for €1.16 plus €45 postage.