Comparison of 1906 and 2014 Rail Networks

[BosKonay]

Crude but effective:

[Tarabuses]

Yes, those were the days when no one lived far from a railway.

[tonybonneyba]

Yes, those were the days when no one lived far from a railway.

Just a shame very little of it still lives.....

[Seanw12]

Just a shame very little of it still lives.....

 

You said it!

[jhb171achill]

You could even remove Athenry to collooney and the new ross line, and kingscourt and Youghal as they are long since not passable.....

 

The South Wexford is technically open and is passable, but that's not going to operate again. Fast forward not too far and will nenagh also be re-coloured blue?

[colmflanagan]

Hi All,

 

I recently took a day trip from Belfast to Limerick and returned by the Nenagh branch; six passengers (including myself and one other on a day out!) and two crew leaving Limerick at 4.55, five passengers by the time we reached Ballybrophy for dublin. Despite what appears to be a very easy schedule (2 hrs for 50 odd miles) we were late into Ballybrophy but this is fortunately still a "connection" so the Dublin train was waiting. It felt like a 50s branch apart from the 28xx 2 car train. I am amazed it has survived this long, the guard assured us this was a typical loading.....

Colm Flanagan

[Broithe]

As much as I like the idea of the Nenagh branch, I remember getting off a Cork train at Ballybrophy once, when there was a replacement bus service for Nenagh passengers. About five people got off with me. My onward lift was a little late that day, and it became clear that there were no passengers for Nenagh at all.....

 

I worry about the water tower, too - it is cordoned off these days and quite a bit of the concrete has spalled off.

[heirflick]

the Mullingar- Athlone line was a beauty, but is fast becomming unworkable - even the beautiful little stations at Castletown and Moate are so bad they are cordened off and the station buildings in Mullingar on the Athlone platform are falling apart - absolute shame!

Edited August 9, 2014 by heirflick

[David Holman]

The vast 'desert' south of Derry & between Sligo & Dundalk shows up only too clearly. RIP the GNRI, SLNCR, CDR, Swilly etc etc...

[Noel]

Sadly the new motorways seem to have had an adverse effect on railway passenger numbers. Unless one lives right beside Heuston, it is now significantly quicker to drive to Cork than go by train, albeit not as relaxing. By coincidence I had only been looking at the old 1906 map a few weeks ago. We had virtually no roads back then, so much of the traffic was agricultural and freight.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906.jpg

 

[DiveController]

Only because there was no political insight to create a high-speed rail network linking major centers, decentalizing Dublin, linking the country, creating further employment, while the Celtic Tiger coffers were full...... did I just verbalize all that in black and white?

[Junctionmad]

Only because there was no political insight to create a high-speed rail network linking major centers, decentalizing Dublin, linking the country, creating further employment, while the Celtic Tiger coffers were full...... did I just verbalize all that in black and white?

 

Actually I disagree with high speed, much as I love railways. The case for ANY mainline heavy rail in a small under populated country

Ike Ireland is futile. High speed lines simply make no sense over such distances , knocking 10-15 minutes off a journey to cork isn't going to solve IRs falling numbers

 

The fact is motorways are cheaper, more convenient and faster over such short distances. Rail transport and especially IR s version of it will never be a practical or attractive option. IRs attempt to turn the railway carriage into a kind of glorified bus , just makes ... People use buses.

 

At this stage it's hopeless. It's in a death spiral, look at the capital purchases, which are all " political" in nature , the Mk3 had years left in them, and could have been nicely refurbished , the engine population was more then adequate , then we suddenly had deDitrich stock and railcars, primarily justified by the " boo who " look at the money roads are getting , give us some , political nonsense