News 149

Irish Railway Record Society

Irish Railway News 149

The IRRS Journal contains a wealth of news covering all aspects of Railways in Ireland.

STRATEGIC RAIL REVIEW

The Strategic Rail Review, which will develop a 20-year strategic plan for the rail system, was announced in January (See JOURNAL 148). During the summer, Strategic Rail Review consultants from Booz Allen Hamilton along with officials from the Department of Transport conducted several consultations in various parts of the country with parties who made sub-missions to them. The Review is expected to submit its report to Government in November.

Terms of reference for the Review include the need to take stock of long-term rail requirements in the light of the emerging spatial planning and regional development policies. The primary purpose of the study is to provide the Government with a basis for establishing a strategic policy framework for the future development of the rail passenger and rail freight sector in Ireland. Specific tasks of the study will be to:

· Prepare a strategic framework for future rail development in Ireland over the next 20 years having regard to:

- The spatial planning context provided by the forthcoming National Spatial Strategy; the extensive public transport investment programme under the National Development Plan;

- Relevant findings and conclusions of "Iarnród Éireann - The Way Forward";

- The desirability of rail freight services to include consideration of existing freight capacity and its potential for development;

- Various Land Use and Transportation Strategies being developed by local authorities and other proposals for expanding rail infrastructure and services throughout the country;

- The forthcoming Report of the Task Force established by the Minister for Marine and Natural Resources on transport and logistics in connection with ports;

- The European Commission White Paper on European transport policy for 2010;

- Passenger and freight links with Northern Ireland and relevant published regional transport strategies and plans in Northern Ireland.

· Quantify the broad financial requirements (capital investment and ongoing operational / maintenance costs) for the recommended railway development strategy including consideration of the implications for the Exchequer in terms of capital and current funding, the scope for alternative funding mechanisms and pricing policies.

· Assess the costs and benefits of the recommended strategy to include an assessment of likely usage, regional development impacts, environmental impacts and other transport impacts (including safety, congestion relief, diversion from other transport modes and other externalities).

At a meeting in Limerick on 9 July, the consultants summarised the public submissions received. About 140 submissions were received. The consultants found three main themes running through the submissions:

§ Land use (integration, higher development density to support public transport, use of rail corridors for other uses, connections to key towns, cities, ports and airports, economic and financial assessments, car restraint / demand management, rail tourism and freight)

§ Operational issues (timetabling, safety, reliability, cleanliness, ticketing and capacity)

§ Infrastructure

North Tipperary County Council said that in the context of the Nenagh branch, the services were identified as being slow, inconvenient, and unable to exploit properly the traffic potential in North Tipperary. Waterford Chamber of Commerce identified problems with service levels between that city and Dublin and Limerick. They advocated the introduction of a non-stop morning Waterford-Dublin service and the introduction of an improved timetable on Waterford-Limerick line. They identified marketing as a particular weakness for IÉ, especially in relation to the Waterford-Limerick route. The representative suggested that his Chamber could help address that deficiency by the establishment of a consortium (to include IÉ and the relevant Chambers) to operate and market the Waterford-Limerick route.

A representative from the Port of Waterford was quoted as saying that ‘in 1993, more than 50% of Waterford Port's traffic was rail borne, but this is now less than 5% and dwindling. There are now 10 container ships a week out of Belview, which has had IR£50 million (€63 million) invested in it. The Port wants to grow and needs rail links to do so. Norfolk-line is being thwarted in its attempts to transfer freight to rail’. A representative from Coillte (Forestry Agency) said that, ‘in their opinion, freight had been sold a pup. They had been asked to pay 60% more and then the service had been discontinued with no notice. Coillte is very unhappy at this’.

The General Manager of Norfolk-line in Ireland spoke about his company's desire to work closely with IÉ to improve rail freight volumes in Ireland. They are convinced that the rail network will, sooner or later, have to be used to carry freight in high volume. Norfolk-line is currently running an 18-bogie train from Dublin-Waterford and vice-versa once a week. It was reported IÉ has told Norfolk-line that, once the North Wall container area is relocated, that this train will have to be restricted to 10-bogies. This will not be economical for Norfolk-line and the service would have to cease.

The remainder of these articles appear in IRRS Journal number 149, published October 2002.