Irish Railway Record Society

Journal 170 Operations

PASSENGER OPERATIONS

Passenger Numbers UIC figures for the first three months of 2009 showed that IÉ had the highest drop in passenger numbers of any EU country at 17.1% from 11.064m to 9.176m passengers. The EU average fall was 0.7%.

Volvo Ocean Race This event in Galway brought many thousands of visitors to the city and IÉ decided to concentrate specials on the Athlone-Galway corridor, with a few running to/from from Dublin. On Saturday 6 June, 234 + EGV + 5 Mk III worked a 09:05 Athlone-Galway special. It then ran empty to Athenry from where it returned as a 11:55 special to Galway. On arrival it worked empty to Dublin Heuston.

Showtime Express Declining tourist numbers saw Killarney hotel interests and IÉ re-introduce the Dublin-Killarney special in an attempt to fill hotel rooms. The special previously operated in the 1980’s and the overall package included accommodation and entertainment packages. The 3-car ICR set departed Heuston at 10:40 on Fridays, stopping for a driver change in Mallow 12:47/49 and arrived in Killarney at 13:35. It returned empty to Heuston to form the 19:15 to Galway. On Sundays the 14:50 Killarney-Heuston 18:10 stopped only for a driver change in Mallow 15:32/37. It commenced on 19 June, using set 22013, which had earlier worked the 06:30 Carlow-Heuston with 22003. On return from Killarney it re-joined with 22003 to work the 19:15 to Galway. After a period the special trains ceased, with passengers using regular services.

Thursday 4 June 220 + EGV + 6 Mk III worked a 13:50 Dublin-Galway Gaeltacht special. It then worked a 17:40 Galway-Athlone relief to the 18:05 Galway-Dublin associated with the Volvo Ocean Boat Race and the 18:52 empty Athlone-Heuston.

Other Mk III workings that evening were:

218 + EGV + 5 Mk III 17:10 Dublin-Athlone

207 + EGV + 6 Mk III 18:30 Cork-Dublin

216 + EGV + 5 Mk III 20:00 Dublin-Cork

Sunday 14 June 22007 + 22017 worked a 18:05 Thurles-Limerick special after the Limerick-Waterford Munster Hurling Semi-Final.

Monday 15 June 6-car ICR 22035 worked the 14:00 Dublin Heuston-Cork and 17:30 return following the failure of a Mk IV set. The spare Heuston based Mk III set was already working the 12:00 Dublin-Cork and 15:30 Cork-Dublin.

Saturday 27 June With Mk III carriages being withdrawn, the IRRS hired a set to operate a special Dublin Connolly – Ballybrophy – Nenagh – Limerick – Tipperary – Limerick Junction – Dublin Connolly. The special was formed by 152 + 171 + EGV + 6 Mk III and crossed 073 on an empty Birdhill-Portlaoise CWR train in Roscrea. Unfortunately, 171 gave some trouble approaching Thurles where the train was terminated with passengers transferring to the 16:30 Cork-Dublin Heuston.

A couple about to be married hired a train to take them and about 200 guests to and from the wedding. The party travelled on the 11:15 Tralee-Mallow from Killarney (dep. 11:45) to Banteer for the wedding ceremony, returning on a special from Banteer (dep.15:07) to the Malton Hotel (formerly the Great Southern) in Killarney for the reception. ICR 3-car set 22013 was specially prepared and decorated with pink and white bows in Portlaoise Traincare depot for the event. It worked empty to Cork the previous day, where it was strengthened by addition of set 22025. A special commemorative wedding train ticket was issued. The bride Majella Foley, who grew up in Banteer and now lives In London, said of the train: 'It was definitely worth It. It was brilliant.'

Tuesday 7 July the 17:10 Dublin Heuston-Athlone was worked by 232 + EGV + 6 Mk III.

Wednesday 22 July 232 + EGV + 7 Mk III worked a 13:50 Dublin-Galway Gaeltacht Special.

Saturday 25 July 216 + EGV + 7 Mk III worked a 10:30 Westport-Dublin special.

Sunday 26 July A 4-car 2700-class operated a Thurles-Limerick hurling special.

Public Holiday Monday 3 August 216 + EGV + 7 Mk III worked an 18:10 Dublin Heuston- Tralee GAA Special.

Saturday 8 August 086 + 7 Mk III + EGV worked a 08:20 Cork-Dublin Heuston special for the Dublin Horse Show.

Sunday 9 August 216 + 7 Mk III + EGV worked a 07:00 Westport-Dublin Heuston and 17:45 return GAA special.

Friday 14 August The 16:15 Dublin-Ballina was formed by 234 + EGV + 7 Mk III, returning empty to Athlone at 21:15.

Sunday 16 August 22022 + 22007 worked a 19:20 Dublin Heuston - Limerick Junction GAA special. 232 + 6 Mk III + EGV worked the 13:45 Tralee-Dublin Heuston as engineering work at Ballybrophy resulted in ICRs being in the wrong locations overnight.

Tuesday 18 August A 3-car ICR set worked a Cobh line commuter train for the first time when 22026 worked the 05:20 Cork-Cobh, 05:50 Cobh-Cork, 06:45 Cork-Mallow, 07:30 Mallow-Cobh and 08:25 Cobh-Tralee.

Friday 21 August The 16:15 Dublin-Ballina was 232 + EGV + 6 Mk III.

FUTURE OF FREIGHT

Carryings UIC figures for the first three months of 2009 showed that IÉ freight carryings fell by 22.7% from 172,000 tonnes to 133,000 tonnes. This compares with an average fall of 28.1% in the EU domestic carryings. IÉ freight tonne-kilometres fell by 40.7% from 27m to 16m, the highest in the EU, where the average fall was 29.3%.

In May the Minister for Transport told the Dáil ‘The volumes of rail freight carried in millions of tonnes for the last ten years are as follows:

New Traffic A new container train from Ballina to Dublin Port was formally announced at a conference ‘Western Rail Corridor: Sustainable Regional Transport at a time of Economic Constraint’ held on 1 May. The train will run for International Warehousing & Transport (IWT), a privately owned, independent logistics company with offices in Ireland and Holland. Its main cargo will initially be containers of Coca-Cola concentrate from its Ballina plant for export to Mexico, Australia, Japan, India and Turkey. This marks the return of container trains to/from Dublin Port, which accounts for 64% of lift-on lift-off containers in the country.

Train frequency is initially two per week, departing Dublin at 10:55 on Monday and Wednesday and departing Ballina at 08:15 Tuesday and Thursday. IWT said it intends to expand to a daily service within six months. ‘This is a major development towards reducing carbon footprint and providing a statistically safer mode of transport. IWT believe that the service will save up to 5.5m road kilometres every year and will reduce C0₂ emissions by as much as 2,750 tonnes’.

Séamus McLoughlin, Head of Operations, Dublin Port, said ‘Despite a significant fall in the amount of goods being transported by train in recent decades, Dublin Port Co. remained committed to ensuring that we could continue to handle rail freight through the maintenance of our own rail network within the Port’.

Several trial workings took place over the Alexandra Rd tramway prior to the commencement of the service. 144 worked light engine on Tuesday 4 August and 078 on Monday 10 August. The latter used a rarely used crossover opposite the Shell facility.

Next day 078 + 18 refurbished wagons, which had arrived in North Wall on 7 July, worked a trial down the Alexandra Rd on the north tramway line. The road was closed off and it was loaded with one 45’ and one 20’ container as a trial. 078 ran round and the empty train returned to North Wall yard at 12:30.

On Wednesday 19 August, the first train was loaded on the rarely used north track of the Alexandra Rd tramway. The road is no longer a main traffic route in the port and was closed to traffic for the loading. It is understood that this is a temporary arrangement. Loading, observed by senior officials from IWT and Dublin Port, started at 19:00 and finished at 20:05, at which stage locomotive 076 ran round its 18 bogie train and hauled it to the IÉ yard in North Wall. 076 was newly painted and sported IWT stickers on its yellow front. On Thursday 20 August the first commercial train operated; 076 + 18 bogies departed North Wall at 10:35 and was looped in Kildare for the 11:00 Dublin-Galway. It departed Athlone at 13:22 and crossed the 13:10 Westport-Dublin in Castlerea from 14:05-14:18. It was overtaken by the 12:40 Dublin-Westport in Claremorris from 14:55-16:05 and arrived in Ballina at 16:58.

Charges In May the Minister for Transport was asked about ‘the access and other charges which are or will be paid by operators, since the opening up of railways to competing operators in 2007, for using the network, the terminals and for the hire of rolling stock for any prospective freight service; and the location at which these charges are documented and available to possible service users’.

He replied: ‘The charging regime to which the Deputy refers, and which is a requirement under EU law relating to access by rail freight operators to the railway network, is currently under development. IÉ has carried out work on chargeable costs for the use of the infrastructure, and my Department has engaged consultancy assistance to examine these costs with a view to ensuring a transparent and equitable charging regime is put in place and made available as soon as possible to any prospective applicants for track access.’

Oireachtas In May, the Chief Executive of Waterford Port, Mr. Stan McIlvenny, told the Oireachtas Transport Committee: ‘There are many arguments put forward by those opposed to freight on the rail network but not so many years ago 26 trains a week worked at Belview, in the Port of Waterford. There were up to 60 train movements a week. The trains arriving at Waterford are provided by Irish Rail to DFDS Seaways and the latter accepts all responsibility and risk arising from this. It is the proper way to go... Over the years, there has been a decrease in the number of train sets available for this sort of work. There is an issue with funding at present. We see rail as important to the future.’

Irish Exporters Association The IEA made a presentation to the WRC Conference on 1 May. Some of the points they made are noted:

Rail infrastructure

Cement IÉ withdrew all vacuum-braked 4-wheel cement bulk wagons on 30 June. These wagons were commonly known as ‘bubbles’ and were constructed in several batches in the 1960s and 70s. The ageing wagon frames suffered from corrosion in recent years. This left 12 air-braked bogie bulk cement wagons in service.

Cement deliveries by rail to Tullamore ceased again in June and the bogie cement wagons were transferred to Limerick to work Limerick-Waterford cement trains. On Tuesday 23 June, 079 + 9 bogie wagons worked the final North Wall-Tullamore train, returning to North Wall at 04:40 next day. On Thursday 25 June, 085 + 11 bogie wagons worked empty North Wall-Limerick. This left no freight trains into or out of Platin Cement factory in Drogheda, which in its heyday had eight cement and gypsum trains daily. The only freight trains now operating of the Dublin-Belfast line are Tara Mines trains from Navan to Dublin Port via Drogheda.

Copyright © 2009 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: October 30, 2009 .