No extra rail service for Wicklow

Irish Rail will not run an extra Wicklow/ Wexford train at rush hour, according to its response to a request by the council.

The company’s chief executive Jim Meade wrote to Wicklow County Council about the matter, according to Cllr Derek Mitchell in Greystones

‘ The N11 is jammed and the rail line virtually empty because of the poor service,’ said Cllr Mitchell.

‘For example, Carlow has four times as many people using the train as Wicklow even though it is well outside the Dublin area and also on a single line track.’

At Cllr Mitchell’s suggestion, the council was asked to lobby transport authorities to ensure that eight of the carriages resulting from refurbishment of 28 carriages under the NDP, due in service mid-2019, are used to provide an extra direct rush hour train from/to Gorey, using either of two available slots around Bray Head.

These would leave Greystones at either 7.22 a.m. or 8.22 a.m.

This would effectively double the capacity of the rail line from Kilcoole south but has now been refused. ‘I think the real reason they refused is they want to give priority to County Dublin services over County Wicklow which they see as a nuisance,’ said Cllr Mitchell.

‘It makes no sense to have an empty rail line and an overfull N11’.