Commuters furious with proposal to implement changeover on rail line
MANY commuters who travel on the Rosslare and Wexford to Dublin train line were outraged by the recent news that the National Transport Authority (NTA) were considering proposals to terminate the line at Wicklow or Greystones stations.
Two reports by the NTA proposed this termination and for a Dart shuttle to be put in place instead to cater to areas further south. Senator Malcolm Byrne has been campaigning on improved services for the Rosslare Rail line for years and says that forcing passengers to change at Wicklow or Greystones will not incentivise people to use the train.
“It’s very much more on the table now. Barry Kenny from Irish Rail came out and said that this is certainly being considered and that they’d be looking at a mix of direct and indirect or interchange services. I certainly know that chatting to commuters over the last day or two that a lot of them are angry even to the point that some of them are saying that they’ ll be switching back to using cars,” said Senator Byrne.
The change in this service would be done with the hopes of improving the service for Kilcoole and Wicklow, however it would cause more difficulty for passengers travelling on the line from Wexford to Dublin.
A statement by South East on Track, an organisation established to improve rail services in the South East region, highlighted that Wexford Town had more passenger boardings than Wicklow Town, Rathdrum, Arklow, Gorey and Enniscorthy according to a Heavy Rail Census. Furthermore, Wexford Town had more passenger boardings than Kilcoole.
Senator Byrne was informed about the NTA’s proposals for the first time at the end of 2023 and that they were considering imposing a changeover at the Wicklow station. It was confirmed to him at the start of 2024 that work is currently ongoing on the proposal for this project which aims to increase train frequency between Greystones and Bray.
Senator Byrne says the NTA should conduct a consultation with passengers that use the Rosslare line in order to put together a longterm plan. “The NTA needs to be far more imaginative and look at a longterm plan to make it a double track along the Rosslare line because that will resolve a number of the difficulties.”
“We do need a number of spots along the Rosslare line running into Dublin city where the intercity train can overtake. I get that that is expensive but we’re currently investing millions in the battle to protect the track against marine erosion and if we want to switch people out of their cars onto the train, we have to provide reliable efficient and regular services,” said Senator Byrne.
The number of passengers using this line has increased in the last few years with figures showing that daily boardings at Wexford station more than doubled between 2013 and 2022 according to the Irish Times. Due to high demand, a new night-time service was also introduced between Gorey and Connolly in 2022.
Clodagh Cecil from Gorey uses the line to travel to Dublin for work at least once or twice a week every week and said she was “absolutely flabbergasted” when she first heard about the proposed changes to the line.
“I was really surprised that somebody somewhere would think this is a viable option and I would really encourage them to take the train and see how it operates and see how much of a delay that’s going to cause everybody.
“I got the train this morning and there was a huge variety of people such as elderly people, buggies, people with mobility issues, commuters for work so trying to get all of those people off and back on is time consuming,” said Clodagh.
Clodagh works in several locations in Dublin and uses the train to get to the city centre but drives to Dublin on the days she is working in other areas.
When she opts to take the train, she parks in Gorey town, boards the train to Connolly station and then takes the Luas to get to work. Altogether, this journey takes her three hours one way. “I do that because it’s productive time, I can sit on the train and I can work. It’s two hours door to door if I drive but in my head that’s four hours out of the day that aren’t productive. Even though it’s six hours taking the train, of that four hours are productive time that I can be working and it’s more environmentally friendly and less stressful than sitting in rush hour traffic and it’s safer if the weather is bad,” said Clodagh.
One the key reasons Clodagh takes the train is so she can use that time to work on her laptop. However, the Dart is not set up like the train and she will not be able to work on it.
“Once you get to Wicklow the train is completely packed, there’s a scrum to get on the train.
“Adding to all of that by getting people to move around and change trains is going to add a significant delay to the whole process so something that’s already not quicker than driving is going to become significantly slower than driving and it will stop me using it,” said Clodagh.