craigybagel
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Oct 2012
- Messages
- 5,061
I wonder why IE never tried an "Ennis" type solution for that line, ie. extending the ICs from Waterford to New Ross. Surely the town has passenger potential?
I suspect there's a number of factors there. The line through Ennis stayed open, albeit freight only, and had regular use so reinstating a passenger service wasn't too great an endeavour. The New Ross branch would have needed money spending on it to get any kind of service up and running again. Ennis is also a much larger town then New Ross, and it's distance from Dublin meant that even with the detour down to Limerick it was still a viable and time effective route to the capital. It's also worth pointing out that Irish Rail did have a very tentative start to Ennis services - it was only 3 days a week at first IIRC.
that is my understanding of the situation also, that the branch had a passenger service until closure, which i think, was in 1959.
Maybe the passenger service was going to stop in 1930 but it got a reprieve?
Somewhere at home I have an article in an IRRS magazine (my membership lapsed, something I've been meaning to rectify for a long time) featuring an interview with a retired driver from Athlone, who's career covered both steam and diesel. In it he discusses being sent away for a few months to work the Ballinrobe branch, and I'm pretty sure it was implied that it was still a passenger service.