Procurement of Refurbished and New Diesel railcars.

 You are procuring improved carriages, I ask that you get them so that the doors in a limited number of carriages can be opened at short platform stations. These are normal in most other commuter railways but the IR carriages must open all doors on the train which means 8 carriages cannot be used on lines with short platforms (Kilcoole & Rathdrum for example). This will improve the service to Greystones and Wicklow by allowing longer 8 carriage trains in place of the 4 (sometimes 3) carriage ones used for the rush hour diesel services (6.54 & 7.51 ex Greystones).

The latter is standing room only from Wicklow and revised carriages can provide a better service to Greystones and Kilcoole. Greystones is the 5^th busiest suburban station even though there are only a third of DARTS compared to the other stations. This results in the 7.30, 8.00 and 8.30 being crowded. I believe the 8.00 is the busiest train in the country and a longer preceding diesel would relieve pressure. Hence the importance of extra carriages on the diesels.

There is also space in the timetable to run an extra DART at 7.21, by running it down early, even with the present track and signalling system. I would ask that the carriage order provides for this if extra carriages are needed.

The Council has provided the largest Park n’ Ride site (450+ spaces) and largest bike parking (90 spaces) of any DART Station. I am keen to expand these but there needs to be a commitment from IR to improve the service. The limited number of trains produces a peak load and long queues to get off the platform, out of the station and out of the Park n’ Ride which should be addressed by more trains, as mentioned, and station modifications. Cycle parking inside the station could also be accommodated.

The future ‘10 minute’ DART service is billed as an improvement. For Greystones you are planning a worse service with no extra trains and a 5.5 minute increase in journey time (12% increase). This will encourage people to use cars in conflict with sustainable development. The Development targets handed down to the Council are for an extra 4,000 houses in Greystones and many more in Newtown and Wicklow Town and a better transport offering is required for this.

Cllr Derek Mitchell (FG) said that for Greystones this will encourage early shopping and allow short term shopping. It should encourage more turnover of the spaces and be better for the shops. It was also decided not to charge for the large Park n’ Ride in Greystones.

It will be some months before this comes into force as the Council is going out to tender for the enforcement contract, though Bray will retain Council Traffic Wardens.

‘I have prepared a paper which has drawn together these facts which we need to lobby the Government. Initially the previous grant should be reinstated and a long term fee per cu. Meter of water. This has been proposed for the water to be drawn from the Shannon and if applied to Wicklow would generate €1.7m per year’

The Council has major costs keeping the sparsely populated mountains which collect the water which is essential for Dublin’s industry and it should be compensated as was agreed in 1861 onward.

TO: NTA/Irish Rail.

Draft DART Timetable Changes

I am making this submission to express my concern about the DART timetable changes for the Greystones and the Wicklow rail service. The draft timetable for 2016 shows that while there are more trains to Bray, Greystones and South Wicklow get no extra trains and the time taken will be 12% longer. To get into work at 9 in Dublin people will have to leave on the 07.30 ex Greystones instead of the 08.00 now. This timetable will promote people getting off trains and using their cars on the already overcrowded N11.

The 12% is derived from the average of the increased time of the 7.30, 7.51 and 8.00 to Pearse which is 5.7 minutes. For something billed as an improvement this is terrible and we request a reinstatement of the current journey time. There does not seem to be a single extra train.

We are asking for:

·       The previous journey times

·       Another DART before 8.00 as there are 470 people boarding that train in Greystones. This can be sent down before peak hour and stay in the South siding as before.

·       Another peak hour diesel as the 7.51 is standing room from Wicklow Town.

·       The Saturday service to be increased to half hourly.

·       More 84x’s.

·       Work to remove the 20 mph speed limit at Glasthule as this delays trains.

·       The Arklow current 7:00 a.m. arrives in Connolly at 8:46 a.m. and the revised timetable shows it leaving Arklow at 7:05 a.m. and arriving in Connolly at 8:59 a.m. So if passengers had to be in work for 9:00, they would have to take the 6:04 a.m. train that arrives at 8:04 a.m.

I spoke to Barry Kenny, PR Irish Rail, on East Coast Radio, who suggested that my figures were selective and that the 0800 would take 4 minutes less when it is listed at 4 minutes more. The busiest trains, listed above, take +7, +6, +4 minutes an average of 5.7 minutes which is 12% extra time. My figures are both correct and representative.

I will send my submission to the 2035 Strategy, which was endorsed by Wicklow County Council, in a following entry, this suggests a way to increase capacity around Bray Head with a limited signalling and track investment.

I would welcome speaking to someone with correct knowledge about the situation.

Faitfully

Derek Mitchell

‘I counted the number of people getting on busses and trains in Greystones and it is twice the current usage in the Strategy. Also the population expansion which Wicklow is obliged to accept is much higher than in the Strategy. Thus the National Transport Authority should be planning for public transport demand 3 or 4 times that in the Strategy’.

The current peak hour service of 3 trains from Greystones should be increased to 7 trains, including 2 Intercity trains from Arklow, Wicklow and Kilcoole. Cllr Mitchells submission to the NTA outlines the investment in track and signalling works needed to get the extra trains around the restricted rail section on Bray Head. There is also a need for more busses, especially express busses, including on the N11from Arklow and Wicklow Town. ‘The study ignores most current bus services so that its recommendations for an improved service are less than the current service! The NTA has also ignored Council officials who tried some time ago to get the future population and job targets in the report corrected. The complex model used by the NTA is producing wrong results’

Simon Harris, Minister of State and Andrew Doyle T.D. have also made submissions to get Public Transport improved.

‘I welcome the tagging which will allow the Garda to monitor the criminals and is cheaper and more effective than imprisonment. A large number of burglaries are by repeat offenders who have been roaming the motorways and I hope this will curb them’.

However while it seems to recommend a high frequency DART service to Greystones it does not seem to allow for the single track which would not allow this. Also it makes no allowance for any extra diesel services south of Greystones. The highly complicated transport model predicts there will only be 100 extra public transport users from Greystones in 2035 even though a very large population expansion is planned, this can’t be correct.

‘I will analyse this further and will make a submission and will urge the Council to make an official one as Kilcoole/Wicklow need more trains and engineering work is needed for a more frequent service to Greystones’.

It is available on the web and submissions must be in by the 13th December.

The Council has also requested footpath, parking and other improvements in the design. Cllr. Derek Mitchell said ‘I objected to this overbearing aspect from the sea side and am pleased the officials have now requested these changes. I still think that curving the terrace of new houses would produce a good feature for the town but unfortunately this is not specifically requested’.

The developer has 6 months to respond and all the details are on the Council’s site reference 15/114.

‘I have been trying to get this upgrade done for some years and met the previous Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, last December. He agreed to get a study done in 2014 and having it in the Strategy will help get funding for implementing a solution’ .

Wicklow victimised by Water Cuts

The water shortage should be evenly spread over the Greater Dublin Region. At present quite a number of houses at higher level have no water in Delgany and Kilmacanoge while Greystones is cut off at night. This is because algae growth at the treatment plant at Roundwood has reduced the amount of treated water. Most of the water from Wicklow is supplied to Dublin which has had no cutbacks.

This is Wicklow’s water we should have first priority or at a very minimum equal priority. I am calling for the water flow to be restored in Wicklow and cut back in Dublin. I have asked Wicklow’s T.D’s to bring this up in the Dail as with the changeover to Irish Water nobody seems to be responsible.