Transport chiefs worried covid had permanently ended short-distance train journeys
The NTA said there was mounting evidence some shorter trips had 'gone' and 'may not ever fully return'.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) was worried the covid pandemic had permanently ended some shorter-distance trips by passengers on board Irish Rail services.
In internal emails, the NTA said there was mounting evidence some shorter trips had “gone” and “may not ever fully return”.
An analysis of various routes showed people were still taking inter-city trips but passengers taking shorter hop-journeys had ended.
An email from Marian Wilson, its head of service planning, said the percentage of people travelling all the way from Dublin to Waterford now made up a clearly bigger proportion of all passengers.
She wrote: “This supports our overarching thesis that shorter-distance rail patronage has gone and may not ever fully return.”
The NTA had been asked by Government to explore running extra services on some routes, as well as offering journeys earlier or later in the day.
In internal discussions in late summer last year, Ms Wilson said care needed to be taken about drawing conclusions from a one-day headcount of rail travel that takes place every November on a Thursday.
She wrote: “How indicative this is of non-work based travel, particularly at weekends, and during better summer weather driven by demand to attend events, catch up with friends [or] family post-pandemic, continue the trend of seeing the country itself, thereby avoiding Dublin and other airports, is anyone’s guess.
Caution was also urged about counting only end-to-end usage on certain routes, especially from Dublin to Westport.
An email pointed out that Castlebar was the second to last stop on the route and that there was a shuttle from Manulla Junction to both Ballina and Foxford.
“These numbers represent a far higher proportion of those leaving Dublin in each year than if considering only Westport,” said her email.
The NTA said there was an obvious hole in services for Dublin to Cork trains with a two-hour gap between the 7pm and 9pm departures.
“Filling this with a 20.00 [8pm] ex-Dublin would make the marketing statement of an ‘hourly service between Dublin and Cork’ accurate,” said Ms Wilson.
She said this “in-filler” would be less likely to have an impact on Irish Rail maintenance and could potentially give an opportunity for an additional service to either Limerick or Tralee, or to both.
An email said: “It stands to reason that the provision of a 20.00 [8pm] ex Dublin would both build patronage and balance existing patronage on the corridor better across the evening.”
In recommendations, the NTA said consideration should be given to additional services to Mayo, Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Tralee.
