Link up our rail and ferry routes

WITH this island’s utter dependence on external connectivity never having been more clearly exposed, we might do well to look at how our internal surface transport system feeds into our international linkages.

Since last Thursday, record numbers of weary travellers returning to or visiting Ireland have unexpectedly — yet gratefully — found themselves rerouted via Welsh and French ports through Rosslare Europort. In response, in a bid “to facilitate ferry passengers” (according to the Iarnrod Éireann website), Monday’s 17:55 Rosslare-Dublin train was exceptionally held back to 18:45.

The national rail company is to be congratulated on this sensible decision. Normally, those catching this sailing arrive back in Ireland a galling five minutes after what is the day’s last train northwards has already left. However, this sudden flexibility begs the question as to why a joined-up scheduling arrangement is not already permanently in place across the system. Could it possibly be that rail timetables are not designed primarily to suit the travelling public? One might have imagined that having the hugely valuable resource of a pair of national rail lines terminating at a port within IE’s ownership would logically mean that train and ferry times might correspond in order to attract a steady stream of patrons. This is standard practice elsewhere and was the case here some years ago but is now apparently only something to be reconsidered upon completion of IE’s track renewal programme. Perhaps the company is waiting for the ferry companies to change their schedules to suit it?