Recent content by Con

Short answer: Yes. However, you won't be guaranteed a seat.

Yeah. We knew all that. We have the internet and everything here in Donegal. We were visiting family for Christmas and had a lot of stuff with us going both ways. But why should I make excuses on a rail forum for travelling by rail? At least we weren't the autistic man being made fun of by two...

By the time we got out of the terminal the 53 had gone. No taxis, and the bus had a long dwell time at the Stena Terminal as well. But hey-ho. Sure we can take Ryanair instead and just bring a change of pants with us.

So making a service poorer (and downright confusing for a lot of the passengers, not all of which were young) deserves just a shrug of the shoulders. Decision to avoid Dublin for ferries reinforced.

I've just had the miserable experience of Nolan Coaches dropping my wife and I at Georges Quay and hoofing it with luggage to Busaras. Coupled with a replacement bus service off the last train to Derry/Londonderry from Belfast that doesn't connect with the train from Dublin, we will never do...

I used to be a daily user of the Dublin trams, and use Edinburgh and Croydon whenever I’m there. In Europe I’ve used the trams in Brussels, with honourable mention to the Teruven tram, and did the western bit of the Periphique Tram in Paris when I was last there.

From the Republic there isn’t an online option - it’s done over the telephone so the bus link is booked then. They seem to have gone out of their way not to have it seen as a public service.

The reason why the NTA gave the 153 to Mortons was that apparently they did what amounted to a compliance raid on the Dublin Bus 53B service, which wasn’t a public service under the NTA’s remit, but a long standing arrangement to meet Irish Ferries - since cash fares were available it apparently...

This really snuck out. First time I heard of this was here. The National Transport Authority’s draft strategy document for 2022-2042 out on 9th November only refers to facilitating road freight to the Dublin Port Terminals so foot pax aren’t on Official Ireland’s radar at all in spite of COP26.

That’s a big “avoid” from me then. The British Isles were always considered the home turf of the guide, and of rail and sea services in particular, the Republic of Ireland is not foreign to the UK by law, and anything that smacks of isolationist pique should never be part of our interest.

Very much so. Open air, palisade fencing, and 700 metres away from the ferry. The bizarre thing about it is that Irish Rail own and operate Rosslare Europort and made a conscious decision to make the railway station inconvenient to the ferries in the 2000s!

Waterford to Limerick Junction is dire simply because the service is so skimpy and it has rarely been promoted.

There’s been an often rancorous dispute in Ireland for years about the mothballed secondary rail line dubbed the Western Rail Corridor...see https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057875618/273/#post114394372

Londonderry’s railway Station is now moved back to the refurbished B&NCR built station, which was originally closed in 1980. The “Egg Boxes” (my avatar) are now closed and will be demolished in due course, to create a bus interchange. Fuller details here...

I only recently found this out, and was slightly disappointed it wasn’t short for Becquerel or something equally multisyllabic.