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Commenting on the decision to permit Iarnrod Eireann (IE) to suspend its passenger services between Rosslare and Waterford, Orm Kenny (Chairman of the SE Chambers’ Access Task Group) said that his initial reaction must be one of severe regret that the NTA took such a decision. However, the Chambers of Commerce intend to continue to explore ways to salvage this line that has been serving south Wexford and Waterford for the past 100 years.
“While we are heartened by the NTA’s support for our suggestion to create a community rail partnership (CRP) to manage the line’s affairs, we feel that their decision has left IE completely off the hook, as now there will be no incentive for them to seriously explore the CRP model that has worked so satisfactorily in rural areas in the UK. Having closed up shop and paid off the staff, they are very unlikely to want to re-open and be expected to play a partnership role with local interests – a situation entirely new for IE.”
“A far better way of facilitating a partnership involving stakeholders such as the local authorities, business interests, users and IE as the operator, would surely have been to preserve the status quo so that the CRP could be worked upon with IE still involved as a major player – rather than as a bystander who apparently does not want to be there.”
Eric Barron, Chairman of South East Chambers, added “This decision by the NTA means that we must now effectively forget about IE as an operator and look elsewhere. Happily there are two operators that are showing a far greater degree of entrepreneurship than IE, and we will be discussing possible involvement with them. However, maintenance of the status quo for an agreed period would have made this easier. This seems like another example of Dublin based thinking having little regard for the needs of the South East.”
The SE Chambers said that they are prepared to work with all interested parties to develop a suitable rail service for south Wexford/Waterford and took heart from the NTA statement that “suspension of rail passenger services does not equate to line closure” and has placed strong responsibilities on IE to maintain the infrastructure. |
