We did the complete opposite..

Back in the 1930s we established CIE, a nationalised public transport athority to run all Bus, Rail and some other systems too. It bought-out all the private operators usually to shut them down a few months later for "economic reasons".

At the time Ireland had very extensive railways including a lot of rural narrow gauge systems which should have been upgraded and preserved (in my opinion)

We closed many hundreds of miles of railways, ripped up all the city tram systems, closed suburban rail lines in Dublin and Cork. Closed all lines that were not radial from Dublin meaning that it suddenly became impossible to get a train directly between any of the provincial towns or cities. Leaving about 1200 miles of lines open today.

A very unenlightened transport policy!

Northern Ireland's attitude to rail was even more unimaginative. The long since abolished, UTA (Ulster Transport Athority) in a simlar way to CIE closed pretty much everything except 2 mainlines in Northern Ireland i.e. Belfast - Londonderry/Derry and Belfast - Dublin. Leaving only 342KM of track today!

Rail's making a comeback though.. Irish rail's getting quite a lot of money to improve services. We should see new a new Cork - Dublin intercity fleet late this year or early 2005. Older rolling stock is being phased out meaning nothing should be older than late 1970s (BREL Mk III trains)... there were some real old crocks complete with steam brakes! (although diesel hauled) operating some of the not-so-heavily-used services until recently! All being replaced by modern Mitsui diesel-hydrolic railcars..

The old ones were nice though, big cushy seats and very effective steam heating And due to the lack of automatic doors required a guard to blow a real whistle [Linked Image] They smelt like a museum on-board.. kinda slightly musty.. [Linked Image] and it was a bit like stepping back into the Victorian era ... I think they're called "Cravens"

Any in the UK know ?

Irish Rail fleet: Irish Rail Fleet

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I think it would make a LOT of economic sense to electrify the entire rail network here and start operating some more ecologically friendly services.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-31-2003).]

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-31-2003).]