Whats the craic?
Where are the people who make the decisions affecting public transport in Fishguard? Obviously not in Fishguard. But where are they?
If you follow Fishguard Trains, you’ll know they can be found in …
CARDIFF – Welsh Government has more powers over public transport in Wales than it did back in 1999. Still not enough to force bus and train operators to integrate their services. But enough to encourage Deputy First Ministers to spot the votes in restoring a decent rail service to North Pembrokeshire.
LONDON – UK Government holds most of the cards when it comes to major infrastructure – London governments make decisions which outrage most or all of Wales, then back down and do the right thing second time round – remember S4C? … electrification to Swansea (or not)? …
BERLIN – HQ of Deutsche Bahn, one of the world’s largest transport multinationals, own most rail services and franchises in Wales, and a large slice of the bus action too.
ABERDEEN – HQ of First Group, owners of First Great Western, franchised to run most of the rest of rail in Wales.
And there’s one more place – DUBLIN.
That’s where the people are who –
Mind the Gap
* Have closed the walk on – walk off rail-sea interchange at Rosslare, and moved the station to the opposite side of the harbour (click the picture to see the new gap between ferry and train)..
* Have closed the railway from Rosslare to Waterford, cutting rail links from Ireland’s second European port to the whole of the Irish midlands and west
* operate this rail-sea timetable straight out of Alice in Wonderland:
STENA
Fishguard Harbour 14:30
Rosslare Europort 18:00
IRISH RAIL
Rosslare Europort 17:55
Dublin Connolly 20:44
Fishguard Trains regular Swansea Jack comments: “Is it only me that gets the feeling that IR are deliberately trying to make it difficult to use trains from Rosslare – it feels like BR from the 1960s and the Beeching era to me.”
No, it isn’t only you, SJ. It’s all of us on the west coast of Wales looking over to Ireland and wondering how long before the suits in Dublin pull the plugs on anything that doesn’t go by air, or at least sail out of the Liffey.
Fishguard Trains thinks we should tell Dublin that their decisions about Rosslare are not just a little local matter, but of real concern to their European neighbours. Before doing so, we want to hear from more of you:
– does travel to and from Ireland by rail and sea matter?
– should the timetables make sense and and through ticketing work?
– are we happy for all Wales-Ireland traffic to go through Holyhead?
– should international public transport be made as easy as it is to continental Europe?
The Irish Minister of Transport, Tourism and Sport says that his priorities are to “Increase the number of tourists coming to Ireland and improving their experience of Ireland and its regions.”
How would we like our experience to be improved?
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