Platform 11
Encyclopedia
Rail Users Ireland is a rail transport pressure group in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 whose agenda is centred on the idea that there is an economic case for expanding rail transport in Ireland
Rail transport in Ireland
Rail services in Ireland are provided by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland and by Northern Ireland Railways in Northern Ireland.Most routes in the Republic radiate from Dublin...

 through better utilization of existing infrastructure with only justified expansion of existing routes. Through press releases, lobbying and leafleting they have promoted the Interconnector
Interconnector (rail tunnel)
DART Underground , previously known as the Interconnector, is a planned railway tunnel in Ireland, projected to run under the city centre of Dublin. The tunnel would allow for the expansion of the electrified DART and the Dublin Suburban Rail network, and connect Heuston Station with Pearse Station...

, a proposal to build a tunnel south of the Liffey to link up Dublin's Heuston Station with the existing DART
Dublin Area Rapid Transit
The Dublin Area Rapid Transit is part of the suburban railway network in Ireland, running mainly along the coastline of Dublin Bay on the Trans-Dublin route, from Greystones in County Wicklow, through Dublin to Howth and Malahide in County Dublin.Trains are powered via a 1500V DC overhead catenary...

 and LUAS
Luas
Luas , also promoted in the development stage as the Dublin Light Rail System, is a tram or light rail system serving Dublin, the first such system in the decades since the closure of the last of the Dublin tramways. In 2007, the system carried 28.4 million passengers, a growth of 10% since...

 lines. The group is a member of the European Passengers Federation a European level representative body for rail users which shares the same outlook in terms of sustainable transport provision and improving standards on public transport.

Membership

Although slighted by opponents as favouring "Palerail", a reference to their theory that higher ridership Dublin services should be expedited, some of the principals actually hail from areas such as Clonmel
Clonmel
Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...

 and Templemore
Templemore
Templemore is a town in North Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty. It is part of the Roman Catholic parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea....

, previous committee members have hailed from Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

 and Sligo
Sligo
Sligo is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is sometimes referred to as a city, and sometimes as a town, and is the second largest urban area in Connacht...

 and claim more experience of the more rural parts of the network than those who actually live there.

Areas of concern

As well as making the case for expanded commuter services in the heavily urbanised Greater Dublin Area, the group advocates suburban rail for Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...

 and Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

 if combined with a focused planning environment such as the Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

 LUTS (Land Use and Transportation Study). They also advocate bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 services connecting to railheads where rail is not feasible. They also support direct rather than connecting services to Clonmel
Clonmel
Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...

.

Local Partners

Recently Rail Users Ireland have been assisting regional groups. Groups currently affiliated with it are Newbridge Rail Group and Kildare Rail Users' Group. It is expected further local groups representing the Maynooth
Maynooth
Maynooth is a town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to a branch of the National University of Ireland, a Papal University and Ireland's main Roman Catholic seminary, St. Patrick's College...

 line as well as others will be formed. Rail Users Ireland also works with groups such as Dart for Lucan in the promotion of new services and required infrastructure investment.

Interconnector

The Interconnector is a proposed East-West railway tunnel under the city centre of Dublin. The tunnel as proposed by Iarnród Éireann
Iarnród Éireann
Iarnród Éireann is the national railway system operator of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann . It operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the Republic of Ireland, and, jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, the...

 would provide stations at Heuston (linking with the Kildare Line), High Street, St Stephens Green (linking with the Green Luas line and the Airport Metro), Pearse
Pearse
Pearse is a surname, and may refer to:* Patrick Pearse , leader of the Irish Easter Rising in 1916* Barbara Pearse, British biological scientist* Charles Pearse, South African cricketer...

 (linking with a DART service from Greystones to Maynooth) and Spencer Dock (continuing on to Drogheda
Drogheda
Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

 and linking with the Red line Luas).

Dublin Metro Project

The Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...

 wishes to proceed with a plan to operate a metro
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 from Dublin International Airport to Dublin City Centre. While behind the metro concept in principle, Rail Users Ireland has expressed concerns that the metro plan as currently released offers insufficient interconnections with other parts of the rail network, with few opportunities for "one-change" journeys from various parts of Dublin. They are also concerned that building the metro to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 rather than Irish gauge
Rail gauge in Ireland
The track gauge adopted by the mainline railways in Ireland is . This unusual gauge is currently otherwise found only in the Australian states of Victoria, southern New South Wales and South Australia , and in Brazil...

 would limit the scope of interoperability with DART. The RPA has proposed removing the extensions of the line to Swords
Swords, Dublin
Swords is the county town of Fingal in Ireland. It is about 13 km north of Dublin city centre and is part of its commuter belt.- History :...

 and to St. Stephen's Green to reduce the cost of the project, terminating instead at the Airport and at O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street is Dublin's main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m in width at its southern end, 46 m at the north, and is 500 m in length...

.

Luas (or 'We Told You So')

In its initial period of planning and operation, Platform 11 raised doubts about the RPA's assertion that 40 metre trams were not necessary on the line to Tallaght
Tallaght
Tallaght is the largest town, and county town, of South Dublin County, Ireland. The village area, dating from at least the 17th century, held one of the earliest settlements known in the southern part of the island, and one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.Up to the 1960s...

, the red line. The trams on this line are now experiencing extremely high load factors. Following what was at times a quite heated debate played out in the media notably on Newstalk 106 a Dublin radio station and despite claims from the Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...

 that there was no need for 40 metre trams on the red line, the Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...

 have now ordered the 10 metre sections to bring all 30 metre trams to 40 metre length as well as to commence work on the depot at Red Cow to accommodate the enlarged fleet.

Unitary Transit Authorities

While being a rail lobby group, what Rail Users Ireland admires most in other transit systems such as Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

's Münchner Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund and the Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto Transit Commission
-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...

 is the integration rather than competition of various transport modes such as subway/metro, heavy rail, light rail and bus. Many of their members wish to see Dublin and Cork have an integrated system of routes to encourage seamless door-to-door public transport journeys and for easy to use transit maps and payment schemes to be available for residents and visitors to be able to access all these modes.

Urban Planning

Rail Users Ireland members tend to believe in focused planning strategies which place public transport as a primary determinant of development and which discourage car-dependent sprawl and one-off housing
One-off housing
One-off housing is a term used in Ireland to refer to the building of individual rural houses, outside of towns and villages. The term is used to contrast with housing developments where multiple units are constructed as part of a housing estate or city street. Less commonly, the term is used to...

.

Rail Freight

Rail freight is viewed sceptically by the group given the low distances and tonnages involved in most rail freight operations in Ireland and the poor rail connectivity of many Irish seaports. They tend to favour diesel or electric multiple unit
Multiple unit
The term multiple unit or MU is used to describe a self-propelled carriages capable of coupling with other units of the same or similar type and still being controlled from one driving cab. The term is commonly used to denote passenger trainsets consisting of more than one carriage...

 vehicles solely for passengers rather than dual-use locomotives. Critics have claimed this demonstrates a "Rail for rail's sake" attitude that ignores the role rail transport plays in addressing environmental and other broader issues. That being said, our lack of knowledge in the area does not permit us to comment further on the subject of railfreight and we will concentrate our efforts on DART & LUAS matters.

Transport 21

Rail Users Ireland is compiling a list of details about each project in Transport 21
Transport 21
Transport 21 is an Irish infrastructure plan, announced in November 2005. It aims to greatly expand Ireland's transport network. A cost estimate of €34 billion was attached to the plan at the time....

. They hope to have the most comprehensive database on the projects available. This will allow them to closely monitor all projects on a value for money basis with cost over runs and projects delays being highlighted to the appropriate authorities.

Opposition to the Western Rail Corridor

Railway enthusiasts and rail transportation advocates were surprised at the idea of a rail pressure group opposing any rail project. Rail Users Ireland took the view that it should only support projects they deemed viable and that other projects were more likely to hurt rather than help the cause of rail transport in Ireland. The Western Rail Corridor had very well organised support from people and politicians in the Mayo, Galway and Clare areas and has a considerable political profile in the West of Ireland, albeit with no meaningful follow-through such as local authority planning taking any account of the proposal. Supporters of this project were angered that Rail Users Ireland opposed the reopening of this track on cost grounds, and viewed the language used by Platform 11 as patronising and emotive.

Adversarial Approach

Rail Users Ireland are very critical of Irish Rail, the RPA (rail procurement agency) and the Irish Government, within the context of service provision, implementation of new projects and unconstructive interference in the planning and development of rail transport based transport projects.

Policy Changes

Rail Users Ireland has changed policy positions dramatically since its formation in 2003 when it supported the Western Rail Corridor, opposed the Interconnector
Interconnector (rail tunnel)
DART Underground , previously known as the Interconnector, is a planned railway tunnel in Ireland, projected to run under the city centre of Dublin. The tunnel would allow for the expansion of the electrified DART and the Dublin Suburban Rail network, and connect Heuston Station with Pearse Station...

 project and attacked Irish Rail for concentrating development resources in the Pale
The Pale
The Pale or the English Pale , was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk...

. It now claims to favour the sections of the Western Railway Corridor from Ennis to Tuam which are about to be rebuilt.

Committee

Since 2005 the committee membership including a group photograph has been published on their web sitehttp://www.platform11.org/about_us/committee.php. All posts made by a committee member on the Rail Users Ireland message board are accompanied by a small photograph. The committee holds regular meetings to develop policy and includes membership in the development of any policy through discussion. An Annual General Meeting
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...

 (AGM) is held typically in May or June where committee members are elected in an open fashion by the membership governed by a constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

. The AGM also includes invited speakers, in the case of 2006, Mr Tom O'Reilly Transport Planning Manager with the Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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