About Us - Annual Review 2005/06 And Future Plans - Better Rail Services - Translink
2005/6 saw a number of major improvements to rail travel in Northern Ireland. Translink is committed to delivering a rail service which is recognised as the best in the UK and Ireland with continuing growth in passenger numbers.
New rail service launched
21 June 2005 was an important date in local railway history: it marked the official launch of NIRailways’ new rail service. Plans to introduce changes bringing benefits and service improvements for passengers had been developed as part of a comprehensive rail service review to complement the arrival of new trains. All aspects of the service provided had been scrutinised, including timetable development, customer service delivery and station improvements.
New trains in operation
The last of the 23 new trains for NIRailways were delivered by June 2005. By September, all were in regular passenger service. For passengers, this means travel on state of the art trains that meet the highest standards in terms of safety, accessibility and journey comfort.
New train care centre opened
A new purpose built Train Care Centre was opened officially on 24 October 2005 at Fortwilliam. Now in operation 24 hours a day, the innovative yet practical train cleaning and stabling facility ensures that the new trains are kept in optimum condition for passengers. This £11.4 million investment project,
completed to budget, created a new architectural landmark for Belfast.
New timetables
Timetable changes introduced on 6 June 2005 were developed around the concept of a central corridor between Portadown and Bangor. Operating on a simple ‘clock-face’ basis as far as possible, the new timetable means faster and more frequent services for customers.
An increase in passenger journeys of
16% was achieved following the June
timetable expansion of services.
Larne line relay
A major nine-month £25.2 million engineering project to re-lay the rail track between Belfast (Bleach Green) and Whitehead and upgrade signalling equipment was completed in January 2006. Upon completion of the Larne line relay, a further new timetable commenced on 13 February 2006 reintroducing full Larne line services. However, a shortage of train drivers meant some reduction in service frequency off-peak had to be made to off peak services on the Portadown and Bangor lines. Despite this, service frequency and capacity are still significantly better than pre June 2005 and the numbers of passengers using the railways continues to grow.
Better customer service
The company placed customer service at the heart of its plans to deliver a new improved rail service. Internally, a new “corporate culture” was promoted; over the past year, all railway staff have attended one or more innovative customer
care training programmes. Passengers are telling us they see and like the change. New staff uniforms were issued, reinforcing the professionalism of staff.
Station improvements
As part of the “New Rail Service” project, a programme of infrastructure work is ongoing at stations and halts across the network and will continue over the next year. This includes new shelters, new signage, improved lighting, additional seating and bins, improvements to disabled access, including re-grading of ramps and provision of lifts.
Innovative promotions attract passengers
With over 2 million visits made during 2005 to the Translink web site, the company uses the web to promote special fares. This year, we have introduced online sales with the introduction of the ‘Dublin Day Sale’, Translink’s first exclusive web fare promotion to sell travel on the Enterprise cross border rail service. It built on the earlier success of the summer online Enterprise promotion, the ‘Saturday Seat Sale’. Web based ticket sales were available for seats on one of the series of rugby special trains operating to Dublin for international matches, during the six nations rugby tournament. Our E-commerce
developments will continue.
The programme to deliver further growth in passenger numbers through the ‘new rail service’ will continue. Additionally, plans are being developed for further modernisation and expansion of the network. These will be subject to economic appraisal, Government approval and funding.
Performance and Growth (2006 -10)
Translink’s immediate objective is to continue to attract more passengers from optimising current investments; consolidating the current performance, timetables & service plan and to propose frequency improvements to Ballymena, Antrim and Larne.
Reliability modifications are being delivered to the older class 450 trains, driver recruitment and training is being fast tracked and sustained enhanced performance will be delivered from the new C3K trains.
New Trains 2010 Project
The proposed “New Trains 2010” project will increase railway capacity from 2010. This project will be submitted to the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review 2007. Key features will include the replacement of class 450 trains 2010-2012 and the possibility of increases in fleet size to deliver capacity and frequency improvements across the network.
Future size of railway network
Government is due to review the long term future of the so-called ‘lesser-used lines’ (i.e. Ballymena-Londonderry; and Whitehead to Larne) before 2009. Translink will contribute to this by inputting it’s ‘New Trains 2010’ project into the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.
The ‘Strategic Railway Review’ (commissioned from consultants by Translink in 2004), concluded the ‘lesser used lines’ were economically viable as part of the total existing network. It also emphasised that the major assets of the railway (track, trains, etc.) should be maintained and renewed on a regular ‘life-cycle’ basis, to avoid the problems of ‘stop-go’ investment that have been common in the past.
Ultimately it is for Government to determine what size of railway is to be operated, and for Translink to manage that network in the most efficient and effective way.
Belfast – Dublin Enterprise Strategy
Translink is working on an outline ‘vision 2020’ with Irish Rail for a high speed rail service to Dublin with departures every hour with a 90 minute non stop journey time.
A preliminary report commissioned by Translink in early 2006 confirmed that a high speed, high frequency service could be economically viable.
In March 2006 a strategy was agreed with Irish Rail for consideration of interim service enhancements in the short/medium term, including additional departures.
Beyond RTS
Looking ahead, the future of the railway needs to be considered over a longer 20-30 year timeframe, partly because investment in railway assets have this length of life; also taking into account longer term economic, competitive and
environmental issues facing Northern Ireland.
This would provide an opportunity to ensure future plans are integrated with developments envisaged in the railway system of the Republic of Ireland, including north-south links, and to investigate the merits of reopening branch lines or constructing new lines in order to improve access to rail-based transport throughout the island.
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