Freight
The following Freight services operate in Ireland :
- DFDS chartered Container Liners from Ballina - Waterford Port (Belview)
- Timber Trains from Ballina to Waterford Port (Belview)
- Timber Trains from Westport to Waterford Port (Belview)
- Zinc ore from Tara Mines, Navan - Dublin Port (North Wall)
- International Warehousing and Transport chartered Liner from Ballina - Dublin Port (North Wall) (Started September 2009)
Rail freight has been in a major decline in Ireland for the past 10 years.
- IÉ closed its container rail freight business on 29 July 2005, saying that the sector had accounted for 10% of its freight business, but 70% of its losses.
- Container freight levels had dropped to c.35 containers on three trains per day. Yet Iarnród Éireann estimated that a minimum of 18 40-foot containers was needed for a commercially viable trainload. The impact of this will be about 40 more lorries a day, described by Iarnród Éireann as a 'drop in the ocean' when compared to the 10,000 lorries entering Dublin Port every day. Nevertheless, the annual impact of this will shift about 70 million tonne-kilometres to the road network.
- In July 2006, the Container Gantries at Mallow and Sligo were removed, Limerick’s Gantry yard is now a car park and the bulk of Cork’s freight yard is primed for development.
Major Freight services lost includes
- Ammonia Trains from Shelton Abbey, Wicklow - Cork (due to closure of fertilizer plant)
- Bagged Cement Nationwide
- Beer Kegs Nationwide
- Bell Liner from Mayo - Waterford
- Gypsum from Kingscourt - Dublin
- Bulk Cement from Platin (near Drogheda) and Castlemungret (near Limerick) cement factories to cement silos at Sligo Quay, Athenry, Cabra (Dublin), Cork, Waterford, Tullamore and Belfast
Other losses included: Liners, Fertilisers, Grain, Tar, Scrap Metal, Molasses and Coal. The last bulk cement flow to operate in Ireland (Castlemungret - Waterford) ended in December 2009 along with the Kilmastulla Quarry - Castlemungret Shale traffic, despite making profits in the region of €1.3 million in 2006.
Recent development show a continuing interest in at least limited freight traffic, with an agreement being struck with Coillte to increase timber trains from Ballina to Belview from three to four weekly. This may reflect the failure of the railway to dispose of its surplus Class 201 locomotives made surplus by the retirement of the Mark 3 coach fleet.
Bord na Móna operates an extensive 1,930 km (1,199 mi) narrow gauge railway. This is one of the largest industrial rail networks in Europe and is completely separate from Ireland's passenger rail system operated by Iarnród Éireann. It is used to transport Peat from harvesting plots to processing plants and power stations of the Electricity Supply Board.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word freight:
“Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)
“These have been wonderful years. How many happy, happy times we have traveled about together! Day and night, in stage coaches, on freight trains, over the mountains and across the prairies, hungry and tired, we have wandered. The work was sometimes hard and discouraging but those were happy and useful years.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)