I first became a regular user of Irish trains in the 1990s, when college took me to Dublin from my home in Co Tipperary.
On Sunday evenings, the train stations in Templemore and Thurles would be jammed with young students waiting to, somehow, cram themselves and their backpacks on to a diesel locomotive. As the train had originated in Cork or Tralee or Limerick, a seat was rarely still vacant by the time it crossed the border into Tipperary.
Back then, Heuston station felt like a suburb of Dublin – certainly not part of the centre of a city. The onward journey from there to whatever flatland area the student was renting was another, often long, adventure.
The return leg on a Friday evening was equally chaotic.
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Carriages were full and noisy – both from the occupants inside and the tracks outside – and station platforms were often much shorter than the train.
So, many times, unable to make my way through the carriages, I would put my hand out the window to unlock the train door (in the ‘90s it opened from the outside), and, along with many others, jump down on the side of the rail track.
It’s slightly different now ... health and safety, you know.
Thurles is situated on the Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Tralee lines, so it has been relatively well serviced by Irish Rail for a long time. At least in comparison to other towns.
Train services between Dublin and Cork will double at peak times within the next three to five years, Irish Rail has said, significantly increasing the number and frequency of trains stopping at stations such as Thurles.
Michael Power, the Irish Rail head of business transformation, said that “if you can go half-hourly on Dublin-Cork, it makes towns like Thurles very liveable and it’s really attractive for people who have the option of hybrid working”.
This is true. Though, Thurles has been a commuter town for Dublin for many years now.
On any weekday morning, hundreds of commuters gather on Platform 1 for the early trains towards Dublin – currently the first trains leave Thurles each weekday at 6.14am, 7am, 7.23am, and 8.18am. The last one is the fastest, docking at Heuston around 9.30am – about one hour and 10 minutes after leaving Thurles. The slowest takes about an hour and a half, due mainly to pausing at half a dozen stations on the way northeast.
Pre-Covid, I got the first train out of Thurles each weekday morning. Over the years, you get to know some of the regulars on the platform – though no one is particularly chatty at 6am on a chilly train platform (it doesn’t matter the season, train stations are always cold). I did learn, though, that some of the regular commuters were travelling quite a distance before they even started their rail journey – many travelling around 40 minutes by car to the station.
I only crunched the numbers on my commute once. You’ll know why in a minute.
It’s about 20 minutes from the front door of the house to the train station. The early train usually took about one hour and 40 minutes. From Heuston, it was another 20 minutes or so to my desk.
Just over two hours, 20 minutes – door to door.
And, of course, the same home.
No delays, everything going smoothly – which, well, happened an odd time – approximately 4 hours, 45 minutes commuting on a Monday.
One down, four to go.
The weekly commute, for many years, was 24 hours. One full day, each week, simply travelling to or from work.
Thankfully, that commute has eased, though that’s not everyone’s story – many are still making 10 long train journeys each week.
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Some are doing it to avoid the higher mortgage or rent payments that come with living in a city, for others it’s to do with better career prospects. I also know of several who chose a long commute simply because they didn’t want to uproot their family.
For them, in particular, the new Irish Rail plans will make a significant impact on their day. As much as the improvement in the reliability and comfort of Irish trains have done in recent decades.
Though not everything is fixed.
I sat on the floor between two carriages last week on the way home from Heuston. Nowadays, at least the train intercom works, sometimes (though a train “host” – that’s what they are called now – once announced to everyone on the delayed train that he had “absolutely no idea what was going on”).
The seat allocation system works, sometimes.
The station lifts are in working order, sometimes.
There’s still a long way to go, for everybody.
