Transport in Ireland

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Most of the transport system in Ireland is in public hands, both north and south of the border. The road network has evolved separately north and south, while the rail network was mostly created prior to the partition of Ireland.

In the Republic of Ireland, the Minister for Transport, acting through the Department of Transport, is responsible for the state's road network, rail network, public transport, airports and several other areas. Although some sections of road have been built using private or public-private funds, and are operated as toll roads, they are owned by the Irish Government. The rail network is also state owned and operated, while the Government currently still owns the airports in the State (though the authorities running them are due to be privatised). Public transport is mainly in the hands of a statutory corporation, Córas Iompair Éireann, and its subsidiaries, Bus Átha Cliath (Dublin Bus), Bus Éireann (Irish Bus), and Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail).

On November 1, 2005 the Dublin government published the Transport 21 plan which includes €18bn for improved roads and €16bn for improved rail, including the Western Rail Corridor and the Dublin Metro.

In Northern Ireland, the road network and railways are in state ownership. The Department for Regional Development is responsible for these and other areas (such as water services). Two of the three main airports in Northern Ireland are privately operated and owned. The exception is City of Derry Airport, which is owned and funded by Derry City Council. A statutory corporation, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (which trades as Translink) operates public transport services through its three subsidiaries - Northern Ireland Railways Company Limited, Ulsterbus Limited, and Citybus Limited (now branded as Metro).

Contents 1 Railways 2 Roads 3 Waterways 4 Pipelines 5 Ports and harbours 5.1 Merchant marine 6 Airports 6.1 Republic of Ireland 6.2 Northern Ireland 6.3 Passenger Numbers 7 See also 8 Gateway Irish Urban Reference Destination Distances 9 External links

[edit] Railways

Total (1998) - 1,947 km

1600mm (5'3") broad gauge

38 km electrified; 485 km double track

Main article: Rail transport in Ireland

Ireland's railways are in State ownership, with Iarnrod Éireann (Irish Rail) operating services in the Republic and Northern Ireland Railways operating services in Northern Ireland. The two companies co-operate in providing the joint Enterprise service between Dublin and Belfast. InterCity services are provided between Dublin and the major towns and cities of the Republic, and between Belfast and Derry. Suburban railway networks operate in Dublin and Belfast, with a limited local services being offered in, or planned for, Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

Many lines in the west were decommissioned in the 1930s under Éamon de Valera, with a further large cull in services by both CIÉ and the UTA during the 1960s. There is a campaign to bring these back into service, in particular the Limerick-Sligo line (The Western Rail Corridor), to facilitate economic regeneration in the west, which has lagged behind the rest of the country. There is also a smaller campaign to re-establish the rail link between Sligo and Enniskillen/Omagh/Derry and Mullingar and Athlone/Galway

Since 1984 an electrically operated train service has run between Bray and Howth, called the Dublin Area Rapid Transit. In 2004 a light rail system, Luas, was opened in Dublin. As of 2006 a metro system is also in the planning stage. The Luas system has caused much disruption in Dublin; in retrospect many believe an underground would have been a better option. One of the current options being discussed is to upgrade the Luas to a metro system when the metro is being installed.^{[citation needed]}

See also: History of rail transport in Ireland

[edit] Roads

Main article: Roads in Ireland

Total - 117,318 km including 325 km of motorway

North: 24,818 km including 133 km of motorway (2002) [1]

South: 92,500 km (1999 est.) including 192 km of motorway (2004) [2]

paved - 87,043 km, unpaved - 5,457 km

Ireland's roads link Dublin with all the major cities (Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Belfast and Derry). Driving is on the left.

State-owned Bus Éireann (Irish Bus) provides most bus services in the Republic of Ireland, outside Dublin, including an express coach network connecting most cities in Ireland, along with local bus services in the provincial cities. There are also a number of private operators, the biggest of which include Aircoach, a subsidiary of First Group which provides services to Dublin Airport from Dublin city centre amongst others, and Scottish Citylink which competes on the Dublin-Galway route. Some private rural operators exist, such as Halpenny's in Blackrock, County Louth, who were the first private bus operator to run a public service in Ireland, Bus Feda, who operate twice daily routes from Ranafast, County Donegal to Galway and back [3], as well as Lough Swilly Bus Company.

Bus Átha Cliath (Dublin Bus), a sister company of Bus Éireann, provides most of the bus services in Dublin, with some other operators providing a number of routes.

In Northern Ireland Ulsterbus provides the bus network, with its sister company Metro providing services in Belfast. Both are part of state-owned Translink.

Most cross-border services (e.g. Dublin city centre to Belfast) are run jointly between Bus Éireann and Ulsterbus, with some services run across the border exclusively by one of the two companies (e.g. Derry–Sligo run by Bus Éireann).

[edit] Waterways

Total (2004) - 753 km

(pleasure craft only on inland waterways, several lengthy esturine waterways)

• Grand Canal
• Royal Canal
• Shannon-Erne Waterway

For more details see: Canals of Ireland and Rivers of Ireland.

[edit] Pipelines

Natural gas 1,795 km (2003)

[edit] Ports and harbours

Ireland has ports in the towns of Arklow, Belfast, Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dublin, Dundalk, Dún Laoghaire, Foynes, Galway, Larne, Limerick, New Ross, Rosslare Europort, Sligo, Waterford, Wicklow

Ports in the Republic handle 3,600,000 travelers crossing the Irish Sea each year, amounting to 92% of all sea travel (CSO figures). This has been steadily dropping for a number of years (20% since 1999), probably as a result of low cost airlines.

Ferry connections between Britain and Ireland via the Irish Sea include the routes from Swansea to Cork, Fishguard and Pembroke to Rosslare, Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire, Stranraer to Belfast and Larne, and Cairnryan to Larne. There is also a connection between Liverpool and Belfast via the Isle of Man. The world's largest car ferry, Ulysses, is operated by Irish Ferries on the Dublin–Holyhead route. In addition, Rosslare and Cork run ferries to France.

The vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. Northern Irish ports handle 10 megatonnes (Mt) of goods trade with Britain annually, while ports in the south handle 7.6 Mt, representing 50% and 40% respectively of total trade by weight.

Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently the "Tusker Tunnel" between the ports of Rosslare and Fishguard proposed by The Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004. IEI report (pdf) BBC report A different proposed route is between Dublin and Holyhead, proposed in 1997 by a leading British engineering firm, Symonds, for a rail tunnel from Dublin to Holyhead. Either tunnel, at 80 km, would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated €20bn.

[edit] Merchant marine

Total - 35 ships (with a volume of 1,000 gross register tons (GRT) or over) totalling 288,401 GRT/383,628 metric tons of deadweight (DWT)

Ships by type - bulk carrier 7, cargo ship 22, chemical tanker 1, container ship 3, roll-on/roll-off ship1, short-sea passenger 1

Foreign-owned - Germany 3, Italy 7, Norway 2

Registered in other countries - 18 (2003 est.)

[edit] Airports

[edit] Republic of Ireland

The main airports are Dublin Airport, Shannon Airport and Cork Airport.

Many regional airports exist, some flying to international destinations. For example Ireland West Airport Knock in County Mayo, Galway Airport, Sligo Airport, Kerry Airport and Waterford Airport. Services to the Aran Islands are operated from Connemara Regional Airport.

The Republic's state airline, Aer Lingus provides air services from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to Europe, North America and the Middle East. These three airports are run by the State body, Dublin Airport Authority (formerly Aer Rianta). Two other Irish airlines are Ryanair and Aer Arann.

[edit] Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has three airports. The main one is Belfast International Airport. The others are George Best Belfast City Airport and City of Derry Airport.

[edit] Passenger Numbers

In 2007 the passenger numbers were as follows:

Rank	Airport	Runways	Max Length	Passengers
1	Dublin	3	2637m / 8650ft	23,200,000
2	Belfast International	2	2780m / 9121ft	5,236,055
3	Shannon	2	3200m / 10496ft	3,620,000
4	Cork	2	2133m / 7000ft	3,200,000
5	Belfast City	1	1829m / 6000ft	2,186,877
6	Knock	1	2300m / 7546ft	567,000
7	City of Derry	2	1852m / 6076ft	430,000
8	Kerry	1	2000m / 6562ft	392,000†
9	Galway	1	1350m / 4429ft	300,000
10	Waterford	1	1433m / 4700ft	116,000
11	Donegal	1	1500m / 4900ft	61,410
12	Sligo	1	1200m / 3933ft	34,000†
13	Abbeyshrule	1	799m / 2610ft	3,000†

† Latest available figures for Kerry, Sligo and Abbeyshrule are for 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of Ireland-related topics

[edit] Gateway Irish Urban Reference Destination Distances

Midlands Gateway Urban Destination Distances
The distances given below are in kilometres as travelling through the Midlands gateway ATM (Athlone-Tullamore-Mullingar).
Where it is logical to travel along the East or West coast directly, these distances are provided according to the popular route.
Urban by-passes, Rockades, Diversions, Detours and all other dispositives prolonging the travelled distances between destinations are equated to ZERO.
This is an estimation distance guide only.

×	City /Town 1	City /Town 2	City /Town 3	City /Town 4	City /Town 5	City /Town 6	City /Town 7	City /Town 8	City /Town 9	City /Town 10	City /Town 11	City /Town 12	City /Town 13	City /Town 14	City /Town 15	City /Town 16	City /Town 17	City /Town 18	City /Town 19	City /Town 20	City /Town 21	City /Town 22	City /Town 23	City /Town 24	City /Town 25	City /Town 26	City /Town 27	City /Town 28	City /Town 29	City /Town 30	City /Town 31	City /Town 32
km	Athboy
km	80	Athlone
km	188	241	Ballymena
km	144	221	46	Belfast
km	100	128	298	285	Castlebar
km	232	255	44	91	269	Coleraine
km	368	217	467	424	274	491	Cork
km	60	80	152	136	168	180	300	Cavan
km	40	142	163	120	230	187	309	88	Drogheda
km	80	124	211	168	235	235	259	108	53	M-50 Dublin
km	72	160	127	84	248	152	341	80	37	85	Dundalk
km	248	219	418	375	301	443	78	274	260	211	211	Dungarvan
km	60	40	222	176	130	200	297	40	90	80	120	251	Edgeworthstown
km	184	108	453	407	173	387	140	213	296	243	324	160	148	Ennis
km	120	126	434	168	160	157	363	46	137	154	100	337	86	234	Enniskillen
km	128	96	354	341	92	326	201	160	268	219	249	227	136	80	190	Galway
km	152	124	333	290	250	358	148	178	175	126	207	96	155	150	265	174	Kilkenny
km	160	230	515	472	290	539	87	319	357	308	389	165	296	155	382	215	195	Killarney
km	160	123	409	366	183	417	99	217	251	202	283	119	175	41	280	109	131	114	Limerick
km	40	55	245	197	112	228	284	56	118	105	147	244	15	156	101	156	162	310	202	Longford
km	32	48	215	169	154	232	242	59	75	65	85	216	35	155	121	144	120	261	159	42	Mullingar
km	220	234	89	114	221	50	478	163	188	236	165	430	193	408	107	276	345	476	368	191	221	Derry
km	60	116	244	201	227	269	223	130	86	37	118	175	107	206	193	205	89	272	165	114	72	256	Naas
km	100	80	368	325	174	332	134	169	210	161	242	151	146	84	232	100	93	149	43	153	111	307	124	Nenagh
km	60	179	97	110	199	102	423	72	133	181	110	375	143	338	50	255	290	404	297	128	130	57	201	254	Omagh
km	200	202	375	332	328	400	195	300	217	160	249	117	235	239	363	306	121	280	198	242	200	387	141	202	332	Rosslare
km	180	134	374	392	168	402	119	279	277	227	309	146	214	20	342	94	158	134	28	221	179	352	190	69	329	224	Shannon
km	160	117	215	202	84	187	323	121	201	207	200	334	96	255	75	175	228	338	231	81	123	137	199	195	114	358	216	Sligo
km	260	215	509	466	249	483	118	312	351	302	383	195	289	148	375	175	228	33	107	296	254	434	265	143	398	295	128	297	Tralee
km	60	43	256	213	169	281	207	93	149	101	130	181	80	165	156	138	85	226	124	77	35	256	89	76	204	164	144	158	219	Tullamore
km	160	174	373	330	310	397	123	228	215	166	247	46	205	170	291	236	51	208	129	212	170	385	129	160	329	73	155	289	226	135	Waterford
km	180	189	350	307	315	374	184	244	112	134	224	107	263	228	307	295	110	269	187	228	186	362	129	189	307	19	214	333	285	151	63	Wexford
km	120	170	270	227	280	295	254	204	112	55	144	176	181	281	146	265	132	346	240	188	146	282	75	199	227	109	265	253	340	146	133	84	Wicklow

[edit] External links

• Platform 11 - Ireland's National Rail Users Group
• Meath on Track - Navan railway campaign
• Irish Transport Forums
• A discussion on RTÉ Radio One's science show Quantum Leap about the quality of GPS mapping in Ireland is available here. The discussion starts 8mins 17sec into the show. It was aired on 18 Jan 2007 Requires Real player.
• Coach Hire & Golf Tours Ireland Provide private coach hire & specialist golf tours in Ireland

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