Raise and fall of Irish railway

The history of the Irish railway began in 1834 when the first section of the track was built between Dublin and Kingstown (although planned to start rail service between Limerick and Waterford).

The track gauge in Ireland is 1600 mm wide and called the "Irish gauge". In the world, it's being used in the Australian state of Victoria, South Wales and in Brazil. Interestingly, the first three Irish railways had different gauges - 1435 mm, 1575 mm and 1880 mm. But then they were all unified to one standard.

In the 1920s, at its peak, Irish railways had 5630 km - 20 primary lines, about 25 so-called "independent" sections, and a monorail between Listowel and Ballybunion (operated from 1888 to 1924).

After the Republic of Ireland gained independence, the border sections of the railways were the first to suffer, especially in co. Donegal. The Second World War also had a negative impact on the state of railway transport - coal supplies ceased, and trains refused to ride on peat and often broke down, inexorably reducing passenger traffic due to growing distrust in the reliability of travel.

In the 1950s and 60s, when Ireland was in economic depression, many lines were closed - just over 3,500 km of railway network remained in the Republic.

At the same time, they tried to modernize the remaining primary lines as much as possible - dieselization and the subsequent electrification of lines, government orders for new cars and better rails made it possible to improve throughput and significantly increase travel safety.

To date, the railway network is controlled by the Irish company Iarnród Éireann - there are only 147 stations and 2400 km of tracks in the Republic. The government is trying to make every effort to revive the system - comfortable Hyundai "run" between cities, railway transport is much cheaper than bus service, and there are even statistics at the stations that demonstrate the reliability and punctuality of trains.

The best practice is to buy tickets online - the cost will be almost half as much as at the ticket office at the station. Passengers can print their tickets in a ticket machine on the railway station, using the reservation number. My test ride was from Ennis to Limerick. The three-coach Hyundai Rotem, clean and comfortable, covered the distance between cities in 30 minutes (twice as fast as a bus) and cost 5 euros (half the price of a bus).

The main disadvantage of the trip is the neighbors in the coach. The Travelers (Irish gypsies) prefer rail transport due to its cheapness, and their children jump, run, and play noisy games during the trip. You can endure it for half an hour, longer - thanks but no thanks.

Fun fact: while the government of the Republic is thinking about how to revive railway transport, the county authorities are developing their own initiatives - for example, in co. Mayo, the abandoned railway turned into a "green" 44km cycle track called "Great Western Greenway".