Freight trains return to Dublin Docks

Dublin Docks welcomed their first intermodal freight train departure in six years on the 20th of August.

The train, chartered from Iarnród Éireann by International Warehousing & Transport (IWT), ran to the western freight hub of Ballina in County Mayo fully loaded with shipping containers. The service was seen off by representatives from the port, IWT, the Irish Exporters Association (‘IEA’), Iarnród Éireann and other connected organisations.

Initially the train will operate twice weekly with departures from Dublin on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with return services from Ballina on Monday and Wednesday. IWT is ambitious though and hopes to expand this service to operate five days a week within the next 6 months.

At the launch, IÉ’s Freight Manager, Stephen Aherne, is quoted as saying that he is looking forward to seeing the service expand further in the coming months. Seamus McLoughlin, Head of Operations at Dublin Port Company said, ‘Dublin Port Company remained committed to ensuring that we could continue to handle rail freight through the maintenance of our own rail network within the Port.

‘We acknowledge the efforts of Iarnród Éireann to establish this new rail service and look forward to working with them and our customers with a view to establishing further rail services to and from Dublin Port.’

This new service is also excellent news for the environment as it removes around 4,000 truck journeys from Ireland’s roads and will result in a fall in CO2 emissions annually of around 2,700 tonnes.
Report by Tim Casterton

Article courtesy of RailStaff Newspaper.