I watched ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ on TV recently. A lot has changed since the last time I viewed that same film a generation ago.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the appeal of the train. Quite honestly, I feel that the storyline of the film isn’t worth the hype it received – but the grandeur of the train is what draws people towards the movie.
I am a born-again train lover. For yonks years of my life the train sort of passed me by, (if you’ll pardon the pun) but I am so glad that it never faded out of sight. Now I look forward to any journey which involves a trip by train.
Mullingar to Drumcondra for a match in Croke Park increases the pleasure of my favourite day out. It might be no ‘Orient Express’, but the ‘Sligo Saunterer’ gets you there just the same!
As young boy one of our rare but favourite treats was being brought to Mullingar Train Station to meet an arriving relative, or the other end of the story might be seeing somebody off from the same spot.
There was a constant buzz about the railway station in those days. All manner of people coming and going amidst the hustle and bustle controlled by hoots, bells, whistles and the hiss of the steam engines. I have many pleasant little memories of those visits; one being, that I always had money as soon as our visitor left!
I remember the lemon flavoured lollypops from the shop and one thing I invariably came home with was my name printed on a narrow metal slip. There was a machine on the platform where you could insert a penny and punch out your name on the strip of metal. (Meant for suitcases) A mere decade later and I was throwing a few bottles of ‘Phoenix’ into myself at the station bar!
The train treated us well in Ireland; and then what did we do to repay it? We turned against the choo-choo-train. Got too big for our boots. Sold off the carriages to make henhouses; the iron rails for scrap and the sleepers bought for pennies to make posts, paths and platforms.
This was one of the worst mistakes Ireland made from the time we won our independence. But we were all to blame; we were driven to drive motoring cars whilst the train got left at the station.
Now we are discovering the train again. It is making a comeback, but not half quickly enough. It is the one mode of travel that has retained – not only its old-world charm; but it offers relaxation, safety and social contact.
You can bury yourself in the newspaper, write a bit of a column; chat to the person beside you; or decide to keep your thoughts to yourself.
The sound of metal wheels on metal rails strangely is no way irritating; in fact, it is a reassuring sound and that unique gentle swaying from side to side is positively soothing. And if saving the environment is your thing; well then surely train travel should be your focus.
You can study the countryside and the suburbs and even guess who lives where from the assorted washing hanging out to dry on a multitude of clotheslines!
There is no pleasure in driving our congested roads anymore; buses are better – but nothing comes near the train. Air travel has become so tedious and tense … and that’s before you get off the ground.
Airports overcrowded, security checks are a pain and very often your flight is delayed. (Not so much with ‘our man’ though!) Given the choice, I would take a bullet train before a perturbation plane any day.
For the past twenty years or so, Declan Leonard and his fellow committed workers on the Killucan-Kinnegad Transport Lobby Group have been fighting valiantly to have Killucan train station reopened.
Fair play to them for not giving up despite what appears to be, at the very least, indifference to the indisputable merits of opening a station to a train which literally passes its door.
The catchment area is a very different place from when the station was closed in the early 1960s Population has at least quadrupled since then and more people are travelling to work than ever before.
At the moment, the only choices open to the people going to Dublin are; get on the bumper-to-bumper road in your car – remembering that more people die due to car pollution than due to car accidents – or If you decide to take the train instead; you have to drive either to Enfield, Maynooth or Mullingar.
Some years back a ‘person in the know’ told me that ‘Killucan Station will never reopen’.
I believe that the odds have since shortened considerably; thanks to the aforementioned committee. Good luck, Declan!
Don’t Forget
Isn’t it an awful pity that defective drivers cannot be recalled?
Photo courtesy Facebook Ireland old and New
