Córas Iompair Éireann
Encyclopedia
Córas Iompair Éireann (ˈkoːɾˠəsˠ ˈʊmˠpˠəɾʲ ˈeːrʲən̪ˠ, Irish Transport System), or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation
of the Irish state
, answerable to the Irish Government
and responsible for most public transport
in the Republic of Ireland
and, jointly with its Northern Ireland
counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company
, between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The company is headquartered at Heuston Station
, Dublin. It is a statutory corporation whose members (the Board) are appointed by the Minister for Transport
.
, Bus Átha Cliath — Dublin Bus
and Iarnród Éireann — Irish Rail
, the three largest internal transport companies in Ireland. It was originally to operate the Luas
tram system in Dublin, but that project was transferred to the newly created Railway Procurement Agency
.
CIÉ's services are provided through the three operating companies:
CIÉ is responsible for the overall strategy of the group. It owns all fixed assets used by the three companies such as railway lines and stations, dealt with through the Group Property division. It also operates the international tour division, CIÉ Tours International. The vast number of advertising sites are organised through Commuter Advertising Network (CAN), since the mid-1990s employing an external company (currently CBS Advertising
) to manage them. There are also a number of shared services to the three companies provided by CIÉ.
Except on the railways CIÉ is not a complete monopoly, as a number of other operators
exist, but under the Transport Act 1932 they cannot compete directly with CIÉ on routes for which it has a licence.
Córas Iompair Éireann was formed as a private company by the Transport Act 1944 and incorporated the Great Southern Railways Company and Dublin United Transport Company
, adopting the logo of the latter company, "the flying snail". Great Southern Railways was incorporated in 1925, having been Great Southern Railway since 1924. It was essentially a monopoly
on transport as it started to broaden its business interests into road transport. The Transport Act 1950 amalgamated CIÉ and the Grand Canal Company
and formally nationalised CIÉ, changing its structure from a private limited company to a board appointed by the Minister for Transport. The Northern Ireland
Great Northern Railway Act, 1958 transferred the lines of Great Northern Railway Board
south of the border to CIÉ.
Until 1986 CIÉ operated as a single legal entity, although it was internally organised into rail services and two bus divisions - Dublin City Services and Provincial Services. The vast majority of services were branded CIÉ, although long distance provincial buses were branded "Expressway" and Dublin electric trains DART
. In 1987 CIÉ was reorganised into a holding company and three operating companies. In 1990 it sold its nine Great Southern Hotels to Aer Rianta, the airports authority, including the hotel in Derry
, Northern Ireland
.
For most of its existence it made large losses and was subsidised by the taxpayer, particularly the railways division, and this caused the public and politicians to demand "make CIÉ pay". Thus, similar to the pattern in many countries, Ireland's railways were rationalised and faced severe cutbacks while the road division was expanded.
The Tilly Baker report found an amount of corporate malpractice in 2004-08. CIÉ did not pass on the report to their minister until it was mentioned in the media
.
Losses in 2009:
Current government policy is that CIÉ should be abolished, with the three individual companies focusing on their own business areas and thus increasing competitiveness. Despite this, legislation to enact this change had not been published by 2008. In the meantime, the biggest change to CIÉ's operational structure since 1987 will come with the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority
, which will have powers over CIÉ's operations in the Greater Dublin Area
. The Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 also gives the Minister for Transport instead of the chairman of CIÉ the power to appoint the directors of the subsidiary companies. CIÉ is paid a "public service obligation
" on most routes.
Statutory Corporation
A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...
of the Irish state
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, answerable to the Irish Government
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...
and responsible for most public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
and, jointly with its Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company
Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company
The Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company is a government-owned body which was established in 1967 to take over the railway and bus services of the Ulster Transport Authority , namely Northern Ireland Railways and Ulsterbus...
, between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The company is headquartered at Heuston Station
Dublin Heuston railway station
Dublin Heuston , commonly called Heuston Station , is one of Ireland's main railway stations, serving the south, southwest and west. It is operated by Iarnród Éireann , the national railway operator...
, Dublin. It is a statutory corporation whose members (the Board) are appointed by the Minister for Transport
Minister for Transport (Ireland)
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is the senior minister at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in the Government of Ireland.The current Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is Leo Varadkar, TD...
.
Services
Since the enactment of the Transport (Re-organisation of Córas Iompair Éireann) Act, 1986 CIÉ has been the holding company for Bus Éireann — Irish BusBus Éireann
Bus Éireann provides bus services in Ireland with the exception of those operated entirely within the Dublin Region, which are provided by Dublin Bus. Bus Éireann, established as a separate company in 1987, is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. The logo of Bus Éireann incorporates a red Irish...
, Bus Átha Cliath — Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus is a public transport operator in Ireland. It operates an extensive bus network of 172 radial, cross-city and peripheral routes and 18 night routes in the city of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. The company, established in 1987, is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann which is...
and Iarnród Éireann — Irish Rail
Iarnród Éireann
Iarnród Éireann is the national railway system operator of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann . It operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the Republic of Ireland, and, jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, the...
, the three largest internal transport companies in Ireland. It was originally to operate the Luas
Luas
Luas , also promoted in the development stage as the Dublin Light Rail System, is a tram or light rail system serving Dublin, the first such system in the decades since the closure of the last of the Dublin tramways. In 2007, the system carried 28.4 million passengers, a growth of 10% since...
tram system in Dublin, but that project was transferred to the newly created Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency
Railway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...
.
CIÉ's services are provided through the three operating companies:
- Dublin Bus provides busBusA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
services in the Greater Dublin area, including most bus services within Dublin city and the former County DublinCounty DublinCounty Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...
. - Bus Éireann provides intercity and regional bus services outside Dublin city and county and from Dublin to the rest of the country. It also operates the city buses in CorkCork (city)Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, LimerickLimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, WaterfordWaterfordWaterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
, and GalwayGalwayGalway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
and a number of other small urban bus systems. - Iarnród Éireann operates InterCity and Commuter trains, and together with NI Railways it operates the Dublin–BelfastBelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
Enterprise train.
CIÉ is responsible for the overall strategy of the group. It owns all fixed assets used by the three companies such as railway lines and stations, dealt with through the Group Property division. It also operates the international tour division, CIÉ Tours International. The vast number of advertising sites are organised through Commuter Advertising Network (CAN), since the mid-1990s employing an external company (currently CBS Advertising
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
) to manage them. There are also a number of shared services to the three companies provided by CIÉ.
Except on the railways CIÉ is not a complete monopoly, as a number of other operators
Public Transport Operators in Dublin
A large number of companies operate public transport services in Dublin, most of which are state owned or semi-state owned.-Rail:* Iarnród Éireann, a subsidiary of state-owned Córas Iompair Éireann, operates all rail services in Dublin including the DART....
exist, but under the Transport Act 1932 they cannot compete directly with CIÉ on routes for which it has a licence.
History
Dublin United Transport Company
The Dublin United Transport Company operated trams and buses in Dublin, Ireland until 1945. Following legislation in the Oireachtas , the DUTC and the Great Southern Railways were vested in the newly formed Coras Iompair Éireann in 1945.-Formation:The DUTC was formed by the merging of several of...
, adopting the logo of the latter company, "the flying snail". Great Southern Railways was incorporated in 1925, having been Great Southern Railway since 1924. It was essentially a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on transport as it started to broaden its business interests into road transport. The Transport Act 1950 amalgamated CIÉ and the Grand Canal Company
Grand Canal of Ireland
The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west,via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin's inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the...
and formally nationalised CIÉ, changing its structure from a private limited company to a board appointed by the Minister for Transport. The Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
Great Northern Railway Act, 1958 transferred the lines of Great Northern Railway Board
Great Northern Railway (Ireland)
The Great Northern Railway was an Irish gauge railway company in Ireland.The Great Northern was formed in 1876 by a merger of the Irish North Western Railway , Northern Railway of Ireland, and Ulster Railway. The Ulster Railway was the GNRI's oldest constituent, having opened between Belfast and...
south of the border to CIÉ.
Until 1986 CIÉ operated as a single legal entity, although it was internally organised into rail services and two bus divisions - Dublin City Services and Provincial Services. The vast majority of services were branded CIÉ, although long distance provincial buses were branded "Expressway" and Dublin electric trains DART
Dublin Area Rapid Transit
The Dublin Area Rapid Transit is part of the suburban railway network in Ireland, running mainly along the coastline of Dublin Bay on the Trans-Dublin route, from Greystones in County Wicklow, through Dublin to Howth and Malahide in County Dublin.Trains are powered via a 1500V DC overhead catenary...
. In 1987 CIÉ was reorganised into a holding company and three operating companies. In 1990 it sold its nine Great Southern Hotels to Aer Rianta, the airports authority, including the hotel in Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
Financial losses and the future
CIÉ was established to provide road and railway transport, and later took on some of the canals and ports. It was empowered as both a provider and a licensor of other providers.For most of its existence it made large losses and was subsidised by the taxpayer, particularly the railways division, and this caused the public and politicians to demand "make CIÉ pay". Thus, similar to the pattern in many countries, Ireland's railways were rationalised and faced severe cutbacks while the road division was expanded.
The Tilly Baker report found an amount of corporate malpractice in 2004-08. CIÉ did not pass on the report to their minister until it was mentioned in the media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
.
Losses in 2009:
- Iarnrod Eireann / Irish rail — €4.0m
- Bus Eireann — €54.1m
Current government policy is that CIÉ should be abolished, with the three individual companies focusing on their own business areas and thus increasing competitiveness. Despite this, legislation to enact this change had not been published by 2008. In the meantime, the biggest change to CIÉ's operational structure since 1987 will come with the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority
Dublin Transport Authority
The National Transport Authority is the transport authority for Greater Dublin and the public transport licencing agency for the entire Republic of Ireland. It was established under the provisions of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 and the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, on 1...
, which will have powers over CIÉ's operations in the Greater Dublin Area
Greater Dublin Area
Greater Dublin Area , or simply Greater Dublin, is a term which is used to describe the city of Dublin and various counties in the hinterland of the city in Ireland. The term has no basis in law and no local government, department of government or agency of the state is bound by the term...
. The Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 also gives the Minister for Transport instead of the chairman of CIÉ the power to appoint the directors of the subsidiary companies. CIÉ is paid a "public service obligation
Public Service Obligation
In transport, public service obligation or PSO is an arrangement in which a governing body or other authority offers an auction for subsidies, permit the winning company a monopoly to operate a specified service of public transport for a specified period of time for the given subsidy...
" on most routes.
See also
- Coaching Stock of IrelandCoaching Stock of IrelandA wide variety of hauled coaches have been used on the railways of Ireland. This page lists all those since 1945.-Republic of Ireland:When formed in 1945, Córas Iompair Éireann inherited from its constituents a motley collection of coaching stock from various manufacturers, in equally variegated...
- Diesel Locomotives of IrelandDiesel locomotives of IrelandAlthough prototype diesel locomotives ran in Britain before World War II, the railways of both the Republic and Northern Ireland changed over much more rapidly from steam to diesel traction, in the 1950s than those in Britain, due to the island's limited coal reserves and ageing steam locomotive...
- Multiple Units of IrelandMultiple Units of IrelandA wide variety of diesel and electric multiple units have been used on Ireland's railways. This page lists all those that have been used. Except with the NIR 3000 class the numbers given by each class in the lists below are those allocated to the coaches that make up the units in that class,...
- Rail transport in IrelandRail transport in IrelandRail services in Ireland are provided by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland and by Northern Ireland Railways in Northern Ireland.Most routes in the Republic radiate from Dublin...
- Railway Procurement AgencyRailway Procurement AgencyRailway Procurement Agency is a State Agency of the Department of Transport in the Republic of Ireland charged with the development of light railway and metro infrastructure...
- Steam Locomotives of IrelandSteam locomotives of IrelandA wide variety of steam locomotives have been used on Ireland's railways. This page lists all those that have been used in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland...
- Transportation in Ireland