Write a commentTook a walk up to Newry's all new shiny glass and metal Railway Station. Welcome to the 21st Century Newry (at long last!) First impressions were a bright airy breath of fresh air with plenty of room to take the weight of your feet while you wait for the non stop Dublin train to arrive some time in 2012.
How unfortunate that the bridge at Malahide had to collapse just as Newry got its very own station complete with toilet and wait for it ... A covered walkway between platforms, yippee. The new station has plenty of warm comfortable seating and even an upstairs waiting area where you can watch the world go by but hey it's not my job to praise much better to moan so moan I must.
While I was there a party of about two dozen Icelandic tourists with pockets full of Krona to spend in the city they called New Ree were checking out the tourism brochures on display highlighting all of the extensive calendar of events on in our area, ie Belfast Zoo and The Grand Opera House. I had some difficulty explaining to them in my broken Icelandic that they should have stayed on the train for another 3 stops to take advantage of these 'New Ree' attractions!
Yes where were the local tourism brochures advertising local events, Newry Museum, Town Hall Events, South Armagh, Slieve Gullion etc? Think they might have been in the same place that the coffee/snack/ newspaper shop was - Nowhere to be seen! Even our little bus station has a shop where you can buy bits and bobs.
While I'm at it Park and Ride is fine if you can afford four wheels in these poor poor times but I thought there was supposed to be a bus meeting every train? Surely if bus runs can't meet all trains they should delete some of the runs during the day and not at night, after dark when even I would feel quite lonely hanging about waiting for a lift or taxi. A train came in when I was there and several people asked about a bus service only to be told that the last bus was at 6.30 but hey from next week it runs till 7 - not much use when your train comes in at 7.40!
