[strassenwo!f]

I haven't seen this discussed on the board. It seems IE have now come up with a new idea, broadly along the lines of the abandoned metro west, which will involve a heavy rail connection between the Cork/Galway/Limerick/Westport lines and Dublin Airport. It's all part of IE's vision for Ireland in 20 years time.

http://www.irishrail.ie/media/IrishR...nal_Part11.pdf

[AngryLips]

Where in this massive document do you see that?

[BluntGuy]

I'm not really seeing anything that resembles Metro West.

@AngryLips

The plan to which 'wo!f refers and the costs of such, can be seen in the second document:

http://www.irishrail.ie/media/IrishR...nal_Part21.pdf

[AngryLips]

I've seen this document before. This is probably the only part of any interest to me though:

Guidance suggests that every minute of lateness should be multiplied by 3 to estimate the effect on user disutility. On this basis, a train arriving 10 minutes late is equivalent to an additional journey time of 30 minutes – this is quite a significant penalty.

This has consequential effects on trip planning, where rail users will make an allowance for lateness, thereby incorporating this effect into all journeys – not just those which are late. It can therefore be concluded that achieving a reliable service is more important than reducing journey time, and hence there is a practice of allowing extra time in rail schedules to ensure timely arrival at destinations, at the expense of a faster timetabled journey time.

Ignoring the need to operate an on-time schedule by incorporating tardiness into the timetable and punctuality statistics that fail to measure on-time performance for anything under ten minutes late.

[cgcsb]

the plan is to operate a bus services to connect cork and galway trains to the airport via the new parkway station.

The later parts of their plan are to run Galway and Cork Services to the airport via a spur line to the airport(which IÉ has been told several times won't happen). This depends on the electrification of the Cork and Galway lines (which will not happen before 2025 as the document suggests). It will require quad tracking of the northern line from Connolly to Clongriffin (not happening) it would be quicker to change at parkway for bus connection to the airport via M50 than to continue through DARTunderground and proposed new spur.

Also IÉ ignores the fact that DART underground is a double track system and will become a bottle neck very quickly if they try to force intercity + DART services through

[strassenwo!f]

A number of apologies are in order.

Firstly to AngryLips, for posting the wrong link.

Then to BluntGuy, for having to post the correct one.

I had not actually read the documents, but was relying on reports in the newspapers about IE's vision. These included mentions of the bus service from the Parkway station, to be replaced eventually by a rail connection. Because of the manifold difficulties involved in using the interconnector for intercity trains I automatically and incorrectly assumed that the proposed eventual replacement for this bus service would broadly follow the metrowest idea. cgcsb's post outlines the correct version of what is proposed.

My apologies.

Originally Posted by cgcsb

the plan is to operate a bus services to connect cork and galway trains to the airport via the new parkway station.

The later parts of their plan are to run Galway and Cork Services to the airport via a spur line to the airport(which IÉ has been told several times won't happen). This depends on the electrification of the Cork and Galway lines (which will not happen before 2025 as the document suggests). It will require quad tracking of the northern line from Connolly to Clongriffin (not happening) it would be quicker to change at parkway for bus connection to the airport via M50 than to continue through DARTunderground and proposed new spur.

Also IÉ ignores the fact that DART underground is a double track system and will become a bottle neck very quickly if they try to force intercity + DART services through

[D.L.R.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPQcnjlwtE4

[spacetweek]

Probably need to change the thread title

[strassenwo!f]

Originally Posted by spacetweek

Probably need to change the thread title

What initially caught my eye about what I mistakenly thought was the IE proposal, before realising that it was actually not what was being proposed at all, was my belief that the idea of an IE metrowest mark 2 is actually quite a good one, if dealt with in the correct fashion.

The original metrowest idea was a particularly dim one for a city at Dublin's stage of public transport development. A line which would not have delivered so much as a single sinner directly to the most frequented parts of the city, at a time when there were and are large parts of the city which need public transport to deliver large numbers to the most frequented areas.

It was a travesty to propose it, a shocking attempt at vote-getting, and large amounts of time and money were needlessly wasted on attempts to persuade people of its merits. I hope it has been binned for good.

As a very long term project, a heavy rail line between somewhere around Coolmine/Clonsilla and Heuston Station might have merit, because it could then provide much-needed trains for the proposed interconnector (which obviously isn't going to happen soon, and does have the problem that it appears it won't be utilised to anything like its capacity). If the interconnector does ever happen, these trains would then be able to deliver people directly to much frequented parts of the city.

Any development which happens in West Dublin in the foreseeable future could be directed to areas along this route, so that - in the event of the interconnector being built - these areas would have a direct, fast connection with the busiest parts of the city, and connections between a number of locations in West Dublin. (Rather than people who live in those areas being subjected to pathetic efforts to persuade them of how fantastic it is that they now have a direct connection to the Airport, Tallaght Hospital, any number of out-of-town shopping centres, etc.)

In the longer term, this line might then be extended to Dublin Airport.