Your vision for the perfect rail system?

silverharp

it's a what if, but given that Ireland is a small area and population density is low, should the long term vision of a rail system be, one where say you have single carriage trains (luas size or smaller) which run every 15 minutes say on routes from dublin to cork galway etc., the trains could be driverless to ensure safety. It seems this would allow more line to be created as opposed to te trend to date. Any thoughts.

Chris_533976

There will never be a driverless train I dont think eg: London Underground is 99% automatic, with the driver just sitting there incase something goes wrong

bk

Well the ultimate would be high speed trains like the TGV that could do Cork to Dublin in less then an hour, say every 30 minutes.

That would almost allow you to commute from the likes of Cork to Dublin.

More realistically I'd like to see our existing trains doing Cork to Dublin in 2 hours, every hour. With far better arrangements for booking seats, etc.

embraer170

That would almost allow you to commute from the likes of Cork to Dublin.

What would be the interest in that? The SNCF French railways actively discourage long distance commuting (arguably too much so)...

Ham'nd'egger

The ideal vision in my eyes are as follows....

1) 100 minute running Dublin to Belfast, with a 60 minute wait daytime (More at rush hours) between departures and late night services between same.
2) 120 Minute runnings Dublin Cork, again with 60 minute intervals, with speed being increaseds where possible.
3) Trains to Sligo, Limerick, Galway, Westport, Waterford, Tralee to get 5-9 services to and from Dublin daily.
4) Double track to Galway as much as possible, 3-4 track to Kildare and Portmarnock, double track Mullingar to Maynooth; expand DART westside and reopen MGWR Navan route as double track.
5) 8 Car suburban running on Dublin on all services rush hour with up to 5 minute runnings where possible.
6) Reopen the Derry Line from both Portadown and Dundalk; this will open up Mid Ulster and the border regions, as well as linking Dublin to Derry directly and Donegal.
7) Introduce massive freight subsidies to incentivise goods back to the railways, especially for heavy goods (Oils, Liner, minerals, keg beer, car deliveries etc).
8) Build the Tallaght loop line via Lucan, Baldonnell, Citywest and Fortunestown to allievate these massive growth areas early in their lives AFTER the Kildare corridor project rather than a Luas extension or branch. Upgrade Luas to Metro where possible, and build Airport Baldoyle spur.
9) Invest in railcars to connect to trains passing the WRC and Limerick Rosslare line.

Comments more than welcome

bk

embraer170 wrote:

What would be the interest in that? The SNCF French railways actively discourage long distance commuting (arguably too much so)...

Well as it is, I work from home about 3 days a week. If such a service existed I could live in Cork and would only need to come up two days a week for meetings, etc.

We live in a modern society where work practise are starting to change radically.

dame

Far more frequent trains (every 15 mins at least) on all commuter routes (like Kildare, Maynooth etc), so that everybody gets a seat and you're not waiting forever in Heuston if you miss a train.

And horizontal handrails up high (between the vertical yellow handrails) on the Luas. More people could fit in cos if people had something to hold onto they might move further in along the carriage. I'd put a ban on anyone who isn't elderly or disabled getting on the Luas if they're only going one or two stops. What's wrong with a little fresh air people? Might even do some people good!

Victor

dame wrote:

I'd put a ban on anyone who isn't elderly or disabled getting on the Luas if they're only going one or two stops. What's wrong with a little fresh air people? Might even do some people good!

Some people would then travel, say, 5 stops and get a tram back 3 stops. The means to discouraging short-hop trips is a high lowest fare.

Red Alert

London's Victoria and Central lines are almost fully automatic. No others are fully automated.

My main visions:

Not using dogs for mens errands
The 2x000's have a terrible reputation amongst passengers. Much of it is technical inferiority and a lot of it is misuse by the company. The description of 'tincan with an engine strapped on' is what a lot of people including myself think of them. About the only thing they would be fit for is to have the engines disabled and pull them with a locomotive, people might actually like them when there's less noise. I would particularly love to seem them scapped immediately or sold as henhouses. They are much more inefficient than locos and put out more harmful greenhouse gases.

Learn more words beginning with 'R'
IE know one word beginning with 'R', Replace. This mentality has brought us some good things like the Mk4, but has also brought the 201's, 2x000's and a lot of other duds along for the ride. Other words beginning with 'R' they might look up are: refurbish, repurpose, rebuild. With a partial refit, the Mark 3's would see many more year's service. The baby GM's would have lasted another 10 years at least. Cutting up workable locomotives in a country where so much poverty exists is disgusting.

Useful Signage and Passenger Information
A company that has 2/3 competing websites is a joke. None of the websites are well programmed, and all run on ASP/MS platform which is not robust enough for a transport company. Heuston station is on Destination Signage System No. 4 since I came on the earth, in my opinion none ever worked properly since the old 'flip-flip' unit they used to have.

Close the 'PR' department
The PR department appears to be running Irish Rail. Comical Ali and Joseph Goebbles would have been well impressed.

carrotcake

Victor wrote:

Some people would then travel, say, 5 stops and get a tram back 3 stops. The means to discouraging short-hop trips is a high lowest fare.

which they have already!

dowlingm

1. Set targets of increasing usage every year beyond population increase and dedicate ongoing money to projects beyond "state of good repair".
2. Remove all impediments to safe 100mph operation between Mallow and Heuston such as the track at Limerick Junction and Portarlington. Buy lightweight powercars for the Mk4s to release 201s to increased Belfast.
3. Reopen Navan-Drogheda and Mullingar-Athlone to passenger.
4. Shorten the Belfast-Dublin Enterprises and add DVTs, also put Mk3s in service for a more frequent operation. Extend Metro North to the Belfast line.
5. Institute a new stop in Borris-in-Ossory and a fast direct curve to the Dublin line, deleting the stop at Ballybrophy. Institute a shuttle from Castleconnell to Plassey/UL.
6. Double track some if not all of the Limerick-Limerick Junction line. Rework the timetable so that the Rosslare line is no longer a through service but a combo of Limerick commuter and NW and E Waterford commuters with Clonmel rather than LJ being the focal point. Consider a Limerick Junction platform on the Limerick line and one or more P&R stations at Oola or Pallasgreen.
7. Build a 75mph spur line between Shannon Airport/Free Zone/Town-Bunratty-Cratloe with an option to continue the line to rejoin the Ennis line at or NW of Sixmilebridge. Consider a stop at Longpavement. Integrate Nenagh, Ennis and Shannon (and future Adare) schedules as is being done with Cork suburban.
8. Tear out any remaining city centre freight depots but only with the purpose of building new ones in the outskirts - HGV movements required to service railheads are unacceptable in modern urban centres. Reopen Foynes to freight traffic and look seriously at a rail connected Balbriggan Port.
9. Justify the need for Rosslare Harbour as an IE operation and as a passenger stop with the alternative as disposing to the private sector in favour of building freight facilities at rail connected docks and operating a bus shuttle to the ferry.

Chris_533976

Railway links to all major airports (Read: Shannon, Cork, Dublin).
Railway links to all major ports (esp. Ringaskiddy in Cork)

Murtinho

I live over 80km's outside of Stockholm and i can get a train every half hour all morning and be there in a mere 30 minutes. There are others going in between that stop on the way and they take a "whopping" 40 minutes. From the same building (central station) i can get a subway, going ever 8-12 minutes or so to more or less anywhere in town.

It's amazing that Gorey is more of less 80km's from Dublin city centre yet takes god knows how long (1½-2 perhaps??) for a train to make it's way up.