Work to get underway on new Dunboyne rail line

paulm17781

brakingnews.ie wrote:

Work is due to get underway this week on a new €160m commuter rail line serving Dunboyne in Co Meath.

The 7.5km track will branch off the Maynooth line at Clonsilla in west Dublin and terminate at the planned interchange with the M3 at Pace.

A 1,200-space car park will be built at the station, making it the biggest park-and-ride facility in the country.

Iarnród Éireann says the new line should be finished within two years and should provide a new travel alternative to thousands of commuters in Co Meath.

I think we've read all this before...

BrianD

Is the electrification of the Maynooth/Dunboyne lines part of this project?

paulm17781

BrianD wrote: »

Is the electrification of the Maynooth/Dunboyne lines part of this project?

That sounds like a lot of forward planning, never a strong point in this country...

strassenwolf

I think this is great news, but (even with the park and ride facility) it does seem like a lot of money.

160 million euro along an alignment which is already there?

I could understand if it was an entirely new route. But it's not!

There may be some variations, but it's essentially the reopening of an old route.

Not underground, not overground along a new alignment, but overground along an old alignment.

Let's say it costs 20 million to build the car park, which I doubt. That leaves a figure of in or around 17-20 million euro per kilometre to rebuild track along a route which is already there. The mind boggles.

Zebra3

strassenwolf wrote: »

I think this is great news, but (even with the park and ride facility) it does seem like a lot of money.

160 million euro along an alignment which is already there?

I could understand if it was an entirely new route. But it's not!

There may be some variations, but it's essentially the reopening of an old route.

Not underground, not overground along a new alignment, but overground along an old alignment.

Let's say it costs 20 million to build the car park, which I doubt. That leaves a figure of in or around 17-20 million euro per kilometre to rebuild track along a route which is already there. The mind boggles.

Totally endorse that.

Except for the €20M for a car park.

covert

They don't own the land - it's all got to be bought back.

BrianD

Thought they had a buy back on the alignment. In the case of the LUAS green line one of the biggest costs was buying the garden sheds on the line that popped up over the years.

dowlingm

To give you an idea of what rail infrastructure costs, a post on RUI noted that to put a second platform on a station with one, with all the accessibility features etc. costs EUR4m.

strassenwolf

Zebra3 wrote: »

Except for the €20M for a car park.

Okay, I probably was being generous to the car park builders - but you just never know in this day and age.:P

dmeehan

from todays Indo:

By Paul Melia

Tuesday November 11 2008

Dublin football star Ciaran Whelan and his Meath counterpart Nigel Crawford joined forces with jockey Johnny Murtagh yesterday to mark the beginning of work on the €160m Clonsilla to Dunboyne railway line.

Work officially began on the 7.5km line yesterday, and Iarnrod Eireann says it will be open by 2010 before being extended to Navan by 2015.

It includes the country's biggest car park at Pace, beside the M3 motorway, where spaces for 1,200 vehicles will be provided.

The line will branch off the Maynooth line at Clonsilla and terminate at the interchange with the M3 north of Dunboyne, at Pace. All services will terminate at Docklands Station, with trains every 30 minutes at peak times, which will be extended to every 15 minutes as demand increases. Off-peak services will run every hour.

Iarnrod Eireann yesterday confirmed the main contract for the project has been signed with SIAC Construction, which will commence construction on site at the start of December.

As well as 7.5km of double track between Clonsilla and Dunboyne, the project includes three new stations.

http://url.ie/vpj

IIMII

BrianD wrote: »

Is the electrification of the ... Dunboyne lines part of this project?

No. Navan section won't be electrified and as the idea is for Dunboyne services to continue to Navan, the rollingstock has to be diesel.

strassenwolf wrote: »

I think this is great news, but (even with the park and ride facility) it does seem like a lot of money.

160 million euro along an alignment which is already there?

I could understand if it was an entirely new route. But it's not!

There may be some variations, but it's essentially the reopening of an old route.

Not underground, not overground along a new alignment, but overground along an old alignment.

Figure seems inflated. But they costed the rollingstock cost of €78m against Phase 1 and then a second time against Phase 2 in the recent scoping study for the same trains - there won't be different rolling stock between Navan and Dunboyne as there will be between Dunboyne and Dublin. On top of that, when the Maynooth line is electrified, the there will be plenty of surplus diesel stock, so effectively the Navan line will be paying (in part) for the DART rollingstock for Maynooth line.

I don't think there is any attempt to make this section look cheap. My understanding was (aside from the land being costed at 2006 development land prices instead of present agricultural prices) that some of the land was being handed over FOC as well.. We'll never know..

IIMII

Makes sense to have M3 contractors build it too - works can run concurrently (as they are at the mo in fact) without difficulties over site access.

Polar101

I am wondering what are the chances that the new line will actually be open "within two years". I don't mean to sound cynical, but I feel "within two years" has appeared quite a few times in within the last two years..

IIMII

So would I be for but for the fact that the works seem to have already started and in some ways it isn't as big a job as you might think. If you look here, you'll see a brief breakdown of the main features of the job at hand. If you use the WRC as a comparison, the main difference between this and Ennis-Athenry is that the land had to be bought out. And wheras E-A is described encompassing these works on the wot site

"The current construction work involves the upgrading of 36 miles of track and associated infrastructure, the elimination of 125 farm/accommodation crossings and the provision of five stations at Gort, Ardrahan and Craughwell (on the Ennis/Athenry section), Sixmilebridge (on the Limerick/Ennis section) and Oranmore (on the Athenry/Galway section). "

Clonsilla Pace is on the other hand other than the trussed bridge refit is

"Both Barnhill bridge on the Lucan-Clonee road and Dunboyne station bridge are to be retained. Stirling bridge on the Dunboyne-Lucan road is to be realligned and due to the replacment of the existing N3 Fairyhouse-Dunboyne road with the new Dunboyne bypass, Bennetstown bridge is deemed obsolete and will be completely removed.
A single new accomodation crossing is proposed for the section to serve Hilltown stud on the Lucan-Clonee road, whilst two additional bridges to accommodate the M3 are already built seperately as part as that (M3) project as well as two culverts to compensate for the the M3 related diversion of the river Tolka at Pace. In total seven existing culverts are to be retained, with four additional ones to be added. The existing large stone arch culvert crossing the Tolka at Bennetstown is to be retained."

It's entirely possible that it'll be on time, particularly when you consider the M3 contractors are already onsite.

So the works on Clonsilla_Pace are almost minor compared to E_A

Zebra3

Not to familiar with the areas the line goes through so is there somewhere to put another station on the line that may have a valid future use?

May be cheaper putting it in now than at some later stage.

IIMII

Hmmm, don't think so.. It's only 4.7 miles long.. The only other spot would be between Hansfield and Dunboyne, but again both are fairly close to each other

spacetweek

IIMII wrote: »

Hmmm, don't think so.. It's only 4.7 miles long.. The only other spot would be between Hansfield and Dunboyne, but again both are fairly close to each other

Are they building Hansfield station as part of this phase? There's no access road as the SDZ isn't being built for several years. I heard that that station was deferred now.

IIMII

spacetweek wrote: »

Are they building Hansfield station as part of this phase? There's no access road as the SDZ isn't being built for several years. I heard that that station was deferred now.

I don't know to be honest - I haven't really kept tabs on it. Hansfield is unique amongst the stations because of the developer element. The phasing of the SDZ scheme was x amount of houses before the station was built and x amount after the station was built. It could well be that the developers can't shift houses at the moment so the imperative for the station is gone for the moment. In terms of local impact, the station is very close to Clonsilla station (which would have a much more frequent service with both Maynooth & Dunboyne trains passing through) - without the extra population from the Hansfield SDZ it could just end up as another Phoenix park ghost station as any commuters from further out will just use Dunboyne & Pace. Sooner or later Hansfield will be developed so it would be paid for then either way

spacetweek

IIMII wrote: »

I don't know to be honest - I haven't really kept tabs on it. Hansfield is unique amongst the stations because of the developer element. The phasing of the SDZ scheme was x amount of houses before the station was built and x amount after the station was built. It could well be that the developers can't shift houses at the moment so the imperative for the station is gone for the moment. In terms of local impact, the station is very close to Clonsilla station (which would have a much more frequent service with both Maynooth & Dunboyne trains passing through) - without the extra population from the Hansfield SDZ it could just end up as another Phoenix park ghost station as any commuters from further out will just use Dunboyne & Pace. Sooner or later Hansfield will be developed so it would be paid for then either way

Yea, there's probably no point building it for now.

Victor

IIMII wrote: »

Clonsilla Pace is on the other hand other than the trussed bridge refit is

"Both Barnhill bridge on the Lucan-Clonee road and Dunboyne station bridge are to be retained. Stirling bridge on the Dunboyne-Lucan road is to be realligned and due to the replacment of the existing N3 Fairyhouse-Dunboyne road with the new Dunboyne bypass, Bennetstown bridge is deemed obsolete and will be completely removed.
A single new accomodation crossing is proposed for the section to serve Hilltown stud on the Lucan-Clonee road, whilst two additional bridges to accommodate the M3 are already built seperately as part as that (M3) project as well as two culverts to compensate for the the M3 related diversion of the river Tolka at Pace. In total seven existing culverts are to be retained, with four additional ones to be added. The existing large stone arch culvert crossing the Tolka at Bennetstown is to be retained."

All those bridges need to be nearly completely rebuilt. Fortunately there is currently only one (modern) at grade crossing.

There is planning permission available for the Hansfield Station and for access roads north and south of it. They may build enough of the structure to minimise later disruption. Another developer is proposing a station at Hilltown on the Meath side of the border, but thats still at a very early stage and may not happen, given the state of the property market.

IIMII

I have a copy of the Hilltown proposal, I just presumed it had been forgotten about. Think they are the guys that rebuilt some stations on the northern line, can't remember exactly.

There are diagrams of the bridge works on the IÉ website

dowlingm

Is Hansfield linked to the Docklands PP? I seem to remember something about that.

IIMII

It was, actually. It was Hansfield that pushed Docklands over the line. One of the planning condition for the x extra number of houses in Hansfield..

thomasjad

was down at where they'll be putting the bridge over the canal at closilla today,looks to be coming along nicely,have all the route as far as the eye can see dug up and are getting ready to put the bridge in by the looks of it

IIMII

Yeah, they were pouring the foundations over the past few weeks. One of the interesting features of the works is the view from the bridge from Dunboyne station to Pace - you can see the large concrete bridge where Pace station will be - the line is as straight as an arrow. Shows how daft the deviations proposed for phase 2 are