Whats Happening to Clongriffin DART Station?

Ernest

Does anyone know whats happening to the new Dart station "under construction" at Clongriffin on the Malahide line? It was scheduled to open in September but so far there has been no news as far as I can see. With the introduction of new rail timetables at the end this month is this new station included as a stop? Has construction work now been completed? Has work on it stopped? When is it due to open now?

ixoy

It doesn't seem to me like there's been any progression in it for the last few months...

Sponge Bob

It is supposed to be built by developer Gerry Gannon and will probably end up in NAMA .

Absurdum

it's supposed to be opening in January 2010!

Bluetonic

It opened in September 2008.

Cookie_Monster

Bluetonic wrote: »

It opened in September 2008.

Just been hidden since then?

Victor

I saw them working there the other day.

Station building and platforms seem to be in place. The public transport bridge is in place, but there is no access from the east side.

Irish Rail have been looking for a contractor to do the overhead power.

I don't see why it can't open in the new year.

skD13

I am a resident in Clongriffin. We have been told by Dublin City Council that the station will open early 2010. That’s the best the council could get from Irish Rail. The station is significantly completed (after extensive delays)… from regular viewing (I check once a week) it looks to me that all that is left is internal fit out. Access from the west (Clongriffin) is in situ and to my knowledge access should also be provided from the east (The Coast development in Baldoyle). The station will be called “Clongriffin” as evidence by the maps on DART carriages. Although previously it was proposed that it be called “Grange Road”.

There are some photos here charting progress with pictures taken in July and early October of this year.

http://www.thecoastresidents.ie/local-updates/clongriffin-dart-station

skD13

Another update. The station is on the new timetables with an * indicating opening date to follow.

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2010/DART%20Timetable%20Nov%2009.pdf

SoupyNorman

My Apartment overlooks the station and I can report that it's being worked on, full steam ahead no less. It may not be totally apparent during the day as most of the work is being done through the night.

About 3 months ago it started and since then, when the last train goes by about 11/12 the guys get to work.

It's logical to assume that if they are putting in such resources and effort then they are looking for an ASAP opening, also as mentioned Clongriffin now appears in the 2010 DART timetable.

It's incredible to think that I rented in Clongriffin in 2007 and was told by the letting agent that the DART station would be open in a few months....well that lease ran out and no DART station, another years lease went by (not in Clongriffin) and now I've moved back only to see a still unopened station...I feel great sorrow for the people who bought in Clongriffin way back when on the promise of a DART station.

By the look of the station it seems like it could be open by March.

Oliver1985

Hey Im living on the coast at the other side the station heres a few pictures on our residents site!
They are at the bottom of this link

http://www.thecoastresidents.ie/local-updates/clongriffin-dart-station

Empire o de Sun

I didn't realise that the station was going to have 4 platforms. How are the going to use them. Are the just going to 4 track locally or as much as they can between Portmarnock and Howth Junction.

Victor

I think it will just be locally. They don't own enough land to do it much further north or south. In theory it could be used for expresses passing local trains, but I don't think the signalling would be capable.

smackyB

Oliver1985 wrote: »

Hey Im living on the coast at the other side the station heres a few pictures on our residents site!
They are at the bottom of this link

http://www.thecoastresidents.ie/local-updates/clongriffin-dart-station

According to that site it will open March 12th...

Roryhy

10th March is what i see

Carawaystick

There are seats on the platforms covered in plastic,
the station signs are on the platforms, I think the electronic signs say "sign under test" or so, the text "keep behind yellow line" is on the platform edges but there's no yellow line yet, the railings are on the stairs up to the station. It seems like it's almost ready to open son enough. There's no rails on the outer ways though, so no overtaking I'd imagine for a while.

dowlingm

good to see forward planning for once.

skD13

That date of the 10th came from Senator Martin Brady who announced it to the Northside people. The 23rd has also been mentioned which is more likely. No official announcement has been made yet by Irish Rail and March is still the month they are aiming for but no date confirmed yet.

I am not at liberty to divulge my sources but I believe them .

Carawaystick

dowlingm wrote: »

good to see forward planning for once.

Forward planning would have been for the developers to have built the station and subsequently sold their flats before the boom bust....

ixoy

Have they done any studies to determine how they're going to shove even more commuters onto already over-packed trains?

Carawaystick

ixoy wrote: »

Have they done any studies to determine how they're going to shove even more commuters onto already over-packed trains?

the auld recession has reduced the passenger numbers a good bit. you can usually get a seat at tara st northbound on darts from 5:45 to 6:08

skD13

Don’t know about reports but certainly there can be no increase in capacity again until the interconnector is built. Numbers are probably down as mentioned due to recession but Clongriffin station is unlikely to add significant numbers anyway. Most users will probably just be re-locating from the neighbouring stations Portmarnock and Howth Junction.

robd

skD13 wrote: »

Don’t know about reports but certainly there can be no increase in capacity again until the interconnector is built. Numbers are probably down as mentioned due to recession but Clongriffin station is unlikely to add significant numbers anyway. Most users will probably just be re-locating from the neighbouring stations Portmarnock and Howth Junction.

That's true. A number of people I know up there currently use Howth Junction. They will just switch.

Also Northside -> City Centre Darts are no longer packed to the gills. That's not to say that you'll get a seat in Killester or Contarf at peak, just that you will be able to get on the train. Was a problem prior to recession.

Also a number of the services are still 6 carriage so there is an option to expand them to 8 carriages. Irish Rail have been holding back due to a drop in numbers. They have spare carriages since their refurbishment programme finished. They have 10 Alstrom carriages that they never use now, due to reliability issues.

Nomad81

There have been some guys working on the main road from Hole in the Wall Road to the Dart station for the past few weeks.

They've also driven some poles into the pavement, presumably for road signs.

Last I checked (saturday), the station looks all but ready to go.

skD13

It's official. Opening April 19th.

http://www.clongriffinresidents.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=492

Ernest

Today's Irish Times has a feature on this in its Commercial Property section. The article mentions again the Mon 19th April opening date.
The link in the previous post to the Clongriffin Residents Association website contains the following additional information which will be important to potential users of the station:

“Clongriffin is due to open on Monday 19th April. In the morning peak, along with the Dart trains, the 0712 Commuter from Drogheda will serve the station at 0758. In the evening peak from the city centre, along with the DART trains, the 1650 Commuter from Bray to Drogheda (1722 from Pearse) will serve Clongriffin. The 1815 Commuter from Pearse to Drogheda will also serve Clongriffin.

This helps overcome the problem of the already published timetable which had only DART (electric) trains stopping at Clongriffin ( no diesels ) which would give a very poor southbound service in the mornings with nearly 40 minutes gap around 8am. The new announcement helps considerably in alleviating this problem. ( Assuming this is indeed true!)

skD13

Ernest wrote: »

Assuming this is indeed true!

It's true. That information came directly via email to residents from a senior official at Irish Rail. The text you reproduced from the site there is verbatim from the email received from this official.

When the original derisory timetable was released in November with 40-50 min gaps in service at rush hour residents started bombarding Irish Rail, newspapers, local elected reps etc. Thankfully it has had some effect.

Service will still be poor during the day until demand increases. But a lot is dependent on the cost of the park & ride. I had a look in the car park a few weeks ago (when the door was open for works I ambled in) and I saw €5 per day on a Q-Park sign. The price will be officially known soon but if it is indeed left at €5 it will be a big problem as this is more than a return ticket to town.

Cookie_Monster

is the original 40 min gap due to no DARTS at all or them simply not stopping there?

Cool Mo D

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

is the original 40 min gap due to no DARTS at all or them simply not stopping there?

No DARTs. The DARTs split very unevenly, and unpredictably between Howth and Malahide, and uncoordinated times for commuter trains mean that there can be 2 trains in 10 minutes at Malahide, followed by 40 minutes wait.

L1011

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

is the original 40 min gap due to no DARTS at all or them simply not stopping there?

No DARTs at all, the northern arm is fairly poorly served as it also gets some of the Drogheda/Dundalk trains stopping.

skD13

The Malahide arm gets less DARTS (electric trains) than the Howth arm. Because of this the diesel commuters currently stop at Portmarnock and Malahide to make up the slack. When the new timetable was released in November NONE of the diesel trains were scheduled to stop at the new Clongriffin station making it a DART only station. But because of the limited DART service on the northern arm that meant huge gaps between stops at Clongriffin.

Needless to say residents were surprised that a brand new station with purpose built park & ride was due to open with gaps in service of 40 to 50 mins at rush hour. So while the neighbouring stations of Portmarnock and Howth Junction, with limited parking, continue to enjoy a decent service, commuters would most likely continue to use these stations over the new one. Seemed like a nonsensical decision to me but Irish Rail threw out the “we will monitor demand” line and review the timetable as appropriate. We (residents) pointed out the “chicken and egg” situation this created and were initially dismissed. But with continued requests/pressure we eventually managed to get some of the diesel trains to stop to fill the biggest gaps at rush hour… as detailed above.

patrickmooney

I know it's never going to happen, but it would make sense to remove the line split at Howth Junction. Have a dedicated service between either HJ and Howth (every 15/20mins) or Malahide. Have HJ act as an interchange....

Captain Chaos

patrickmooney wrote: »

I know it's never going to happen, but it would make sense to remove the line split at Howth Junction. Have a dedicated service between either HJ and Howth (every 15/20mins) or Malahide. Have HJ act as an interchange....

I won't increase DARTs to Malahide. The problem is that Malahide is limited with turn back space for the DARTs and the layout of where the sidings are does not help.

More DARTs to Malahide will clog up the Commuter services.

Clongriffin on the other hand, if its developed right will allow platforms 1 and 4 to be used as passing and overtaking loops. Allowing more DART services to Malahide if timetabled right with Commuter trains as they can use the main line which service platforms 2 and 3.

Ideally you'd want 4 platforms at Malahide with the outer platforms as turnback points for the DARTs instead of having to used the quarry sidings but there is no room for this to happen.

Cool Mo D

Captain Chaos wrote: »

I won't increase DARTs to Malahide. The problem is that Malahide is limited with turn back space for the DARTs and the layout of where the sidings are does not help.

More DARTs to Malahide will clog up the Commuter services.

Clongriffin on the other hand, if its developed right will allow platforms 1 and 4 to be used as passing and overtaking loops. Allowing more DART services to Malahide if timetabled right with Commuter trains as they can use the main line which service platforms 2 and 3.

Ideally you'd want 4 platforms at Malahide with the outer platforms as turnback points for the DARTs instead of having to used the quarry sidings but there is no room for this to happen.

What could be done, however, is to build a third platform and terminating track at Malahide, for the exclusive use of terminating DARTs. This could be built immediately south of the road bridge at the bottom of the station, to the west of the current line.
As terminating trains approach Malahide, instead of continuing to the current platform 2, or crossing over to stop at platform 1, they would pull into the new platform and wait there, out of the way of through trains, before crossing over and heading south.

shamwari

Cool Mo D wrote: »

What could be done, however, is to build a third platform and terminating track at Malahide, for the exclusive use of terminating DARTs. This could be built immediately south of the road bridge at the bottom of the station, to the west of the current line.
As terminating trains approach Malahide, instead of continuing to the current platform 2, or crossing over to stop at platform 1, they would pull into the new platform and wait there, out of the way of through trains, before crossing over and heading south.

The better thing to do would have been to build a new station in Malahide down where the quarry sidings are now. The could have had several platforms to stop terminating and through trains. In addition, there is ample land adjacent to that site for a fairly big car park, and it would have addressed many of the shortcomings of the existing station.

The right thing to do was never send the DART to Malahide in the first place and instead, they should have intensified the diesel service out of Drogheda. If they electrify as far as Balbriggan / Skerries a lá Transport21, we are going to see the same DART chicanery as we do in Malahide, only this time it will be much further out in the north county, and with a more profound effect on performance and punctuality. The potential will be there for them to balls things up royally if they don't plan and run it all properly. It will be far better if they electrify all the way to Drogheda.

To conclude, the current shambolic mess with one of the running lines through Malahide blocked with a terminating DART illustrates the dangers of political interference in running of our railways. :mad:

Carawaystick

I'll see your Malahide and raise you Greystones.....

There's room north of Balbriggan to put a third track in to turn the darts around. Put the darts on a new centre track and get the driver to swap ends.

Trains terminate in Balbriggan as it is.

bg07

Timetable is up on Irishrail website

Clongriffin Dart Timetable

Carawaystick

first train north on a Sunday is at 10:30!
No train south between 7:58 and 8:22!

skD13

That’s not bad considering that 7:58 train was originally not scheduled to stop on the timetable that was released in November!

Oliver1985

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=709

Carawaystick

I wonder will there be exit signs point to the left and right with no other information once passengers climb up the stairs from the platforms like HJ&D

Zebra3

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0420/1224268699721.html

Construction of the €22 million station...

Wtf??? That's unbelievable!!! :eek:

foggy_lad

Zebra3 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0420/1224268699721.html



Wtf??? That's unbelievable!!! :eek:

but the construction cost us nothing, it was paid for by the developers but irish fail are responsible for design and running it. 17 minutes into the city centre, i presume they mean connolly ststion?

donaghs

Any thought on this now that's its open? Is there much uptake from much fron local people?

With hindsight, I don't think that they should ever have built Clongriffin "town", what with all the vacant property around. But its too late now.

Any noticeable delay the Diesel Commuter trains?

ixoy

donaghs wrote: »

Any thought on this now that's its open? Is there much uptake from much fron local people?

There's definitely less people at Portmarnock in the morning and I see a good number getting on/off at Clongriffin and right from the first day too. I imagine a lot of people bought out there on the promise of a station that was delivered years late.

Carawaystick

donaghs wrote: »

Any noticeable delay the Diesel Commuter trains?

There's an 8:25 train that leaves Connolly after half eight most mornings since it opened. It's not late though because it's only 9 mins late....

Nomad81

I live next to the station and the number of people taking both the 7:58 and 8:22 into town every morning seems to have grown since it has opened. A lot of people are getting off at the station in the evenings as well.

I haven't had a chance to check out the park & ride facility yet, as well as the number of cars parked there during the day.

Cookie_Monster

Carawaystick wrote: »

There's an 8:25 train that leaves Connolly after half eight most mornings since it opened. It's not late though because it's only 9 mins late....

the measurement changed to 5mins being the criteria to be classed as late sometime last year. Thats only at the destination though, not intermediary stops.

loyatemu

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

the measurement changed to 5mins being the criteria to be classed as late sometime last year. Thats only at the destination though, not intermediary stops.

that was only for the Dart afaik.

Cookie_Monster

loyatemu wrote: »

that was only for the Dart afaik.

really?
thats a bit crap isin't it.

skD13

The Park & Ride is now open down there at €1 per day. Might bring some more users in. That's a temporary price I think. But temporary could be a long time until something happens here re. businesses opening etc.