Shorter DARTs at off-peak times

strassenwo!f

Around 30 years after opening the DART, and a much longer time running the national rail network, Irish Rail have announced an important discovery which they have made:

It's cheaper to run a short train than a long one.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/smaller-dart-trains-to-run-offpeak-29564094.html

mikemac1

If drivers wanted more money for driving longer trains will they take less money now?

TheBandicoot

It's a multidisciplinary failing that a city the size of Dublin only generates a level of traffic that can be accommodated by a 2car train at a 15min frequency. If the likes of DU, MN, MW and various Luas lines are built they might create a network effect that allows for much larger amounts of people to be fed into DART.

An arguing point I can immediately see(but don't necessarily agree with) is "why should we spend billions building Dart Underground if we are only going to have lightly loaded 2 car trains operating at low frequencies through the super expensive and over built stations?"

donvito99

TheBandicoot wrote: »

"why should we spend billions building Dart Underground if we are only going to have lightly loaded 2 car trains operating at low frequencies through the super expensive and over built stations?"

That's an interesting question. Will a majority of the projected 100m passenger journeys be made during peak times?

Victor

Not really an infrastructure issue.

There is another thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057035740

Cool Mo D

TheBandicoot wrote: »

It's a multidisciplinary failing that a city the size of Dublin only generates a level of traffic that can be accommodated by a 2car train at a 15min frequency. If the likes of DU, MN, MW and various Luas lines are built they might create a network effect that allows for much larger amounts of people to be fed into DART.

An arguing point I can immediately see(but don't necessarily agree with) is "why should we spend billions building Dart Underground if we are only going to have lightly loaded 2 car trains operating at low frequencies through the super expensive and over built stations?"

The reason DART passenger levels are low compared to say, the Luas is because the DART service has actually dis-improved since it was launched.

Originally, the DART ran between Howth and Bray every 15 minutes, and took about 55 minutes.

Now, there are less DARTs on the route, and it takes 109 minutes, despite huge investment.
Fewer DARTs on the Howth branch due to the extension to Malahide, and slower times due to two extra stations, are the standard explanations, but the route extension should have meant adding more services, and signalling investment improvements faster times to compensate.

By now, the Maynooth line should have been electrified, and DARTs should be running at least every 10 minutes, split evenly between Howth and Malahide, with a 50 minute Howth Bray journey time, and fully integrated public transport ticketing.

user040913

strassenwo!f wrote: »

Around 30 years after opening the DART, and a much longer time running the national rail network, Irish Rail have announced an important discovery which they have made:

It's cheaper to run a short train than a long one.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/smaller-dart-trains-to-run-offpeak-29564094.html

I think what they've discovered is that there isn't the demand in Dublin for trains longer than 2 carriages.