Spencer Dock Station

gobdaw

Article in September 2005 edition of "Community Voice", a usually reliable free paper with close links to Dublin 15 Community Council :

"Maynooth rail line may end in Broadstone.

Representatives of Dublin 15 Community Council have expressed anger following a recent meeting with Irish Rail management regarding transport to the area.

While the Community Council welcomed the announcement by Irish Rail that they propose to commence four peak time new morning services and three new peak time evening services as part of a new timetable to be implemented in December, the local delegates were dismayed by some of the detail of these new services.

According to PRO, Charlie Kurtz, “we were informed that three of the morning services will terminate in Connolly station rather than at Pearse while two of the evening services will only run from Connolly. In addition these new services will only use four carriage trains rather than eight carriages.”

The Dublin 15 delegation were also upset to learn that following the allocation of €5m to Irish Rail in the last budget for the design of the new station at Spencer Dock, the company had now been requested to look instead at the possibility of sending the Maynooth services to Broadstone.

“Such a proposal would be disastrous for local commuters,” said Charlie Kurtz. “Not only would we be left in the middle of nowhere but we then have to find our way into the city centre on already crowded public transport with additional time and expense for the already hard pressed commuters of Dublin 15.”

According to Mr. Kurtz, “it now appears as if it is going to be years before we see any significant level of improvement in our services, and it will certainly be some considerable time before we see the much promised DART like service.” "

MarkoP11

Blame the government for not giving the money. I should have clarrification on Thursday/Friday morning

And for god sake you are getting more services shut up and be thankful

It has been clear for nearly 2 years the extra trains would terminate in platform 7 in Connolly, there are other reasons why the trains are only 4 coaches but what is better a single 8 coach train or 2 4 coach ones ? Service frequency and choice always win out

gobdaw

MarkoP11 wrote:

Blame the government for not giving the money.

Agreed, along with tardiness in publishing the ”Ten Year Plan” on transport

MarkoP11 wrote:

I should have clarrification on Thursday/Friday morning

Thank you.

MarkoP11 wrote:

And for god sake you are getting more services shut up and be thankful

Croppies lie down?? While any improvement is, of course, welcome, but the clear objective still remains a properly functioning transport service with rail playing a prominent part. Taxpaying passengers should not “shut up” until we get such a service. Pressure from groups such as Dublin 15 Community Council, Platform11 etc. can only help the emergence of such a service.

MarkoP11 wrote:

It has been clear for nearly 2 years the extra trains would terminate in platform 7 in Connolly,

True, but the article states “The Dublin 15 delegation were also upset to learn that following the allocation of €5m to Irish Rail in the last budget for the design of the new station at Spencer Dock, the company had now been requested to look instead at the possibility of sending the Maynooth services to Broadstone.” That is hardly terminating in Connolly!

MarkoP11 wrote:

there are other reasons why the trains are only 4 coaches but what is better a single 8 coach train or 2 4 coach ones ? Service frequency and choice always win out

Should your question not include the possibility of two 8-coach trains? Service frequency, choice and capacity is even better. Extra trains will attract more passengers leading to continuing overcrowding.

loyatemu

broadstone is not going to be re-opened in the short to medium term. there are currently no solid proposals from anyone to re-open it.

spencer dock is a more likely termination point for future services on the maynooth line but I doubt that will happen anytime soon either.

MarkoP11

It is a bit rich to complain when 3-4 extra services appear, earlier plans where for at most 2. At least with 4 coach trains you can expand to 8 coaches, if IE went down the route of 2 8 coach trains there is no way to expand beyond that. The bulk of these trains will terminate in platform 7 in Connolly, IE have spent a considerable amount of time and money to make this possible. 4 4 coach trains will increase capacity by 2400 in the morning rush that is a very significant increase

Broadstone is not to be seen anywhere on the agenda, again it is poor reporting the number of services from Maynooth into Connolly which continue to Pearse will remain as current any extra trains added would serve the new station which is mean't to be Spencer Dock (Thats IE's, DTO, Dublin Docklands plans). Broadstone is a no go for heavy rail currently for a long list of reasons

dowlingm

Is that lad any relation to Colonel Kurtz?

jubbly

any pictures of the new station ???

MarkoP11

I am happy to confirm that Spencer Dock station is still go and its completion date is still 2007 and this is still on schedule

Broadstone is no where on IE's radar, Spencer Dock is the way

gobdaw

Thanks

loyatemu

MarkoP11 wrote:

I am happy to confirm that Spencer Dock station is still go and its completion date is still 2007 and this is still on schedule

they haven't even turned a sod yet - when are they going to start work?

MarkoP11

10 year plan, 10 year plan etc

The word from IE based on a meeting yesterday is that it is all go, that is all I wanted to hear, they say they are good and everything is going to happen as planned

Broadstone is rubbish

jd

I hope that they get started on the interconnector before the next election - if FG are in Government that turnip Mitchell will try and scupper it.
jd

dmeehan

i assume that they are going to build Spencer Dock so that it can easily incorporate the new interconnecter if/when it is built, rather than having to dif it all up again in x years time

at least the RPA wont be building it (or will they?)

murphaph

dmeehan wrote:

i assume that they are going to build Spencer Dock so that it can easily incorporate the new interconnecter if/when it is built, rather than having to dif it all up again in x years time

Nobody knows the plans for the station yet. Irritating in the extreme. Might be surface, might be subsurface.

dmeehan wrote:

at least the RPA wont be building it (or will they?)

They could well be you know. It's within their remit unfiortunately.

MarkoP11

murphaph wrote:

They could well be you know. It's within their remit unfiortunately.

I think we are safe that the RPA are not going to allowed anywhere near Spencer Dock or the interconnector. You really have to question the very need of the RPA if IE are able to put together an investment program on a scale many times what the Luas was and actually do it on budget and on time, given the history IE are a safe bet

I do get the feeling the RPA and IE are not on the best terms

Victor

Actually running a very basic rail line through Broadstone on one side (west?) of the side should be easy.

There has been talk of connnecting Luas at Smithfield with Broadstone.

Dublin Bus could also terminate some southside busses there instead of Parnell Square.

MarkoP11

As I have mentioned Broadstone is off limits to IE and will continue to be off limits until a metro alignment to the north city passes a public inquiry, that could be 3 years from now or it could be decades I don't know

The railway works order for the Luas extension to the Point serving Spencer Dock is ready for submission it is happening and is parrt of the ten year plan, the same cannot be said of the Ballymun Luas its many years away from reaching that state

Incidental if you build the Ballymun Luas it passes by Glasnevin Junction where much better rail connection opportunities exist, Broadstone has access to just the Maynooth line Spencer Dock has acccess to every line bar the southside thats a big issue