Cork Area Commuter Rail (CACR)

Might be nice if they put two platforms there (Eastbound and Westbound) and had all of the Cobh/Midleton Trains come through, as it's a couple of hundred metres closer to the city centre.

To be honest my biggest desire is that Kent station would get some kind of shopping facilities to help generate more revenue for IÉ and make "getting the train home" a really nice daily commute.

I think it is wishful thinking to say the N/M20 scheme "looks like" including double tracking into Colbert. How many trains between Limerick and Cork/Waterford would you need to justify double tracking?

A half hourly shuttle wouldn't justify the cost of double tracking and there isn't commuter potential on the line. A passing loop will do the job at a fractionofthe price. I doubt we'll see a half hourly service between Dublin and Cork anytime soon, the rolling stock requirements would be big. Money would be better spent on improving the line via Nenagh where at least there are commuters.

The Cork Suburban services will take most of the Mallow passengers, freeing some capacity on the Cork end, the quad tracking into Heuston might see more services from Portlaoise to Dublin on the other end. An hourly service plus a couple of peak time express services between Dublin and Cork would be enough, that could achieve an attractive journey time with the planned speed improvements.

I think you’ll be proven wrong regarding Limerick to Limerick Junction. I think of all the proposed mainline rail projects, it’s the most likely to happen.

The line is already double track to Killonan Junction and there is already a passing loop at Dromkeen.

It is very tightly scheduled at Killonan as it is to offer the connections at Limerick Junction.

In the greater scheme of things it’s not a mega project to double Killonan to Dromkeen and Dromkeen to Limerick Junction.

How long would a passing loop have to be? The half hourly shuttle wouldnt be the only service, there's also direct trains to Dublin and Cork, most likely hourly. Might aswel double track the whole route. There'll be 4 trains per hour per direction at least. Not doable on single track, where current journeys are 25 mins.

I know, i wasn't saying it isn't viable as it clearly is, what i was saying was that i can't see it being done for "reasons"

it is very clear it should be done.

Why is a Railway Order planning permission even needed?

If a single track is being replaced with twin tracks, without any land acquisition or new structures, then IMHO, no planning permission should be needed.

Some good news - the line is to be closed July 2 to July 17 to allow improvement works. Once this is complete, the line will have its off-peak frequency on weekdays doubled to every 30 minutes, or every 15 on the combined section between Cork Kent & Glounthaune.

Also mentioned in the article:

Ah that answers a question I’ve had since I walk on the road along the river a lot and so i saw two piles of what look like ballast sitting on the right side of the line at what was tivoli station.

I disagree. Budgets are limited and you always need to look for cost-effective and affordable options. If I had €100m to spend on capacity improvements I would do 10km on Limerick to Lim Jcn and 15km or so between Athlone an Portarlington, plus extending 4 tracks from Cherry Orchard to Inchicore. The trouble is we do literally almost nothing to improve capacity as it is.

I'm not sure whether doubling on the Midleton line would be my priority by the way. It's probably done because there is special earmarked EU money at stake.

By "avoiding the bridge issues" what do you mean? Single track at the bridges? Not even the NTA would go for such a daft scheme. Earlier we had €60m for S and T work, now €30m for less than 10km of track-doubling. And that's before the almost inevitable cost over-run.

The 30% includes the passing loops. When the line was reopened in 2009 it was constructed as a single line which could be easily upgraded to double track when demand was reached. 3 extended passing loops of 1km in length were also added to allow for higher service frequency than a regular single track line would allow. This is also why the budget is relatively low, as most of the ground work has already been completed.

Sorry, this is wrong. The line was never double so the earthworks need attention. Also the existing track will need to be slewed to accommodate the second track. Finally, there was one crossing loop installed in 2009, a long "dynamic" loop at Carraigtohill. There are facilities for crossing trains at either end (at the Junction and at Midleton), not quite the same thing as crossing loops.

I believe the bridges at Glounthaune (Elm Tree) and immediately adjacent to the west of Carrigtohill are the original bridges and may have been built to single-track width.

I believe that the bridge on station road is original but was built to double track width originally.

Most likely it'd be refurbished 29000s cascaded from Dublin.

The 27x0s are not economical to return to service; they would require a very significant overhaul; with the costs involved of doing that for a small and indeed split fleet (2700s, 2750s and the hybrid - I'd expect that to be just dumped if this was hypothetically being done) just not making sense; whereas it probably would for 116 identical cars.

The consultation for the dual tracking to Midleton is now open. As regards the bridges issue, the project team are saying the existing bridges are ok and don't need modification, or very minor works where necessary, to accommodate dual tracking. Drawings and reports are at the link.

What works are required?

The main element of the Glounthaune to Midleton Twin Track project consists of the provision of a second track over the full extent of the line. These works will largely be contained within the existing railway corridor and will include the following:

• Addition of 2nd track over the full extent of the line;
• Addition of sidings/turn back facilities at Midleton;
• Modification/replacement of bridges and level crossings to facilitate the twin tracking
• Associated signalling upgrades and alterations;
• All associated civil works (retaining walls, boundary treatments, etc.).

All works completed as part of the project will be compatible with future electrification of the Cork Area Commuter Rail network.

While there will be some disruption to services during construction of the new track, this will be kept to a minimum.

https://www.irishrail.ie/Admin/getmedia/0aa1f923-a2e4-4c5e-ae4e-c2d70be4157b/Project-Description.pdf

The works are due to commence in 2023 and continue for 2-3 years. 

Two to three years to lay 10km of track on an existing line? Does this seem slow?

In my head, you could lay at least 100m a day, surely?

Okay, thanks.

Is there a terminus platform for the Dublin trains to use?

They say that most of the work will take place at night and weekends to minimize disruption to the rail service. As they want to keep the line open for service as much as possible this significantly reduces the time available to do the works, hence the longer timeframe.