Cross-border review of rail network officially launched

Let's drop the notion of Derry - Dublin direct line. Fantasy at best. That's fair!

How about we have some vision for a new high speed line connecting Dublin and Belfast.

These are the 2 largest population centres on the island. We could start planning (30+ year plan) for a new High Speed line. A second phase could extend to Cork.

I don't buy the argument that we can't do ANYTHING anymore because "...look how much that other project cost".

Well I don’t think that you can ignore the political history when it comes to rail investment.

I just don’t see brand new high speed rail lines happening here. I don’t think you need them.

By putting the right investment in the infrastructure of the two existing main lines (Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Belfast), significant journey time improvements can be delivered, not just for end-to-end journeys but people using intermediate stations and other lines that feed off them will benefit too.

It will need some big decisions, such as four tracking parts of the northern line, but I think that you can deliver a lot more value going down the route of adding more track capacity on the existing lines, eliminating permanent speed restrictions and recasting the timetables to deliver better connectivity.

I hear your point but if we had a high speed rail link between Cork Dublin Belfast, this would become commutable. It's not about holidays or going home to see Mammy.

I already know a number of people who live in Cork (moved home during COVID) and now work in Dublin 2/3 days a week and WFH the remainder.

not even near metrolink levels of investment at all really, and even metrolink is cheap enough in terms of infrastructural investment compared to say, a rural motor way scheme.

doesn't have to be from navan, however taking in cavan town, the main towns in monaghan and donegal where they aline on a reasonable route wouldn't be a green field route but would be a route that happens to run some green field parts like every other railway in the country.

I'm in favour of improving the connectivity between the three large population centres. But I feel we desperately need to draw in more day-to-day end users with commuter rail as a priority.

Regarding people who live in Cork and work in Dublin, this is a sub-optimal scenario for most people, and it's likely subsidised by current housing problems in the Dublin area. As someone who has done this, and knowing others who have done this, it is not a viable long-term option for very many people and I don't know if we should really be hoping to grow that group significantly. It would be quite similar to the people I know who live in Cork and work in London. I don't think it's something we need to focus on as the top rail priority in Ireland.

It would be preferable as far as I'm concerned to make train commutes into urban areas easier and more attractive for short-distance and medium-distance commuters. So better integration with other modes, more commuter lines and stations, higher frequency, etc.

In addition, having travelled the Cobh-Belfast route this year, by far my biggest irritations were the comfort of the carriages and the wait times between connections in Cork and Dublin. But I'd still choose rail over car in a heartbeat. The overall journey time was not so poor by rail that I was dissuaded from using it. As a long-distance commuter, I would probably prioritise better comfort (including better internet and the ability to work en-route) and easier transfers/connections, over an hour or two less of overall journey time. The only competition from the car comes when you reach the journey end-points and can't easily get to your final destinations.

Just my own opinion!

Class. That Oireachtas link is a must read.

Talk of beefing up rail freight together with regional ports to support industry such as offshore wind. Took them long enough but finally some bigger vision for Ireland!!

Is there actually much potential for freight in Ireland? Or has there been any demand for it? It makes a lot of sense in other environments - when you have very large distances to cover and huge bulk to deal with and timing isn't critical. In that situation it can compete but over shorter distances and for less-bulkier items I just can't see many businesses deciding to move goods to the nearest freight head, wait for the next freight train, arrange someone to deal with it at the other end when they could just load the stuff onto a truck and use the motorway network and achieve door-to-door (or door-to-port/airport/warehouse/etc) in a few hours day or night - when every they need to.

Regarding emissions, electric trucks are already available and are clearly the future given their huge fuel savings, and would be cleaner than using diesel freight-trains. Roll-on/roll-off is the current model for ports.

Logistics is a very competitive business, I just can't see how (except in very specialised cases) rail-freight will be able to compete on price at all, never mind be cheap enough that will compensate for the lack of scheduling flexibility for customers and extra cost hassle. Not exactly the same, but Irish Rail's previous attempts to compete with DHL and such services were a disaster and lost money while offering awful service.

I read the Irish Times article about what's in the all Ireland rail review. It talks of a brand new portadown to Letterkenny rail line. I'm actually quite disappointed, it seems that this document is quite simply an exercise in fantasy.

I would have liken a document based in realism, one that focused on long needed improvements such as: double tracking Portarlington to Athlone, kildare to kilkenny and Athenry to Galway, improving Limerick Junction, intercity electrification, improving speeds to over 200kmh, improving the service on lesser used lines eg ballybrophy branch and Waterford to Limerick, increased frequency on intercity routes, extensions to Navan and the ports, perhaps even Ringiskiddy.

Building new routes to Donegal is just fantasy, at present it is not possible to get from Belfast to Dublin for a 9am meeting by train, a distance of less than 200km and its the main line between the 2 largest cities with a catchment area population in excess of 3 million people, that is simply abysmal and would not be accepted anywhere else in Europe, we need to start there with the absolute basics and reverse 100 years of neglect of the railway instead of crayoning.

There also seems to be no acknowledgement of the fact that northern Ireland is flat broke and Britain will never invest in its infrastructure in any serious monetary amounts. The NI DFI has pretty much stopped road building and will leave Derry unconnected by dual carriageway for the foreseeable.

Yip, no point in talking about other things when you can't even get the basics right. We need to strengthen the core network before even considering reopening lines running through empty countryside.

Realistically, DART+ and the Cork suburban networks are going to take the rest of this decade to deliver, should also get a few other bits done in that time like LC removals between Mallow and LJ and passing loop at Oranmore. After that we need to get on with the bog standard improvements on the rest of the network which should have happened years ago, double tracking Portarlington to Athlone should be a priority along with improving journey times. Reopening other lines on the basis of carrying freight around the country makes no sense when the rest of the network doesn't have the capacity.

The worst part is that Ryan talks with more enthusiasm about these fantasy projects than he does about Metrolink. Anything that gets delivered will be despite him, not because of him.

Any national rail network review that doesn't have quad tracking of the northern line as a number one priority isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

This is a post from last September, and I'd occasionally have to do the Cobh - Belfast route. I'd be the opposite. I would never dream of doing such an awful trip by rail. You have connections in Cork, in Dublin (via the Luas) and have to deal with Irish rails complete fabrication of running times. Uncomfortable trains with barely working seat reservation... I would drive it without thinking. I'd be more likely to fly to Belfast via Amsterdam (and pick up some KLM tier points) than take that route on public transport.

I'll admit, €45 to 50 isn't bad, but its SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS worth. The drive is about five - with two stops make that six.

Cheapest I've seen KLM for is €90 single, but thats an odd ticket with a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam... I'd do that!

The demand for direct trains beyween Belfast and Cork would be tiny. The demand is between each city and Dublin so they can remain separate. The cost of allowing for trains between Cork and Belfast would be enormous. If such funding was available, it would be of far greater benefit if invested in the network generally, which would also improve Dublin - Cork and Dublin - Belfast journey times. There are plenty of easier wins available before considering a massive tunnel under Dublin.

This is why our rail network is so poor, everybody wants to throw money at new lines and mega projects while ignoring the numerous unglamorous but very beneficial projects which can deliver more Euro for Euro. Unfortunately our MfT is the worst for this.

no, the reason our rail network is so poor is down to a cultural mindset based in the 1960s, and lack of political will to improve it due to that mindset, a mindset which infected politicians and railway management alike.

if we were really a grown up country the dart would have been delivered as was originally intended in the 70s, and the railway investment that came during the boom would mean we would have a fantastic network now and we would be talking about enhancements and the odd reopening where possible.

Unfortunately, or perhaps necessarily, the boom years focused on Motorway infrastructure with rail getting very low priority.

Thankfully this has now been turned entirely on its head. The current national and global environments are totally changed versus 10 years ago - we shouldn't underestimate this change.

I welcome a 'do everything' report - at least we'll have a bigger vision to aim for. No one will expect all of it to be delivered at once.

As others have said, I believe that the through service from Cork-Belfast isn't a top priority. The number people making those journeys is incredibly small. I believe we need to focus primary efforts on where the majority of users and where the biggest benefit will come from: daily users, commuting. Would I like a direct Cork to Belfast service? Yes. At the expense of expanding commuter services elsewhere? No.