DART+ (DART Expansion)

Yes

Glasnevin is nowhere near 10km from the city centre though, more like 2km crowsfly distance. 10km from the city cente is outside the M50 and there'll be a lot more than 2km between the rail lines at that distance under current plans. The luas green line extension will not exceed 10km from the city centre anyway

There is a future need for a tallaght to coolock metro line serving Harold's Cross and Beaumont through the city centre. But that's a future project.

do these BEMUs recharge while travelling under the wired sections of the network, or do they need to go back to the depot to recharge? Either way I can't see how they would work in Cork with no electrified sections, they only have an 80km range.

really? - they'd be under the wires at the stations for what, 2 minutes at a time?

plus to put wires at the stations presumably means putting in substations at every single one which would be really inefficient and probably as much work as just electrifying the whole line anyway.

if they were going with partial electrification, just doing the central section and maybe the terminus stations would seem more practical.

You must be placing one of them wrong @strassenwo!f

On the grounds that Cabra Luas Stop already exists, I'll assume you have that correct on the map. For Glasnevin Station which doesn't exist obviously, I've used the Brian Boru pub and it's around 630 metres as the crow flies using the google 'measure distance' utility. If you use Des Kelly Interiors it brings it to 590ish. I see no way of bringing it lower without breaking the laws of physics (or maybe I've the location of the station wrong?)

So is that only 3 trains an hour from western suburban stations direct to Connolly (and/or connecting with DART) with a bunch more to the relatively less useful Spencer Dock? Can someone remind me again how the extra capacity will aid someone commuting in from Clonsilla/Coolmine/etc to "not the Docklands".

(answering my own question - ) Is it that where currently there is little point taking the Docklands-bound trains unless that is actually your preferred destination, after DART+ you will be able to take the next "any train" (10tph?) with the option to swap at Glasnevin to the similarly frequent Metro or Loop Line bound services?

Well there will be six trains serving the Loop Line from Broombridge station so anyone on a Spencer Dock bound Dart service coming from the west could just alight here and change for one of these six services.

Progress seems stalled on the coastal and SW projects. SW railway order application was due to be submitted in early December. Costs on the DART+ project may have spiralled to the point that parts of DART+ could be axed.

Personally this doesn't bother me, there was never any real justification for high frequency trains to Hazelhatch, the project only really made sense with additional stations in populated areas like Ballyfermot and Cabra. Without them resources are better spent elsewhere. 4 tracking the line is a worthwhile project on its own though.

On coastal, extending electrification to Drogheda makes sense but not a priority. 3 or 4 tracking the Northern line and double tracking to Greystones isn't part of the DART+ scope anyway so not much benefit to be got. Closing the D4 level crossings can be done cheap, there's no need to package it with a mega project.

Maynooth DART maybe all that comes out of the current programme.

Quad-tracking the line as far as Heuston is a worthwhile project on its own but to not create two commuter and two separate intercity tracks and electrify at the same time would be beyond stupid.

If anything is cut from the scope, it'll be electrifying beyond the current DART system on the coastal line as originally envisaged. BEMUs will have to do for the foreseeable.

AFAIK cost is the reason for not opening new stations in populated areas on the SW line. To me the whole point of a public transport project is to provide a service to the travelling public. Irish Rail seem to disagree. Perhaps they think its about employing drivers?

4 track its self is useful to existing intercity and commuter services so should be done. I'm not sure what the point is in the rest of the DART+ SW line without opening stations on it. Seems bizarre in a country with Europe's worst public transport we'll be running trains every 10 minutes completely empty to semi rural areas.

Yes the NTA have stopped Irish Rail from submitting RO for the time being in light of the headline cost of Maynooth DART. Theyve also stopped coastal moving to public consultation. However there could be movement on South West by the end of the month.

I don't think the strategy is that ambitious - most of the big projects in it are already underway and due to be finished by the early 2030s, i.e. Metrolink, Dart+, BusConnects and Fingluas. The other items due to be done by 2042 are Bray and Lucan Luas and Navan Rail plus a few new stations - they have 10 years to plan those and another 10 to build them, not wildly unrealistic. The extra Luas lines and Metro extensions are only projected to be planned by 2042. (don't get me started on their aim of increasing cycling share to a whole 12% by 2042).

Obviously I don't expect half of what's in there to actually happen but the scope is not unrealistic by international standards IMO.

Individual projects are not ambitious sure. I can't thing of any city that delivered anything close to what is proposed there in the space of 20 years. Can u think of any?