Irish rail fleet and infrastructure plans

Is it a reasonable statement to make that even after the 41 extra ICR coaches, there remains stock shortages nationwide?

Never knew they had a 4:30 train. Must be one of the earliest in the country.

Im actually surprised there is a train station even open that early in Ireland. Especially outside the cities.

Those pre 9am trains were a great addition I just didn't realise Kerry had one. No better crowd for getting politically motivated special cases for themselves 🤣

that should run daily to give people the option at least of a pre 9am start in Dublin

4 coach 2600/2800 sets have stopped at Little Island hundreds of times so it fits. The doors are not at the ends and the measurements is 92m top of ramp to ramp so fits, other issues such as signal placement have a factor.

Ah okay, I didn't know if the 4 car 2600/2800 sets were any shorter than the 29Ks, as over the whole length of train 6m is hard to notice(at least for me) without them being side by side.

However, can the whole 92m platform be used if the usable length is only rated at 76m? Is that not why the usable length is a different measurement to TOR to TOR? Eitherway I don't think it's an issue, as because the TOR to TOR length is more than sufficient, I think it likely would just need minor works.

Lots of interesting things from the transport debate 2 days ago. I wanted to summarise some key points that caught my attention.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_transport_and_communications/2024-10-09/

• New DART carriages are be delivered by the end of the month, start services in Jan. 2026 (p.9)
• Study for four-tracking the northern line will be complete in the next few months (p.15)
• Remaining 7-8 of 41 ICR carriages are to enter service in the next 4-6 weeks (p.16+p.18)
• Capacity study for wicklow is complete and waiting publication (p.16)
• It sounds some design work for the M3-Navan line is underway (p.23)
• "We are running a couple of maintenance programmes. One of them isabout passenger information systems and one is a programme of repairs that we have to do, would you believe, on the floors of the 29000s." (p.24)

Unless they're sticking down the same dirty ratty plastic on the floors I have yet to see a single 29k with new floors. Lots with the new PIS though

Obviously the PIS install is a lot less problematic than replacing the floors!

I would guess that Ireland's unique (for Europe) track gauge of 1600mm means that only static testing can be done where the untis are assembled (Poland). So all the more dynamic testing has to be done when the units are on Irish tracks. For deliveries to any standard gauge (1435mm) European customer, the time between delivery and entry inot service would presumably be a good deal shorter.

iI'd magine the centre tracks would be commuter, since it would be easier to have them be the bypass tracks at stations. Unless they plan for a similar arrangement to the 4 track section at Heuston (minus the extra platforms at each station)

It seems with the length of time the 41 new cars are taking, that every single one needs to be thoroughly tested as opposed to the first couple and then the remainder just some basic testing to ensure they are identical and no manufacturing defects. Can anyone comment further on that?

My background is aviation and it does seem quite different in this regard.

Plus, if the Eastern tracks were for stopping services, this would make an airport junction North of Clongriffin easier. Which probably means that Metrolink advocates will not want that configuration 😊

There's been issues integrating the new cars with the old sets. New cars are still giving engine faults, even though they are in service.

All great! I didn't notice the WRC numbers in there, I really hope the numbers help lead to more upgrades on the corridor, twin tracking, extensions, future electrificaiton, speed upgrades etc! one of my big hopes with the cascading the 29Ks (now probably not until the end of 2026 or 2027 if they don't use it as an opportunity to refurbish them) is that they will be used to increase frequency and capacity of commuter and shorter regional services for the WRC.

I completely missed the third order being placed! I do unfortunately think that will likely go into replacing the 8100s rather than increasing system capacity, I know they are trying to get the most out of the approved life extension but I just can't see them lasting the full 10 years. However it is great to see them following through with what will then be a third of the framework (57/150 sets). Not that they would or should do this, but in terms of numbers I think that would enough to completely replace most services currently in the GDA using 8100, 22K/ICR, 29K, and even 8500 sets if pulled from service for refurbishing.