Irish rail fleet and infrastructure plans

the Euro Dual is capable of higher speed, but most of the models sold appear to be designed for lower speeds, and even then 160km/h isn't fast enough for an all-purpose loco. IE wants something capable of at least either 165 km/h or 180 km/h for the enterprise replacement (conflicting numbers from IE themselves), and I have a feeling they did that specifically because they want to make rolling stock only capable of 160 ineligible. My point though was that if looking at existing designs, there are options that better fit the needs of IE.

I would imagine that given the relatively small scale of current and future Irish Rail freight operations that train engines can best do the small amount of shunting required - mainly hauling or pushing a complate train out of and into sidings for loading/unloading. I think that in the UK, this is largely the practice.

I'd imagine that they will be railcars alright. I think the only reason why the Mark 4s were loco-hauled stock was that the 201s were still relatively new at the time.

ah fair enough. My thinking was if they are pushed to look towards greener options for the rail fleet(ie using future electrified IC line) especially as they are really trying to expand freight rail in Ireland. They might look for a cheap diesel and/or battery shunter to send around freight yards. That said I don't think we will see this anytime soon, even as various freight services are decarbonised, if they are concerened about shunting they could use freed 201s and 071s(if they are still running) as shunters.

I would be surprised if they select a loco as well. I think an MU makes more sense, and generally they appear to be what is available and what so many rolling stock manufacturers are designing.

The main reason I could see them selecting a loco is if they wanted to try and keep rolling stock as standardised as possible, however I think even IE will draw the line at continuing to use the same locos for main line IC and freight. Especially after the AISRR I am hoping they look into MUs capable of 200km/h, as even if the full speeds cant be taken advantage from day one, I think their is the desire for those speeds, and it could help push IE to reach it during their lifetimes.

Has NIR given any indication of intentions locomotive wise, specifically with respect to the 111s?

The more I think about it, I realise it does make more sense to have one type for the IC fleet, and the benifits of having a second IC type are outweighed by the drawbacks. Having just one type would make ordering, commissioning, and maintaining the fleet much easier. I also didn't considerer that most IC services use the section from Heuston to Portarlington, meaning they should all be 180/200 km/h capable anyways (assuming that is what the Enterprise fleet is capable of).

In that case I would assume the outer commuters (especially the Kildare line and Dundalk services) should also use the same sets? Maybe just a HC interior? I think that is more or less what they do now with the Kildare line commuters but I would hope with speed improvements they would continue that, especially for the northern line commuters.

Have all the 5 ICRs got reformed yet?

I am fed up of sold out trains online because they have a 5 car config when they are always 6 car sets for the past few weeks.

They really need to review the online allocations and chage FTP holders more to reverse a seat.

None of the premier class 6 coach sets include any of the new 41 carriages so no reason to delay, the sets used to Belfast are 6 coach sets, but there are only 3 with the NIR equipment fitted

There has to be more than 5 done by now, I might be wrong but most if not all are done.

Someone needs to fix the online capacity.

For anyone that doesn't have a sub:

The reliability of Irish Rail trains fell significantly in the first nine months of 2024, with delays across the network increasing almost three-fold.

Reliability was affected by breakdown and maintenance issues as well as software problems and the introduction of 41 new railcars that turned out to have problems with “hybrid-ready power packs”.

The power packs are built by Rolls-Royce in Germany and are designed to allow intercity trains to run on electricity in cities and regenerate power from braking. They are expected to create significant diesel-fuel savings.

Overall, some 2,413 minutes were lost across the network during Period One of Irish Rail’s accounting timeline – which corresponds to the first four weeks of last year.

However, by Period 10, the four weeks to October 1st, the numbers of lost minutes in four weeks had increased to 10,039 – almost tripling the amount of time lost to delays.

The amount of time lost relates to fleet issues only, and is separate to figures for delays caused by changes to the Irish Rail timetable that were introduced in August and later reversed.

By Period 11 – or the first four weeks of October, the numbers of minutes being lost was down to 9,212. Figures for the remainder of the year have not been released.

The figures were released by Irish Rail chief mechanical engineer Peter Smyth at an internal staff awards scheme for maintenance staff known as the Golden Spanner Awards, towards the end of November.

Mr Smyth is reported in the January 2025 edition of the UK publication Modern Railways as having told staff “the company needs to see a real focus on fleet reliability improvement programmes for all of its train fleets”.

The Irish Times sent Irish Rail a copy of the Modern Railways article for verification and comment.

In a subsequent statement Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny acknowledged the reliability issues, saying: “there have been more delays relating to train faults. We have a series of actions in place to resolve these, covering software resolution for 41 Intercity railcars.”

He said “the software resolutions for the 41 Inter City Railcars are in the process of being deployed, and [this] is expected to be complete during January”.

Mr Kenny continued: “We also are addressing a traction motor issue on our 201-class locomotives, which will be resolved in the coming weeks.”

Asked for comment, a spokesman for Rail Users Ireland said the figures were “extremely concerning”. Mark Gleeson said “passengers need reassurance the fleet will be restored to historical levels of reliability”.

Not the first time software issues have caused problems.

If this is leading to delays daily dispatching trains, there is one solution. Train prep needs to start earlier until recurring faults are resolved.

would help if the adblue tank was filled

I have been reading through and tyring to understand IEs plans for Heuston and Connolly with the Heuston Masterplan and Connolly Quarter plans(now Dublin Arch?). I understand that they plan to develop a large part of the area surrounding the stations into mixed-use development. But I have been wondering if this is common rail practice and/or if this is the best option for the network? Also how finalised are the plans? While it seems plans for Dublin Arch/Connolly Quarter has progressed good a bit, there aren't any shovels in the ground yet (edit: construction has already started, I just never noticed). And I can't tell where the Heuston Masterplan is, though I imagine it probably can't move forward until after D+SW has progressed more.

I completely understand wanting to develop the areas around the stations. Connolly is a central and urban area with a large car park and being a commuter hub is perfect for high density urban development. and Heuston while not being as central, is a very large area that can be developed, especially with its massive carpark, and the area around the NTCC being reasonably undeveloped. However completely developing the areas, leaving no room to expand/improve the stations feels a bit short sighted to me.

While it does concern me at least a bit for Connolly, as especially after four-tracking I think it will limit the capacity at Connolly, it's Heuston that worries me the most. While I don't know if removing the Guinness sidings will make much of difference for current operations, the plans to completely turn the carpark and area surrounding the NTCC into mixed use development feels a bit short sighted. As the network expands and the number of rails services increase, is the current station going to be enough? Even before the AISRR, they planned on reaching hourly services on the core IC services and two hourly on most other services, and even half-hourly peak Cork-Dublin services. And now post-AISRR, there are further reccomendations to send Sligo and Wexford services to Heuston, not to mention potentially increased frequency on outer commuters if it becomes needed. Even with phasing out locomotive hauled services and other improvements around Heuston we are seeing as part of D+, without more sidings and/or platforms could Heuston become a serious bottleneck for the IC network?

I should imagine a lot depends on the quality of maintenance. There are many EMD and GE diesels in the USA which are older than the 071s and are still going strong sometimes after re-builds. I know electric locos are a different case, but Portuguese Railways (CP) have resurrected a 50-year old class of mainline locos which had been stopped and stored outdoors for about a decade.

Sure, there is a tradeoff with higher maintenance costs, but that's a matter of detailed and careful calculation.