Cross-border review of rail network officially launched

Please keep sectarian politics out of this discussion. If the “cross border rail” you’re referring to is the suggested Mullingar-Portadown link, then it’s actually the NI section that is more likely to go ahead without the “south” rather than the other way around. Portadown-Armagh is a much more viable proposition than Mullingar-Cavan, let alone Mullingar-Clones.

Hmmm, yes, that's exactly what the Irish tender says. I was wondering where I got the idea that was more than “nice to have”, then I see that on the UK side, the tender notice ( Enterprise Fleet Replacement Project [Notice] ) it says something slightly different:

Initial traction power will be Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Battery Electric (using the existing 1.5 kV DC OHLE) with the train designed to transition to a net zero carbon operation during its life by the removal of the diesel power generation for replacement with dual OHLE power supply equipment.

Note the additional word “Battery”, and that 1500 V operation was considered a baseline requirement. That said, I believe the Irish notice on etenders is the definitive one, as IÉ seem to be running the tendering.

I agree that future mainline electrification will be 25 kV AC, but in order to run on OHLE into Dublin on the Northern Line, the Enterprise trains will have to be capable of 1500 V DC operation too.

I expect that all other inter-city electric stock in the Republic will be dual OHLE because otherwise the fleet will be split between “into Connolly” (AC and DC) and “into Heuston” (AC only) sets, as only Heuston will have a dedicated inter-city tracks that could be electrified at 25 kV AC; all approaches to Connolly are going to be 1500 V DC after DART+. That kind of split creates operational problems where none should really exist, so my own thoughts are that in addition to all stock being dual OHLE, the Greater Dublin Area will also be exclusively 1500 V on all tracks so that any OHLE train can be routed anywhere around Dublin under its own power.

One quirk about the Enterprise call for tenders is that the top speed is requested as “minimum 180 km/h”, while the long-term plan for this line is 200 km/h within the lifetime of these trains. Fortunately, most manufacturers’ products fall into categories with maximum speeds of 160, 200 or 250 km/h, so we’ll probably end up with a 200 km/h trainset anyway.