DART+ (DART Expansion)

DART to Wicklow Town pushed back another year:

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/wicklow-district/delivery-of-dart-to-wicklow-town-meets-with-delay-as-new-deadline-set/a1431321439.html

They still haven't published any sort of plan for the south east Dart. So it's delayed a year on a timeline that no one has seen.

I wonder if they're planning to skip the consultation on Dart+ South East (which is now 2 years overdue) and just treat it as engineering works.

With the crossing closures no longer part of the plan all that's left is a passing loop, track works and station upgrades, which is all on Irish Rail property and could probably be done with a small number of planning applications.

Have plans for reducing journey times on the Connolly-Greystones line ever been seriously discussed. I just find it mad how the train takes as long to get to Dundalk as Greystones. If they paved over the line you’d almost cycle it as quick!
Would passing loops at Dalkey/Blackrock be feasible, or perhaps DARTs could be sped up instead, as they often seem to trundle along.

times are going to increase with the opening of the new station at Woodbrook, which is in the middle of one of the few sections where the trains get up to speed. There's very little scope for passing and Irish Rails total inability to run to schedule would make it a recipe for problems anyway.

Surely there isn't space on the land side and not a mission of it happening on the seaward side? It would be mired in EIAs and legal battles for decades?

Could a passing loop not fit at Dalkey or maybe Blackrock station?

While I appreciate that the line faces constraints, there seems be zero will for any sort of improvements on what is a substandard service for those south of Bray.

Absolutely not - there is just no space. Where would you put them????

Even if it were possible, how would that even work with the 10 minute DART service?

You’d have DARTs sitting at stations waiting for following trains to pass and the whole 10 minute service pattern destroyed.

We have to be realistic here given the constraints of the infrastructure along the coastal south route. There will be a loop between Bray and Greystones, but that’s about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I remain in favour of the InterCity operating to/from Connolly but it will have to fit around the DART service pattern. There will also be frequency increases to Wicklow and hopefully further south, but expecting speed improvements is unrealistic given the infrastructure constraints.

Came across the Pre-feasibility report for extending the DART to Wicklow.

As far as I can tell, it hasn't been posted here before but apologies if it has. Might be slightly out of date in parts, but an interesting read nonetheless.

Wicklow Capacity Improvements

As discussed above, do they need public consultation? The main proposed works are some track changes and platform extensions. The level crossing closures have been put on the long finger.

I'll admit I'm a bit confused about why things like general tendering etc can't be lined up while waiting for ABP to approve projects, even winnowing down tenders to a final few with decision made after approval and some sort of minor compensation for the work done preparing tender in the event its rejected?