Cross-border review of rail network officially launched

… add to the fact that East Cork traffic will still have to potter through Blackpool as the Cork North Ring is required to link the M20 to the M8. That will add an extremely painful factor to a decision.

At the moment its about 1h35 or 1h45 from Cork to Limerick which is too slow. But if it all work out, the train change at Limerick Junction either way isn't too bad. It is annoying to have to do it though.

The one thing I will say is that is really dirt cheap. I can buy a return journey for like 25euro for this afternoon. London to Swindon (a hastily chosen rough equivalent in terms of difference) is 90euro return.

If we got 200kmh on lmk junct to Cork and 160kmh on lmk to lmk junct sub 1 hour trips including a change should be well doable

201 class are on the way out, the new Belfast fleet will be 110-125mph capable so we can expect similar for Cork

2035 at latest for a 200kph line, Limerick Limerick Junc 160kph will come sooner

I'll be stunned if there's a sub 1 hour Cork to Limerick journey time by 2035. Would be great but just can't see it. Even thinking about that, that's a full 10 years away. Kind of depressing.

Wasn’t there a tender put out last year looking at capacity upgrades for the Dublin Galway line as well, so hopefully that’ll see the line to Athlone doubled.

Also WRC passing loops and platform lengthening have been mentioned previously.

It looks like Athenry-Claremorris is next on the cards from this interview last month: https://www.newstalk.com/news/electric-dart-trains-will-be-in-operation-next-year-2166042

I would be very surprised if they tried to reinstate the line to Tuam or Claremorris before double-tracking Galway-Athenry, I think it would be very ambitious. It could already be the plan to deliver them both as one project, or to deliver them in phases as a chain of ROs, but I don't believe there will be capacity on the line for services if they don't double-track the line.

The passing loop at Oranmore could make it at least remotely possible, but I wouldn't be surprised if that capacity isn't quickly used to increase services between Limerick and Galway.

You said that sub 1 hour was eminently achievable and quoted three things that simply won’t deliver 25 minutes improvement over the currently possible 1 hour 24 mins journey time.

That isn't quite what @Hibernicis said, their post didn't say that it would make <1hr times possible. They said those improvements will "get it most of the way there" in reference to the current ~1:45 time with a change.

Like you said using cascaded rolling stock for direct trains will bring the time to about 1:25, that already is significant time savings. I also agree that the LC closures will probably bring it to a more consistent 1:15-1:20. In that they weren't wrong, it is a very significant improvement that does get times most of the way to the 1hr mark.

Additionally while you say that the doubling of Killonan Jnc to Limerick Jnc won't save time, and you aren't wrong that in isolation it wouldn't. I think a lot of people (myself included) have a working assumption that when IE go to double the line they will also work to increase the line speed in line with AISRR reccomendations. I also believe IE will try to upgrade or close at least some of the level crossings, particularly XL064 which has a 95km/h speed restriction.

Have to agree. Without even touching electrification, it would be possible to get close to 1h10. There is no way that double-tracking won’t raise line speeds: the works open too many opportunities to fix things. Plus, there are 15+ level crossings between Limerick Junction and Colbert Station, and it’s hard to believe that they’re all impossible to remove.

I use this site, which seems to be reasonably up-to-date: RAILISA STAT UIC