Irish rail fleet and infrastructure plans

They want to keep the rail freight, but don't want it getting in the way down the port. That's why it's being moved to the new North Wall terminal, which is due for commissioning this month.

As part of the Rosslare Europort Offshore Renewable Energy Hub plan the port expansion is supposed to be able to accomodate a rail spur from the mainline line.

I don't believe the plan has gone to ABP yet (it was meant to towards the end of last year) so hoping it goes to ABP this year, it would be operational in 2028. Mind you the current plan is to wait to build the rail spur until it is needed, so I would say the earliest the railspur would be built is probably ~2030. However I only see the spur be built along side the reinstatement of the Waterford-Rosslare line due to the capacity restrictions on the Dublin-Rosslare line.

Yeah, it'll be trucked in and out of the terminal, from the docks. I imagine the longer term plan is to get the bridge built over the road, from the docks. But the new works taking place down at the pier didn't leave time to get that completed.

Galway v Kilkenny Final

Irish Rail have provided an additional service but not provided any return services. They released this additional service after the only return option was sold out. No availablity for Galway return.

Is there no drivers available?

Not sure they will ensure only pre-booked tickets for stated services will have priority.

Drivers are ok, just a lack of train sets. They are very tight. They are not doing any charters at the moment and the RPSI have been tasked to run 3 of the ones they had booked already.

Any G.A.A. specials will be within availability for what they have left.

Kind of likes triggers brush to be honest. Great locos though.

I don't think it will make that much of a difference. Remember that the cars on the new units are shorter than the existing 8100 and 8500 units and also that the cars are completely walk through, meaning that some people could easily get to the second door from the first car. It might still be a bit of a bottleneck compared to the existing units but it likely won't make that much of a difference.

Irish Rail hace details of Phase 2 of the Cork Commuter Rail development:

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/iarnrod-eireann-projects-and-investments/cork-area-commuter-rail

A couple of points: (i) electrification is mentioned, but only with reference to civil engineeting requirements. I assume it will be at 25 kv AC to tie in with mainline electrification (ii) surprisingly no station changes at Cobh, just the one platform as at present.

The electrification options are outlined in the "Cork Area Commuter Rail Phase 2 Option Selection Report (including appendices)" document - chapter 5.2 "Power and Fleet Options" (page 28).

https://www.irishrail.ie/getmedia/12cdc483-58e9-4ad2-9dd9-5f9a27ce8c7d/CACR-Options-Selection-Report-20230222.pdf

The 1.5kV DC BEMU option was given the highest rating.

Moreover, the document proposes no 1.5kV DC OLE at all, and building "static charging" points on selected stations instead. The rationale is that this will be cheaper, safer ("The presence of the high voltage power lines would
introduce new safety risks to staff and the local community" 🙄) and would allow interoperability with the future 25kV main line electrification.

(ii) surprisingly no station changes at Cobh, just the one platform as at present.

The Project Report section 6.5 (p.37) describes the upgrades planned for Cobh and has a drawing too. It does include a second platform for Cobh, however it isn't a normal platform layout. I am not sure how to describe other than thats its very similar to the layout of Heuston platforms 1 and 2.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the whole culmination of the report was that they are going to electrify south of Mallow as 25KV from the get-go…

I think the report stated that to run the 10 minute frequency that they want, they need full electrification as BEMUs would have too slow a turnaround due to charging.

I’m not 100% sure on that fact so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I certainly hope that that is their plan, the sooner we get some outside-of-Dublin electrification, the sooner the ball will get rolling for widespread electrification, and I think an electrified CACR could be just the catalyst for this