DART+ (DART Expansion)

Just wondering about Glasnevin station. Is that part of DART plus project or metrolink project or both? Say if DART plus all goes to plan and there is (hopefully not) an issue with metrolink project. Where would the DART interchange be without Glasnevin station? Would it be Drumcondra?

I can see Drumcondra being heavily used station on match days in Croke Park for passengers from multiple counties along the Cork mainline.

Would we not assume residents in the Drumcondra area will make more use out of the much more interconnected DART network? And hopefully an easy connection to Metrolink one station over? Luas two stations over?

Ya maybe, hopefully there will be additional residential projects in the area sooner rather than later but going to be great for sports and concert fans accessing Croke Park for major events.

Will be great for attendees

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/woodbrook-dart-station-to-open-on-10th-august

Its not allowed out on the live railway under its own power, only in sidings or under engineer possession.

New types always need a long period of testing to ensure that they won’t act up in service. The drivers need to be familiar with their operation, especially with introduction of new technologies like batteries. It took 15 months of testing before the original DARTs went into service. Not to mention that only 3 of the 37 units have been delivered so far.

Regarding "only 3 of 37", I would be extremely surprised if by now there wasn't a good number of completed trains waiting in Poland for delivery once IÉ gives the word. They're still at the factory because if anything shows up during the type approval process, some rework or replacement of parts might be needed to fix that issue. The best place to do that is at the factory.

As @bk says, usually most of this testing is done locally, but even in countries with standard rail gauge, a new model of train needs to be tested by the customer on its own railway to see how it works in terms of stability, comfort, wear on wheels and tracks, etc. But once the type of train has been approved, each subsequent train of that type that is delivered will only need a couple of weeks testing to make sure it's working correctly before going into service.

There are two levels of test

1. First in class, so for a new design there is an extensive test program to validate design, compliance and compatibility, this is non trivial and typically takes over a year. This is done on pre production sets before the main production run kicks off to ensure modifications are built in.
2. Commissioning test, this is a shorter test, a few weeks at most once the design has passed on the regulatory and certifications. This is functional test to verify everything works and then a few thousand km of test running without faults.

Last official communication said the testing was going well and that they were on schedule to be phased in from early next year.

Well, saying 'nothing like it has run in Ireland' isn't strictly true.