Cross-border review of rail network officially launched

You can make it more detailed if you wish. The only limit is your own capacity to add precision.

The original Dublin-Galway line was from Broadstone (MGWR) via Mullingar to Galway.

I cycled the Old Rail Trail (Mullingar to Athlone) 2 years ago. It certainly appeared to have been double tracked, given that one rail line is clearly visible, the width of the over bridges together with only a few LCs. Built to a high standard indeed.

I read somewhere that Portarlington to Athlone was built as a branch line by GSWR with running rights to Galway.

I also read that the double track was lifted decades ago, leaving it a single line.

CIE, in their wisdom, decided in the late 60s/early 70s to run all Galway/Westport traffic via Portarlington.

The cynic in me feels that this was the opening move in closing the Sligo line. Reduce the traffic volume from Connolly to Mullingar leaving only the Sligo traffic, thus rendering the line totally uneconomic and must be closed.

Of course it must be said that at that time there was some economic prosperity in the country with the resulting rise in car and commercial vehicle ownership. In turn rendering the railways some what on the back foot.

There is a long history of communities along the line protesting about its closure and the poor quality of the service in the 70s/80s and 90s.

Whilst retaining the line to Glasnevin Jnc was necessary, past that CIE just wanted rid of it.

About 25 years ago I worked with a woman whose husband worked in CIE HQ. Simply put, the engineers ran the railways, the less track there was, the maintenance work there was, the less funding needed from the gov.

All private transport businesses, both freight and passenger, are sales driven. But it must be acknowledged that the cost of maintaining and improving the 'permanent way' (as opposed to the road network) is high and the gov. is always under pressure from every and all sections of society.

A bit of a ramble there, but looking at the AIRR, whether it's Dublin Airport, Navan, Tuam, etc., it's going to involve objections, ploughing up the countryside and big bucks.

Dublin-Mullingar-Athlone-Ballinasloe was the double-tracked MGWR main line to Galway until the GSR singled iit beyond Clonsilla from 1929 as an ecoonomy measure. Portarlingto-Athlone was always single track, but many overbridges were wide enough to take 2 tracks - a common practice.

I don't think the diversion of Galway and Mayo trains to Heuston via Portarlington was part of a plot to eventually close the Sligo line, which at the time had a good level of freight and passenger traffic. The route via Portarlingto was faster, and with potentially greater capacity. Mullingar-Dublin was always hopless for high speed running, due to curvature, as it closely followed that 18th century expressway, the Royal Canal.😊

Double-tracking Portarlington-Athlone will likely involve planning issues as it not just a matter of restoring a previous second track (unline Limerick to Limerick Junction).

If Ireland was to stump up for railways in other jurisdictions, the only one that might make economic sense would be high-speed Holyhead to Crewe if HS2 got to Crewe sometime in the next century.

It wouldn't make economic sense, particularly as Donegal County Council has allowed a completely haphazard development across the county.

Potential for a Derry/Letterkenny link, if development was to take place around stations on that line.

A Derry to Letterkenny rail link could well be bought and paid for by Ireland, but the AIRR recommends more than doubling NI's railway network with brand new electrified and double tracked routes capable of supporting high speed services. That's a lot of money.

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/all-island-strategic-rail-review-iarnrod-eireann-u

A short update on the rail review, nothing much new though.
‘Priority projects have been identified, with these now being analysed in further detail, focusing on upgrades of the existing Intercity network’.

Navan public consultation still planned for later this year.

4 North would be Connolly Clongriffin, then 2 tracks to Airport then 2 tracks direct to Drogheda

Hazelhatch-Portarlington a new alignment is preferred as you can then avoid the geometry issues the existing route has across the Curragh and through Portarlington station, also greatly simplifies construction (new route would be 2-3km shorter also)

2 completely separate 2 track lines is more flexible and resilient than a single 4 track line

Belfast to Cork should be achieved by calling into Heuston, reversing out and taking the PPT to Spencer Dock (preferably, to avoid more congestion at Connolly), then reversing out and going onward to Belfast: that’s a 10 km extra journey and it is not going to be super fast (at 60 km/h plus stopping time is maybe 10-15 minutes), but it’s faster, and less hassle, than changing to a DART (Underground!) at Heuston, then again at Pearse to get the Connolly train to Belfast, or taking Luas Red line between the two stations.

If DART Underground is built, the PPT and will be a minor DART connection between the two big axes (Maynooth-Bray and Kildare-Drogheda), so there would be opportunity to use it for IC connections instead. This keeps the DART Tunnel as the high capacity cross-city link.

I don’t see any way a mainline rail tunnel under Dublin could make sense in Ireland when there’s only one destination at one side of it. Mainline rail tunnels are the preserve of Central European cities that sit on transcontinental railways. Dublin will never be that. If another tunnel absolutely needs to be built, then put a Metro line in it instead.

My routing also passes Glasnevin - there’s no other way between Heuston and Spencer Dock.

Yes, a north-facing connection would allow you to skip a second stop in Dublin, but my point in suggesting this was that all of it can be done without building a single extra metre of new track beyond what’s already in progress. You could do the movements tomorrow if you stopped in Connolly, but the need for special rolling stock is the barrier for getting to Belfast. By the time Spencer Dock is in service, I hope the Cork mainline electrification programme will also be starting (with new ETCS-equipped trains to replace the 201 locos) and thus, that barrier to having a straight-through Cork-Belfast service will be gone.

I take the point about the in-out at Heuston being awkward, but it is done so that the train can pick up passengers as well as drop them: this allows connection to Belfast at Heuston from trains originating from Cork, Limerick and Galway - which makes the service more commercially viable. Heuston West might be fine if you’re being dropped or collected by taxi, but it is just not suitable as a place to board with luggage, or transfer from an incoming (e.g.) Galway train to the Belfast one, or lug suitcases out to the Luas stop at the front of the station.. the distance from the Heuston West platform to the Bus and Luas stops at the front of Heuston is longer than the length of O’Connell Street, and it’s all outdoors, in a country not known for dry weather.

I’m happy to talk about a northbound curve, but it’s something that will be really, really hard to get through planning, as it will have to be an elevated railway at some point (a tunnel would need to be stupidly long).

Actually, just bringing the current Connolly train around to Heuston would improve ridership. Now you've got Limerick/Galway/Cork to Belfast as a cross-platform transfer. Given the flakiness of the current Enterprise, I accept it's a risk, but with new trains coming, and electrification of the link between the two stations it could be worth looking at.

Also increased trains proposed forWestport Dublin line.

https://www.westernpeople.ie/news/plans-to-improve-train-services-to-the-west_arid-63286.html

The classic passenger demand model, the “gravity model”, claims demand between two destinations will be proportional to the product of their populations and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

It’s obviously a rough model but plugging in the populations and distances suggests Cork-Belfast demand to be about 6% of the Dublin-Belfast demand. Or about 14 passengers an hour based on current Dublin-Belfast numbers. There are FAR bigger fish to fry when it comes to improving rail transport in the country.