Irish rail fleet and infrastructure plans

Just looking at google maps there and Bray station( third south facing platform already there, is this not the better interchange for the proposed shuttle service to Rosslare, ideally a 30 mins frequency possibly even a 20 min in peak as tunnel section can handle 3 trains per hour. I know people from greystones/wicklow will have to change( maybe some Darts off peak can continue futher south), but i believe providing a service all the way down the south coast is more important with the numbers commuting.

Obviously the line would continue overland to Drogheda and Belfast trains would go Drogheda to Heuston and not touch the DART network, that'd take away the need to quad track the existing coastal northern line. Yeah not many people travelling end to end Cork to Belfast, but that's not the point, the point is efficient interchange of all intercity services, one change at Heuston gets you from anywhere to anywhere basically including to/from from Dublin Airport.

That's a distinct advantage in inter regional connections, but of course there isnt the foresight for such things, its likely neither will happen. If IÉ are still talking about mixing IC and DART in Dublin City Centre and selling off land around the 2 main stations for housing while planning massive increases in services then they're not really educated on the railway game. They still havent thought about where these extra services are going to fit with existing platform capacity.

I dont think any new lines will be built unless we radically shake up our legal and planning system, the state is currently paralysed in self-imposed red tape in terms of what's doable for linear infrastructure. One thing we cannot ever do is dig up all over Stephens green for a massive new central station, which isnt long enough anyway to provide the platforms required plus merge lengths of track.

I dont think Dumped at Heuston is a fair term especially a future Heuston that has, luas, bus, bike sharing and DART services or possibly even DART Underground. The central stations in most cities tend not to be extremely central, they are just where legacy lines converge and have enough space to develop a station. We're not going to get a more central site than Heuston for an integrated inter-city station.

Dublin doesn’t need a German-style 'Central' station anyways. Cities like London and Paris have plenty of termini and work fine, provided there are links between them. If any station should be kept it’d be Connolly, as it’s the most central of them, and should be able to be expanded using the carriage sidings if needed.

no as far as i know, unless anyone else has heard anything?

it won't get built anyway so it's probably a mute point TBH.

Can't see them justifying a Maynooth to Adamstown new line for Sligo trains with its relatively low passenger levels as well as Sligo not in the 2040 plan with its already stagnant population growth.

Honestly, I suspect the CBA for it will be more about its benefit to the DART than it will be for its benefit to Sligo-Enfield users. Separating IC services from DART services is good for the long term reliability and maxamising of capacity on the Maynooth and M3/Navan lines. It also will help remove terminating western line services from Connolly which can cause quite a bit of congestion.

The alternative to the link is going to just be terminating Sligo and Longford services at Kilcock, which to be fair is more or less what they are planning with Wexford services at Greystones or Wicklow. The difference here though is that the Maynooth Adamstown link is a lot more feasible and offers a much greater benefit to the regional IC services than anything that can be done for the Wexford services.

Though, one thing I will note is that the Sligo line services actually do have respectable patronage. Kilcock to Longford is making up the majority of traffic on the line, and that is also with the 115 helping as far as Mullingar too. The DART to Kilcock will help relieve some of that pressure, however the link will also help allow for more and better outer commuter services that could just fly into Heuston rather than crawl behind DARTs.

If you’re seeing the Maynooth - Adamstown link as just being for Sligo services, you’re thinking the same as those who see the Metrolink as just for the airport.

Its benefits are far more about separating DART and IC services and allowing Maynooth - Connolly to potentially become an automated metro-style service.

The benefits for Sligo IC services are really only a small reduction in journey time overall, along with easier transfers to other intercity services.

I also disagree with the idea of a DART P+R station off of the N4, or any DART use of this line, unless the link was to be quad-tracked (even just up until the point of a P+R station) or if the service level was only low enough not to even about clashing with the IC services. That being said though even a grade crossing from slow-line to slow-line to get the DART out onto the link from Adamstown, would have shocking effects the capacity from Adamstown to Hazelhatch with trains crossing each other like in Howth Jnxt currently. As a result I am not mad about the idea of using this link for DART services…

On the general topic of the link, in the present climate of the DART extension to Kilcock, what do we think this link might look like?

Branching off before Kilcock means you lose the connection with the DART services, and the connection with Maynooth, and with a lower frequency of services likely serving Kilcock than Maynooth, pathing shouldn’t be an issue.

If the link only branched off from after Maynooth however, it would involve sharing tracks with the high frequency DART for just under a kilometre, which totally defeats the purpose of the link in the first place, as IC and DART services are then mixing.

The small section of track-sharing could of course be quad-tracked. Maynooth station has lots of space to be 4-tracked (involving an extension into the northern car park and over a small portion of the canal basin which is wide enough in this area to afford to lose a piece anyway.

The difficulty is the 750m or so between the station and open land where the link can branch off. 62 back gardens would need to be purchased, or a significant portion of the canal would need to be realigned to quad-track to the junction. Now the project is at the very best, 10 years away from planning, so IÉ could quietly start purchasing some of those houses between now and then…

Any other thoughts on this?

I know a lot of people who use the Sligo line and I think they would prefer changing at Maynooth - once the Dart the there - than going to Hueston. Fair enough regarding the new line removing IC/Commute conflicts but it still seems like a tall order even so. Personally I like the idea of a four track station at Kilcock or Maynooth. A while back there was a bit of hysteria over the Rosslare trains terminating at Greystones but this kind of thing is common in other countries and it creates greater freq all round. So I can see doing the same with Sligo trains at Maynooth or Kilcock.

Wouldn't know Galway that well but a quick look at a map, from Oranmore to Athenry, it's all fields. From Oranmore to Ceannt, it's not really built up around the line and one side is green fields so unless there is a lot of development in the next few years there doesn't looks like there would be demand for a station around there?

Best heavy rail solution would probably be improve the access to the Oranmore station from the N67 so it can serve as a proper P&R to Galway

Did you actually having somewhere in mind for a station or just felt like Galway was being missed? From my understanding Galway needs the ring road to take traffic out of the centre and then a tram line to move people around plus a good bus service once somewhere for the thru traffic is provided for.

So they could have the choice then, Stay on the train to Hueston, or change a Maynooth to a DART that takes them to Connolly or beyond.