DART+ (DART Expansion)

Do you think with the new signaling system, the new trains, etc. that the trip times from Greystones/Bray to Malahide/Howth would be any shorter?

I mean, are we saving any time with our trips to the City Centre? or is it all just about the new trains and that's it?

When Liverpool recently went electric with there new Class 666s, journey times reduced by 10% from better acceleration alone.

Chester to Birkenhead: Reduced by 6 minutes (was 35 minutes, down to 29 minutes).

Southport to Hunts Cross: Reduced by 9 minutes (from 64 minutes down to 55 minutes).

The earlier units that the Class 777 replaced were already electric.

That's exactly my point. The new fleet should accelerate much faster than the old fleet, hopefully leading to 10% time savings by itself.

And Dart+ West and South West could be in for substantialy better savings, current rolling stock has extremely slow acceleration.

The D+ FAQs, which IÉ warn were very early modelling and estimates, predict 5-10 mins savings for M3 services (I would expect similar for Maynooth) and 10-15 mins savings for Drogheda-CC. A good chunk of the time savings will be the switch from Diesel to electric, EMUs just perform so much better. However, we also don't know how those times were modelled or how conservative they were. If they were based on existing fleet specs and signalling it could actually save quite a more than that, especially for Drogheda services with the 145km/h top speed. If they took everything into account, 145km/h, ETCS, etc then they could actually be the absolute maximum time savings. We just don't know, but hopefully we will get at least a glimpse into the time savings once the BEMUs start entering service.

It's a bit harder to say for CC-Bray and especially CC-Malahide. I would hope there will be some improvements as rolling stock has just gotten better over the years, and the 8100s are quite old. But even then I am not sure how much it can save. At the very least there will be some time savings for CC-Bray due to the switch to ETCS. My understanding of the current train signalling system is limited by signal line-of-sight which can cause speed restrictions that ETCS wont have with the in-cab signalling. Then also the current train protection system can only enforce certain specific speed limits with its yellow/caution signals on approach to red/danger signals and is also VERY conservative in its braking distances. Where as ETCS is can enforce pretty much any speed based on the distance on the distance to the next danger (and I don't even think ETCS has yellow/caution?) and also takes into account that vehicles specific braking characteristics making it much more efficient.

The increasingly popular Enterprise Dublin-Belfast journey will be brought less than two hours by 2030 on foot of spending that will ensure the Enterprise can overtake Dart services.

Works will see upgrades on the railway track north of Malahide and at Clongriffin, though the spending will benefit plans to electrify 37km of the rail network from Malahide to Drogheda too.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/06/22/funding-to-cut-train-dublin-belfast-journey-time-to-under-two-hours/

Theres no funding for DART+ Coastal North though so it wont happen. We've also been hearing the same tune for about a decade now.

The funding isn't coming through the NTA or DoT which means to bypasses a lot of the messing

Currently Malahide to Drogheda is a 90mph railway, I'd expect that to be increased to 100mph. The new DART+ fleet will accelerate to 90mph in the time it take the current 29k fleet to get to 50mph. The new Stadler trains on electric should be getting to 100mph in under 90 seconds. Enterprise set on a good day is 4 minutes to get to 90mph

ETCS gets rid of the some of the problems with the current ATP. Policy currently is to brake to be at the future ATP limit before it is enforced, this is ridiculously inefficient on top of the system assumptions of braking performance. Back in the '80's drivers drove as fast as the system allowed and relied on it to intervene. Under ETCS everything is dynamic, once the driver is 1kph under the limit nothing flashes, no bells no alarms, system prompts you to brake and once you brake and keep below the hook its good. You drive to the warning braking curve, once you do you never get to the intervention curve or emergency curve

Between Howth Junction and Drogheda (note its 90mph from Howth Junction to Malahide Quary) 10 minute saving is achievable on stopping services which in turn frees up space for Enterprise. Also plans to reinstate the Mosney loop

Is it intended to electrify the Mosney loop in D+N?

It had ~70 boardings and alightings in the 2023 one, so I suspect there was a sampling issue there. The 2024 report is a mess due to being taken on the day of a match at the Aviva.

The 2025 report isn't out yet, surprisingly.

Fares to Dublin used to be much more expensive than next station in, now they're the same.