Dart + (Coolmine LC closure issues)

Carawaystick wrote: »

There isn't the airdraught over the canal to have an underpass under the railway

I really hope that the closure of Coolmine will be overturned unless there is a bridge built there instead or in the near estate entrance. The alternative of using the big bridge or humpback bridge at Castleknock station will lead to huge traffic issues. The campaigns that were (and still are) about saving the badgers and the like are IMO ridiculous. Plenty of space for a bridge to be built that would solve traffic and train slow-down issues while utilising the unused banked grass areas coming into the estate.

I wonder if the aim to reduce train crossings will have any impact on service times of trains as there seems to be a bottleneck coming up to Drumcondra and then Conolly. I then wonder what the point is of limiting road throughput such as this case.

As it happens I Saw a dead badger today by Castleknock college. Not seen a badger in years. Used to have them living in our garden in Shankill when I was growing up, which happened to have the Dart line running right through it.

and as for bridges. Are they building some at kellystown? I don’t believe they plan to but maybe I’m mistaken?

imo they should, it’s a green field site and won’t offend anyone.

daft if they don’t

IMPORTANT REMINDER - Submissions by Residents to Iaranrod Eireann are DUE

COOLMINE TRAIN CROSSING

PORTERSTOWN TRAIN CROSSING

CLONSILLA TRAIN CROSSING

ARE DUE NO LATER THAN CLOSE OF BUSINESS THIS WEDNESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2021.

IF THIS DECISION PROCEEDS-it will severely impact All Residents - Closing off Access from Ambulance/Fire Services as well as

GARDA SIOCHANA. IT will also cause daily backups and delay to traffic attempting to exist at:-

1. Diswellstown Junction (FATHER TROY BRIDGE)
2. Laural Lodge Road (going LEFT ONTO GRANARD BRIDGE (aka Humpty Back Bridge) to Blanchardstown or RIGHT towards Castleknock
3. Carpenterstown Road past College Gate

HERE IS THE LINK TO FOLLOW TO MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION:-

https://www.dartplus.ie/en-ie/projects/dart-west/public-consultation-round-2/how-to-engage-contact-us

If you want continued vehicle access over the above locations - get your submission IN NOW

Thanks

Hi LXFlyer,

Thank you for your reply. There are crossings on the current DART line whose Gates open within seconds of the DART passing through. At Coolmine in particular, the crossing used by most vehicles of the 3, the gates remain shut and do not open for up to 30-40 seconds at the earliest. The electrified DART crossings are not permanently closed to vehicular traffic - there is no reason to do the same at Coolmine, Porterstown or Clonsilla if this system is logically implemented.

Iaranrod Eireann's own other option - OPTION 10 - is to install a vehicular pathway UNDER Coolmine's current rail lines (over the Canal) to facilitate traffic WITHOUT disruption to trains passing over. Representatives of Iaranrod Eireann advised in their Webinar on Tuesday 28th September that Option 10 was removed due to matters relating to infrastructure - most probably costs.

Also a good point - where are the passengers from the NORTH side of Coolmine Crossing & Clonsilla Crossing going to park their cars? There are no parking lots adjacent to Kirkpatrick/Rockfield estates? The necessary infrastructural plans between Iaranrod Eireann and Fingal County Council do not exist (except for some new traffic lights on Carpenterstown Road...

The level crossings on the railway south of Pearse are at absolute capacity as it is. You cannot operate a higher frequency along that section of railway line for that reason. They are planned to be closed as part of the DART+ Coastal phase of the project. The DART+ West plans a much higher frequency than that on the railway south of Pearse.

I will repeat myself. A high frequency railway line such as is planned under DART+ for the Maynooth line and level crossings are incompatible. You cannot have both.

Projects such as this are always going to be subject to cost controls - and if the cost of a particular alternative option were significantly excessive then you cannot expect any government to sanction it.

Re your comment on parking - people can take a bus (there may weill be feeder buses in time) or walk to the station? Why do they necessarily need to drive there?

I understand your frustration, but ultimately as a society we will all have to change our behaviour to a degree and stop being completely wedded to motor vehicles. We cannot continue with the status quo.

The length of time barriers stay down is directly linked to the signalling, and the length of the signal sections on the raiilway. The signal sections on the Maynooth line are longer than those on the existing DART line.

While the Maynooth line is to be resignalled as part of the DART+ project, at the same time the frequency of service is planned to be higher than the every 10 minutes on the southern section of the existing DART line which would render the gates pretty much closed semi-permanently at peak times.

You cannot operate a railway at the planned frequency levels and retain the level crossings. They are incompatible.

Leave the gates down from 7 to 9 am and from 430 to 630 pm. They are the only times the trains will be running at anything like the frequency IE are talking about. At least then people will know they're closed and can plan accordingly.

The other 20 hours of the day, it operates as a standard level crossing.

IE improves the signalling so that the gates aren't down for ten minutes at a time.

Done.

There is absolutely no need to remove it completely. The only people who benefit from closing it permanently are IE. Not rail users, not residents, and certainly not the tax payer.

Off-peak, the current service runs twice per hour. That drops to once per hour on weekends. The Docklands service does not run off-peak or weekends at all. The Sligo train runs once every two or three hours and the last one leaves Connolly around 7pm. There really is very little traffic on the line for the bulk of the day.

If the demand was there for a much more frequent train throughout the day, we could do it tomorrow without a single cent of infrastructure.

Even if you allow for population growth along the line, it is absolute fantasy to think that we'll be going from the current situation to having trains zipping through every five minutes. It simply will not happen outside rush hours.

Closing the crossing permanently makes life easier for IE but it isn't needed.

I'm open to correction here but that isn't in the current proposals?

What I see in the current plan is

"Increase train capacity from the current 6 trains per hour per direction up to 12 trains per hour per direction subject to demand."

"Capacity" isn't the same as actual frequency of service. "Up to" and "subject to demand" give them infinite wiggle room as to what is actually provided. We currently have "capacity" for a lot more services than actually are run, it will be the same after the upgrade.

From my personal perspective, I don't give a shyte about the crossing. If it takes nine minutes to get to Tesco once a week instead of five, I'll manage. I'm far more concerned that IE will get bogged down in unnecessary disputes and challenges thus delaying delivery of the service.

IE are already massively behind schedule on this project. They need to be looking at ways to speed up the process, not digging their heels in and saying if they can't have everything they want then they're not playing anymore.

Finally, the current DART service manages with multiple level crossings and sharing the line with an intercity route. It doesn't make sense to say that we absolutely cannot do it on the Maynooth line.

So what? One DART line would be every 10 minutes and the other wouldn’t?

Come off it. You’re deluded if you think otherwise. A 10 minute frequency off-peak would give a 20 minute frequency to both M3 and Maynooth.

The idea that you would spend millions on new rolling stock, electrification, and re-signalling and not ramp up frequency in the peak and off-peak significantly is a nonsense.

The premise of DART by the NTA is to provide a turn up and go service throughout the day.

At the risk of repeating myself, the other DART line is at capacity already with regards to the level crossings south of Pearse, and they are limiting the addition of extra services and it is planned to close them.

The delivery of this project needs to be done properly now - not do piecemeal implementation. That’s what went wrong with the LUAS Green Line when all hell broke loose over potentially closing Dunville Avenue.

The two posts are not incompatible.

LXFlyer mentions a minimum 10 minute Dart service both ways, so on average a train will go through every five minutes.

Former mentions capacity of up to 12 trains per direction every hour, so at full capacity a train will go through every two and a half minutes.

For me, if we in Dublin 15 want a proper DART service, we should close the level crossings. Simple as.

The Level Crossings are closing.

End of discussion.

The public consultation will consider solutions to mitigate any issues causes by the closure of the crossings.

The public consultation is not designed to ask car drivers if they think their journeys are more important than rail users.

Because the answer is no, they aren't

Such arrogance

Just because you say end of discussion, that doesnt make it so.

Discussion on it continues. Locals will have their say.