[Article] DART partly closed at WEEKENDS for 18 months

Victor

[Press Release] Extra Busses for DART Closures

Victor

Originally posted by kamobe
I live in Blanchardstown, work in Bray, and go to college in Maynooth. The only way I can do this is using the trains.

Have you been telling fibs? There appears to be no train that could have done it anyway (first arrival 0929). However there are plenty of busses you can get.

[url=http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/timetables_junction1.asp?radioservice1=1&txtFromStation=Clonsilla&txtToStation=Bray&status=D&FirstSelectDay=04&FirstSelectMonth=10&fromtime=01&totime=09&optionWalk=yes&optionBus=yes&Submit.x=33&Submit.y=11]Search Parameters: 
From Station: Clonsilla  
To Station: Bray  
Arrival/Departure: Departure  
Date: 04/10  
Between: 01:00 and 09:00  

Dep. Sta. Clonsilla 
Arr. Sta.  Bray 
Date  04/10/2003 
Dep. Time  0817 
Arr. Time 0929
Changes  0 
Service  Arrow

[/url]

route 39 to city First bus on Saturday 6.30am

route 45 to Bray First bus on Saturday 6.50am

Victor

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=4100&lang=ENG&loc=1345

Statement by the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan T.D. - Upgrade of Dart Network
9 October 2003

On the evening of 6 October 2003, the Chairman of CIE and Irish Rail briefed me on arrangements for the welcomed €170 million upgrade of the DART network. This upgrade will be enormously beneficial for commuters, increasing capacity by over 30% as DARTs are lengthened from six to eight carriages. It also has the potential to take thousands more cars off the roads into Dublin.

I was, however, extremely concerned at the level of disruption to services at weekends that the work would cause; the failure to adequately communicate to the public this information and the failure to adequately publicise details of alternative transport services for customers.

I expressed particular concern at the disruption the work would cause on the three weekends before Christmas in December (December 6/7, 13/14 & 20/21). I requested the Chairman to postpone the work on these weekends to ensure a non-interrupted DART service at the busiest time of the year.

This morning the Chairman informed me that he had looked at the arrangements in Irish Rail for the work on the DART upgrade and as a result he was now in a position to assure me that the works will be put on hold over these three weekends in December (December 6/7, 13/14 & 20/21). That work will be picked up at a later stage. I welcome the response from the Chairman and thank him for his intervention.

I have made clear to the Chairman and to Irish Rail that it is imperative, even at this late stage, that all possible measures are immediately taken to comprehensively inform the public of the works schedule and of the alternative transport services that will be available for DART customers, particularly the large fleet of additional buses being provided by Dublin Bus.

ENDS

8th October 2003

mollser

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1061154&issue_id=9910

THE core element of the upgrade which will see Dart services disrupted for 18 months could be done in a matter of hours, say transport experts.

Services north and south of the Liffey will each be closed every weekend for nine months, but use of the latest construction technology could eliminate the bulk of the stoppages.

The most time-consuming element of the so-called 'Dash' project will be the extension of platforms at each of the 25 Dart line stations, allowing trains to carry two extra carriages.

Railway industry insiders say the most cost-effective way to extend platforms is to use prefabricated steel-framed extensions which don't require heavy machinery for fitting and which can be fitted without disrupting routine services.

Engineers say dedicated teams could fit the extensions at all 25 Dart stations in little more than a day



Why does this not surprise me??

Can't believe I've agreed to leave Oz to go back home to all that sh*te.

antoinolachtnai

I can't see the big deal in extending a platform anyway, even if you do it in concrete. It's basically a block-laying/concrete-pouring job. Maybe there's something secret that I can't see, but I can't see why any regular builder couldn't do this work.

It's a pretty weak story, because it doesn't have any sources named to support it (although it looks like it might have come from the folks at Platform 11).

Was anyone near the southern DART line over the weekend? Anyone see what kind of work they were actually doing?

Antoin.

Andrew Duffy

From what I saw on the news, it looked like there's a few bends to straighten out so the platform isn't too curved for the centre doors.
The words "sledgehammer" and "nut" come to mind for some reason.

Victor

Originally posted by mollser
Railway industry insiders say the most cost-effective way to extend platforms is to use prefabricated steel-framed extensions which don't require heavy machinery for fitting and which can be fitted without disrupting routine services.

Fair enough, but you can't replace 20 year old power lines like this.

ixoy

So we now know that you can do the platform extensions in one day (CIE - prats).
Does it really take 18 months to upgrade the power lines? I shouldn't think so. It's essentially only a cable they have to switch over. I'm sure there's other equipment, etc. but that can be built beside existing power supplies, transformers, etc. so all you'd need to do is plug it in at the end. Why 18 months for that? Oh wait, I have an answer: because it's CIE.

kamobe

Thanks for the reply Victor.

That 45 does indeed leave town early, but doesn’t go near where i work. I could get it and walk for about 30 minutes.....

To settle your curiosity, I'd normally get a bus into town (38/70) and get the dart into work, followed by a 184 which drops me right outside where I work. This Saturday I got the same bus from Blanchardstown and then an 84 which left town at 8 (arriving at 9.20).

The train combination that was open to me previously was

Castleknock 0734 Bray 0843 InterCity.

I'm sure you understand a half hour walk mid winter is not something to look forward to

Originally posted by Victor
Have you been telling fibs? There appears to be no train that could have done it anyway (first arrival 0929). However there are plenty of busses you can get.

[url=http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/timetables_junction1.asp?radioservice1=1&txtFromStation=Clonsilla&txtToStation=Bray&status=D&FirstSelectDay=04&FirstSelectMonth=10&fromtime=01&totime=09&optionWalk=yes&optionBus=yes&Submit.x=33&Submit.y=11]Search Parameters: 
From Station: Clonsilla  
To Station: Bray  
Arrival/Departure: Departure  
Date: 04/10  
Between: 01:00 and 09:00  

Dep. Sta. Clonsilla 
Arr. Sta.  Bray 
Date  04/10/2003 
Dep. Time  0817 
Arr. Time 0929
Changes  0 
Service  Arrow

[/url]

route 39 to city First bus on Saturday 6.30am

route 45 to Bray First bus on Saturday 6.50am

Scruff

Originally posted by antoinolachtnai

Was anyone near the southern DART line over the weekend? Anyone see what kind of work they were actually doing?

Antoin.

There was a jcb digger sitting on the line between Seapoint and Blackrock on saturday morning with 6 lads sitting on it enjoying the early morning sunshine for an hour or two.

ixoy

Originally posted by Scruff
There was a jcb digger sitting on the line between Seapoint and Blackrock on saturday morning with 6 lads sitting on it enjoying the early morning sunshine for an hour or two.

Your money at work!
I think we should contact their unions and see if these poor guys can't get a few hours less work a day, bless their cotton socks.

Victor

Originally posted by kamobe
The train combination that was open to me previously was

Castleknock 0734 Bray 0843 InterCity.

Apologies, the timetable on the website mislead me (possibly because I couln't search into the future as there were to be no trains and had to search based on the previous Saturday), but yes the printed version of the timetable does confirm your story.

Sarsfield

There is a discussion earlier on this thread about train length vs train frequency

Nobody mentions the series of level crossings between serpentine and merrion gates.

To allow these gates to be raised at all during the peak times, there has to be a certain gap between trains. This limits southside frequency regardless of anything else. Doesn't it?

Mac daddy

Originally posted by Victor
Midnight Friday to 5am Monday = 53 hours. Allowing for set-up and clear-up times perhaps 45-50 productive hours.

all the do is drink tea, they wouldn't now what work is like the council bunch of wasters

Mac daddy

Originally posted by Scruff
There was a jcb digger sitting on the line between Seapoint and Blackrock on saturday morning with 6 lads sitting on it enjoying the early morning sunshine for an hour or two.

See they are lazy ****s who do nothing:rolleyes:

antoinolachtnai

Sarsfield writes:

There is a discussion earlier on this thread about train length vs train frequency

Nobody mentions the series of level crossings between serpentine and merrion gates.

To allow these gates to be raised at all during the peak times, there has to be a certain gap between trains. This limits southside frequency regardless of anything else. Doesn't it?

Well, it all depends on how long you leave the gates down for before the train comes. It does appear to me that the gate-down time at certain level crossings (the ones immediately beside stations) could be greatly reduced if there was a will. The train has to slow down to stop at the platform, so it is only going through the junction at a very low speed anyway. You would think that would mean that the 1- or 2-minute halting of traffic would be unnecessary. (Of course this wouldn't work for Merrion Gates.)

It also has to do with practice. Some lines in Tokyo, have many level crossings on them, despite being very busy and crossing major roads. The reason they are able to do it is because drivers are trained to drive directly into a crossing with vehicular traffic on it. The gates only come down at almost the last moment. (see p. 70 of http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_13-c.pdf if you don't believe me.)

Also, listening to the IE spokesperson on the radio talking about why they didn't use prefabricated platforms, it sounds like there is a lot of work to be done with moving embankments and such. Maybe that is the case, and that is fair enough, but why didn't they say that in their original press release?

Antoin

John R

When the automatic barriers were introduced the decision was made to lower the barriers ahead of the stations before the trains arrive purely on safety grounds, in the event of an overshoot even a relatively slow moving train will destroy a car and pedestrians or bicyclists wouldn't stand a chance.

With the lousy driving standards in Ireland an extra cautious approach to level crossings is a very good policy. The amount of times I have seen people dodge the barriers on the Merrion crossing is unbelievable. Northern Ireland has a terrible record for level crossing collissions, there they have half-barriers or lights-only crossings in rural areas. Even though the surviving motorists always claim to have seen no warning lights there has been no cases of equipment failure prooved, some people simply believe they can dodge trains.

antoinolachtnai

the paper about the way the japanese do it is worth reading. It does obviously depend on a high level of compliance by road users.

Near stations, it should be possible to brake to such a speed that the train could be completely stopped before the level crossing if necessary, no? This wouldn't reduce operating speeds much, because the train has to stop anyway, at the platform.

Obviously, even a low-speed collision with a train is going to be fairly devastating.

antoin.

John R

The number of red signals of any kind passed is very small, I would not be surprised if there were no instances of any over-runs of these level crossings in many years, but as they are right next to the stopping area even a small overshoot would be a potential disaster. The system you are talking about in Japan most likely uses a completely automatic system designed to completely prevent any such occourences. Not that any system is 100% reliable though, a longer blockage of the roadway is a small price to pay for the extra assurance IMO.

Victor

I spoke to some senior Irish Rail guys on Monday and the stations are getting complete workovers, hence the extended closures.

As regards the level crossings, Merrion Gates is the only one that can be "easily" bridged (i.e. demolish everything from old station to that white call centre building by Booterstown Marsh, but put an office tower in their place) at a cost of maybe €15m as part of the Eastern bypass. That would allow Merrion Station reopen safely. The other crossings would mean either raising (noise issue) or lowering (flooding issue) a huge length of track (close entire railway for 6-18 months) or roads (would make it difficult for local residents to access their properties).