Irish Rail Suplement

Victor

Irish Rail have a commercial suplement in today's Sunday Business Post.

Victor

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=57

New carriages to deliver hourly Dublin/Cork service by 2006 by Media & P.R.

NEW LOOK FOR INTERCITY UNVEILED
New carriages to deliver hourly Dublin/Cork service by 2006

Iarnród Éireann have unveiled the new livery for the InterCity fleet, which will make its first appearance when a €117 million fleet of new InterCity carriages begin entering service late next year. (Please click on PDF link at bottom of the page for illustration).

The investment, the largest ever fleet investment in the history of Ireland’s railways, is co-funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

The order, from CAF (Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles) of Spain, is the first new order of InterCity carriages for almost 20 years, excluding the Belfast Enterprise. The new trains are the foundation of Iarnród Éireann’s InterCity timetable strategy for the future, designed to increase frequency, journey speed and customer service across the network.

The carriages will be used on all regular Dublin/Cork services, and when the full fleet is in service in 2006, they will allow Iarnród Éireann deliver an hourly service in each direction on the route.

The new green and silver livery will feature the InterCity brand linked in design to the DART and Commuter brands. Iarnród Éireann Chief Operating Officer Dick Fearn said “the new livery emphasises our integrated service using high-quality fleet. Our 67 carriages will begin the renewal of the InterCity fleet to give levels of comfort and service to our customers that are second to none.”

Built to standards of quality, comfort and customer facilities available on Belfast Enterprise services, the new carriages represent the first phase of a programme to modernise the Iarnród Éireann InterCity fleet.

The carriages will be formed into 9-carriage trains, comprising 6 standard class vehicles, a café-style dining carriage, first class and control vehicle (for push-pull driving, conductor and parcels). There will be seating for 499 passengers on-board, and the trains will be fully accessible to mobility-impaired customers.

Features include:
- Push-pull operation to reduce turnaround time and allow more efficient operation, and improved punctuality
- Streamlined new design, featuring curved front and new livery
- Audio and text display passenger information systems on-board
- Electronic route maps
- Fully compliant with international standards for mobility-impaired customers
- Enterprise standards of comfort and customer facilities
- Additional features in 1st class, including adjustable seating, in-seat radio and music, reading light, table lamps

The new InterCity carriages will begin entering service in December 2005.

More fleet investment to come
Iarnród Éireann aim to continue fleet renewal and expansion in the coming years. Currently, half of the InterCity fleet is over 30 years old. Iarnród Éireann plan to replace all these vehicles with carriages designed to meet the needs and expectations today’s rail customers.

Regional railcars for all other routes nationwide are the next priority, with Iarnród Éireann aiming to proceed with this investment as soon as possible. This would result in high-specification railcars operating routes such as Dublin-Waterford, Dublin-Sligo, Dublin-Rosslare, and lines such as Tralee-Cork and Ballina-Manulla Jctn.

“With the regional railcar fleet”, Fearn says, “we will be able to deliver frequency and journey time benefits across all of our InterCity services, ensuring railways can play a greater role in meeting the transport needs of the country, and the communities we serve.”

CAF were previously successful in winning the Iarnród Éireann contract to build 80 new railcars for suburban services in the Greater Dublin area which have entered service in recent months, delivering a huge boost to commuter capacity.

An order of 40 new DART carriages, in addition to the 38 new carriages which have entered service since 2000, is well advanced, with the first sixteen carriages already on the high seas from Japan to Ireland.

CAF
CAF are one of Europe’s leading rolling stock manufacturers. Other major projects CAF have been involved in include Heathrow Express and Northern Spirit trains in Britain, InterCity trains for Renfe of Spain, Washington DC metro services, and other carriage orders from Europe, USA, South America, Hong Kong and Mexico.

They are also supplying NI Railways with a fleet of railcars. The company has three manufacturing facilities at Beasain, Irun and Zaragoza in the north of Spain.

Coulour Scheme http://www.irishrail.ie/images/upload/news/57.pdf

Victor

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=140

The next DART will arrive... two months early! by Press Office

An order of 40 DART carriages worth €80 million is set to be delivered ahead of schedule, Iarnród Éireann have announced.

The forty carriages, which will complete the doubling of the DART fleet in less than five years, were ordered from Japanese firm Mitsui are currently under construction in the factories of Tokyo Car Company (TTC) in Yokohama, Japan.

The first 16 carriages, originally scheduled for delivery in June, will leave the port of Kawasaki next week, and are now set to arrive in Dublin this April, and enter service as soon as August.

The remainder of the order will be delivered in June, to enter service after testing and commissioning at the start of next year.

This investment is co-funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

The 40 new carriages will be built to the same high specifications as 12 Mitsui carriages which came into operation at the beginning of 2002, and will have a similar host of design features including:

- individual base seating
- automated passenger information systems
- sound warning for closing doors
- improved capacity
- accessibility for mobility impaired passengers.

New features include on-board CCTV, linked to a screen in the driver’s cab, to improve security. These will also be the first DART carriages to include a full air-conditioning system.

In addition to having greater capacity in individual carriages, the introduction of the carriages will allow DARTs to be increased in length from six to eight carriages which will significantly increase capacity on the service. This lengthening will be achieved in conjunction with the ongoing DART Upgrade project.

The delivery will also allow Iarnród Éireann undertake the refurbishment of the original fleet of DART carriages, twenty years in service this year. This will ensure DART commuters will have a quality fleet to continue the development of the country’s biggest public transport success story into the future.

From the launch of the DART in 1984 up to 2000, the original 80 DART carriages operated the DART service, during a time when passenger numbers increased from 35,000 daily to over 80,000.

Since that time, 36 new carriages have entered service, with this latest order of 40 carriages completing the doubling of the fleet. Over 90,000 daily commuters now use the DART daily, with continued growth in demand forecast.

The news of the early delivery of DART carriages will be another boost for the Dublin commuter area, following the introduction into service of 80 commuter carriages in recent months.

A further 103 carriages on order for InterCity and Commuter services, with further orders planned:

- 67 new Intercity carriages have been ordered from CAF in Spain at a cost of €117 million, and will enter service in 2005 on all regular Dublin-Cork services, as well as key Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Galway services – these will be the first new carriages for the Intercity fleet, excluding the Belfast Enterprise, for over 20 years

- 36 railcars are on order to continue the expansion of the railcar fleet, for delivery in late 2005

- further orders for the Intercity fleet are planned, with the next priority an order of high-specification regional railcars for other Intercity routes

deRanged

it was a great supplement. I particularly enjoyed the piece on the Cobh/Cork line. Oh wait no I didn't. I wish they'd stop forgetting it exists - just because it's profitable (far as I know) and popular is no reason to ignore it.

loyatemu

the early arrival of the new DART carriages isn't going to benefit anyone.

they are all 4-car sets - they can't combine them into 8 car trains until the DART upgrade project is complete which probably won't be until the middle of next year and they can't make them into 6 car trains as they don't have any spare 2 car sets to add to them. They also can't increase frequencies with them as they are already operating at maximum capacity.

Ro

I hope the new DART carriages aren't the same as the latest batch they got. They're obviously designed for your average Japanese person and not your average Irish person. Unless your a midget your going to be squashed against the person opposite you.

Also for the six carriages, could you not take the middle two carriages out of the new sets of four and stick them onto another four carriage set to get the six required?

Kobie

> 40 DART carriages worth €80 million


So that's €2 million per carriage? A aluminium tube on wheels?

Jaysus, even if it does have CCTV & air con., could they not do a tad better than that?

K.

Victor

Originally posted by Kobie
So that's €2 million per carriage? A aluminium tube on wheels?

Remember it will last 30 years, work 12-18 hours a day and carry 72 (seated) to 250(total) people.

How many cars will do that?

ixoy

Originally posted by Ro
I hope the new DART carriages aren't the same as the latest batch they got. They're obviously designed for your average Japanese person and not your average Irish person. Unless your a midget your going to be squashed against the person opposite you.

Exactly - what idiot designed these? Was it a deliberate attempt to maximise standing room or - as I suspect - part of the same brand of engineering team that designs Dublin Port tunnels and that doesn't live in reality?

I can't wait to try these trains out at weekends on my way out to Howth. Oh wait - I forgot. Those fcukers have cancelled it between Howth and Howth Junction for the next two months at weekend and then will, presumably, cancel it for nine more months. GRRR. :mad:

BuffyBot

They're obviously designed for your average Japanese person and not your average Irish person

No they aren't. Previous Arrow railcars have been Japanese designed and built, and used without problems.

sceptre

In any case your "average Japanese person" is slowly getting taller. Most of the younger generation are far taller than their parents as the Japanese diet relies less on fish. I suspect that the new seats were built to a precise spec laid out by whoever ordered them. Some of the older London underground carriages (particularly those on the Met line) have the same problem.

Victor

... and of course the controlling dimension on the trains is the space available at platforms and bridges ....

loyatemu

Also for the six carriages, could you not take the middle two carriages out of the new sets of four and stick them onto another four carriage set to get the six required?

this may be possible but IE virtually never split apart the basic dart and arrow units.

on the existing 4 car units 2 cars are powered and 2 are not - if it is cars 1 and 3 that are powered then presumably you could take out the middle 2 cars and use them elsewhere. If it is cars 1 and 4 (ie the end cars with the cabs in them) then possibly not.

Andrew Duffy

The arrow sets are notoriously unwilling to recognise the fact that they've been connected together - you can sometimes see frustrated staff repeatedly banging two arrows together in a siding while a service gets later and later.