DART+ (DART Expansion)

roadmaster

Dats me wrote: »

In the document attached it gives a bit more detail on the city-centre stuff:


· Infrastructural enhancement works at Connolly Station to support the DART Expansion
· Redevelopment or relocation of the Docklands Station (scope currently under study)
· Development / re-alignment and associated works for the Junctions on the line at Newcomen, North Strand, and North Wall
· Removal of the six level crossings along the Maynooth line and provision of necessary bridge relief infrastructure
· Addition of a new maintenance depot connected to the Maynooth Line


Maintenace depot is for "up to" 240 EMU units so it says

I wonder for the depot would they buy land out beside the m3 parkway

L1011

roadmaster wrote: »

I wonder for the depot would they buy land out beside the m3 parkway

Already been claimed as between Maynooth and Leixlip

dublinman1990

Lovely stuff. It will be great in seeing these projects happen if they get approved.

Ireland trains

Would quad tracking heuston to park west allow for intercity journey times ro be reduced.

Kevtherev1

marno21 wrote: »

Irish Rail have tendered for consultants for the Maynooth line DART upgrade and for "city centre enhancements".

https://irl.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/publicpurchase.asp?PID=145211

Does this mean the priority now is to electrify the maynooth line first. I thought it was announced a while back that they would first electrify the northern line to Balbriggan as their where less low bridges and crosses to replace. Its good news if they are now doing the maynooth and M3 parkway lines first.

highdef

With Kilcock now being a suburban rather than intercity stop, would it make sense to extend the electrification to there, even in a Bray to Greystones single track type way? Kilcock is now a rapidly expanding town and there is a massive amount of home building going on at the moment with a lot more to come plus a large amount of commercial/business park areas are to be built in the near future. In the near future, I can foresee there being a high demand for a frequent rail service and it would make sense to prepare for that now rather than the usual case of wait until things hit creaking point or beyond and then take action and cause unnecessary amount of disruption by having a second round of works.

Pete_Cavan

highdef wrote: »

With Kilcock now being a suburban rather than intercity stop, would it make sense to extend the electrification to there, even in a Bray to Greystones single track type way?

Extending beyond Kilcock and creating a new M4 Parkway Station off junction 8 would be great. A P&R would open up the new DART service to a greater population, not just the towns with a difficult to access and limited parking station in their centre. It would have to be served by a double track, single track is just too much of a constraint.

L1011

Its not in scope of current works and adding it would delay them significantly - this capacity has been needed for 4-5 years already so further delays can't be countenanced.

Perfectly sound idea for a future phase.

Pete_Cavan

L1011 wrote: »

Its not in scope of current works and adding it would delay them significantly - this capacity has been needed for 4-5 years already so further delays can't be countenanced.

Perfectly sound idea for a future phase.

No it won't be done as part of the initial electrification but it is something that should be considered for an immediate phase 2. It would also allow for the provision of turnback platforms which are important to get proper use out of the infrastructure.

highdef

Kilcock train station has room for a second platform so a turnback/passing loop there would be relatively easy to install.

Hopefully a phase 2 to Kilcock (and perhaps beyond) is completed before the population there increases. The M4 is already over capacity most days and with so many houses being built west of Dublin and into Kildare, a frequent and fast commuter rail service needs to come online pronto.

Pete_Cavan

I assume that there is no mention of Pelletstown station as part of the Maynooth DARTification? It should be a no brainer to do it as part of the project, I assume all the nearby housing developments have had to pay development levies towards it.

marno21

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

I assume that there is no mention of Pelletstown station as part of the Maynooth DARTification? It should be a no brainer to do it as part of the project, I assume all the nearby housing developments have had to pay development levies towards it.

It's being advanced separately, tender out at present.

marno21

Kilcock would be nice to have DART, but it's important to remember that there isn't 1km of electrified line on the Maynooth line, so we do have to start somewhere, and this project does include 40km of electrification. (The remainder includes 20km on the Heuston line (+ 4 tracking from Parkwest to Heuston) and 37km on the Northern Line)

Ireland trains

I wonder if irish rail will ever add a 3rd track from connolly to grand canal dock/Lansdowne and what would be the estimated cost. They are running trains very close together now and they are having to wait at connolly a lot.
I assume the new platform 8 at connolly will be a suburban platform on the far left looking north.
Also the rosslare service now takes an hour to cover around 30 kilometres to greystones where as it should really take at the most 40

Ireland trains

I wonder if irish rail will ever add a 3rd track from connolly to grand canal dock/Lansdowne and what would be the estimated cost. They are running trains very close together now and they are having to wait at connolly a lot.
I assume the new platform 8 at connolly will be a suburban platform on the far left looking north.
Also the rosslare service now takes an hour to cover around 30 kilometres to greystones where as it should really take at the most 40

1huge1

I really don't see where the space is for a 3rd track, especially with the loop line bridge.

I believe one of the main aims of Dart Underground was to take rail traffic away from this particular bottleneck.

prunudo

Ireland trains wrote: »

I wonder if irish rail will ever add a 3rd track from connolly to grand canal dock/Lansdowne and what would be the estimated cost. They are running trains very close together now and they are having to wait at connolly a lot.
I assume the new platform 8 at connolly will be a suburban platform on the far left looking north.
Also the rosslare service now takes an hour to cover around 30 kilometres to greystones where as it should really take at the most 40

Its a shame there isnt more room along the Dart line for adding extra rails, even if they were just passing loops. Bar the section near Shankill and between Bray Head and Greystones theres very little options to increase track capacity.

cgcsb

An extra 2 tracks could go above the existing two between Clontarf road and Sandymount but they would be architecturally unsightly, which is the most important consideration

thomasjad

Work has commenced on the car park at Kishoge train station after many long years. Expected completion 6 months according to on site builder.

L1011

cgcsb wrote: »

An extra 2 tracks could go above the existing two between Clontarf road and Sandymount but they would be architecturally unsightly, which is the most important consideration

And require demolishing the roof of Pearse Station.

DART Underground is the only way more cross-Liffey capacity is being added.

cgcsb

L1011 wrote: »

And require demolishing the roof of Pearse Station.

DART Underground is the only way more cross-Liffey capacity is being added.

I would contend that metrolink will add lots of cross-liffey capacity. The Glasnevin interchange will attract lots of pax onto metro that would otherwise have crossed the loop line.

Zebra3

Said it before and I’ll say it again, trains (non-DARTs) from beyond Bray should terminate at the old platforms 1/2 in Pearse to ease some of the pressure on the loop line.

L1011

Zebra3 wrote: »

Said it before and I’ll say it again, trains (non-DARTs) from beyond Bray should terminate at the old platforms 1/2 in Pearse to ease some of the pressure on the loop line.

The platforms that don't exist anymore and I believe have lift shafts through them? Think that horse has completely bolted.

cgcsb wrote: »

I would contend that metrolink will add lots of cross-liffey capacity. The Glasnevin interchange will attract lots of pax onto metro that would otherwise have crossed the loop line.

From one of the three major approaches - it'll help but not enough.

LXFlyer

Zebra3 wrote: »

Said it before and I’ll say it again, trains (non-DARTs) from beyond Bray should terminate at the old platforms 1/2 in Pearse to ease some of the pressure on the loop line.

Given that the trains get serviced at Connolly & Drogheda and then also operate services on other routes out of Connolly, with one continuing to Dundalk as a through service, that’s not very practical. The sets don’t stick to the Rosslare route but are interworked with other routes.

They’re not exactly putting the loop line under pressure let’s be honest - we are talking only about 5 trains a day.

cgcsb

How we deal with intercity trains while having a congested commuter network will be challenging.

Terminating Sligo trains at Glasnevin could be an option. Belfast at Docklands, with 3rd track added where possible on the northern line. Heuston-Parkwest should be 4 tracks with DART expansion anyway and Rosslare trains can stop at Grand Canal.

Then have 10 minute DARTS Greystones-Howth/Malahide, Kildare-Grand Canal Dock, Maynooth/M3-Docklands. Make every 3rd DART a long distance hybrid commuter that continues to Dundalk, Longford and Portlaoise respectively.

Ireland trains

What really annoys me is out of service transfers eg bray-Connolly morning commuter services, heuston-Grand canal dock transfers and connolly-drogheda transfers. Why cant they just run them as an express service and allow passengers on as it would not cost IE anything and can only add revenue. Heuston-GCD would be a very good train to have as a transfer as right now heuston is not linked directly by heavy rail to the connolly lines

gooddarts10

cgcsb wrote: »

How we deal with intercity trains while having a congested commuter network will be challenging.

Terminating Sligo trains at Glasnevin could be an option. Belfast at Docklands, with 3rd track added where possible on the northern line. Heuston-Parkwest should be 4 tracks with DART expansion anyway and Rosslare trains can stop at Grand Canal.

Then have 10 minute DARTS Greystones-Howth/Malahide, Kildare-Grand Canal Dock, Maynooth/M3-Docklands. Make every 3rd DART a long distance hybrid commuter that continues to Dundalk, Longford and Portlaoise respectively.

Ten minute Dart service from Greystones is not possible due to the single line

cgcsb

gooddarts10 wrote: »

Ten minute Dart service from Greystones is not possible due to the single line

Then just operate every 20 mins from Howth to Greystones and every 20 minutes from Balbriggan(Drogheda?) to Bray. If we want to get fancy, build a passing loop near Greystones and operate every 10 minutes Greystones to Drogheda and every 10 minutes from Howth to Howth Junction.

LXFlyer

cgcsb wrote: »

Then just operate every 20 mins from Howth to Greystones and every 20 minutes from Balbriggan(Drogheda?) to Bray. If we want to get fancy, build a passing loop near Greystones and operate every 10 minutes Greystones to Drogheda and every 10 minutes from Howth to Howth Junction.

Operating every 20 mins to Greystones would leave the line between there and Bray occupied 100% of the time and leave zero resilience and would result in mayhem.

There is a reason for the current practice of operating every 30 minutes.

cgcsb

LXFlyer wrote: »

Operating every 20 mins to Greystones would leave the line between there and Bray occupied 100% of the time and leave zero resilience and would result in mayhem.

There is a reason for the current practice of operating every 30 minutes.

so...feck Greystones, have a DART shuttle to Bray every 10 mins instead.