Irish Rail urgently needs new fleet as capacity set to run out on commuter routes

CatInABox

Independent article here.

Irish Rail finally has finally spoken up about how desperate things are going to get on the commuter lines. They're predicting that the lines will hit capacity in three years, and that they have to order new trains this year in order to have them for 2021. I think that it's slightly optimistic to be honest, I think the northern lines are already at capacity now.

There's also the problem of buying all these carriages, only to electrify the lines and turn them into Dart lines. Hybrid trains might work, but surely they'll be way more expensive in comparison to pure Dart units.

thomasj

CatInABox wrote: »

Independent article here.

Irish Rail finally has finally spoken up about how desperate things are going to get on the commuter lines. They're predicting that the lines will hit capacity in three years, and that they have to order new trains this year in order to have them for 2021. I think that it's slightly optimistic to be honest, I think the northern lines are already at capacity now.

There's also the problem of buying all these carriages, only to electrify the lines and turn them into Dart lines. Hybrid trains might work, but surely they'll be way more expensive in comparison to pure Dart units.

Maynooth line is bad . People constantly left behind on platforms with the morning peak services. It's crazy , and this happens with both Maynooth and M3 parkway services .

daheff

all the lines are in a bad way at peak times. Telling us now they see peak capacity in a couple of years time indicates a horrendous time coming for commuters.


I thought they had 80 carriages due this year (q4)?

They need to decide a long term strategy for what they are going to do (electrification wise) and start building around that.

Captain Chaos

Sure they don't have enough DART units either. They do have an option to exercise to purchase intermediate coaches to bring all the current 3 car ICR to 4 car units. They would be the quickest stop gap for the short term.

GM228

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Sure they don't have enough DART units either. They do have an option to exercise to purchase intermediate coaches to bring all the current 3 car ICR to 4 car units. They would be the quickest stop gap for the short term.

Purchase of additional ICR cars has been ruled out by the NTA, they have committed that all future orders will be electric or hybrid only.

The NTA will be discussing the rail fleet at their November meeting along with IE and it is expected that future fleet plans will be signed off on shortly afterwards.

Also note the 2700 project is not dead yet, it may still go ahead even if it means to a lesser in house specification.

neris

will all these new cars not just add to the congestion on the lines aswell. Too many trains and enough length of track. The Darts a joke as it is for waiting times

CatInABox

neris wrote: »

will all these new cars not just add to the congestion on the lines aswell. Too many trains and enough length of track. The Darts a joke as it is for waiting times

Presumably, they'll just be lengthening the existing trains, so capacity will go up while the number of trains stays the same.

Keyzer

Ridiculous.

Trains have been packed for years. It's beyond a joke right now.

You'd need to be training with the Irish rugby team to be able to get on a train in the morning.

Colonel Claptrap

No mention of the new timetable in that article.

Reverting to the old timetable would go a long way in reducing congestion at peak hours. An overnight short term solution is available to them.

L1011

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

No mention of the new timetable in that article.

Reverting to the old timetable would go a long way in reducing congestion at peak hours. An overnight short term solution is available to them.

The timetable changes to commuter routes, which the article is about, had no impact

end of the road

GM228 wrote: »

Purchase of additional ICR cars has been ruled out by the NTA, they have committed that all future orders will be electric or hybrid only.

The NTA will be discussing the rail fleet at their November meeting along with IE and it is expected that future fleet plans will be signed off on shortly afterwards.

Also note the 2700 project is not dead yet, it may still go ahead even if it means to a lesser in house specification.[/QUOTE]

that's all fantastic that all future orders will be electric and hybrid but it is going to take quite a lot of time to get that fleet tendered, ordered and in service. a lengthening of the ICR sets as it stands is needed now, anyway, and even though the ordering and putting into service of the cars will itself take time it will bring some short term capacity, i'd imagine a bit quicker. we need stock today as it is, so if there is an option to bring some in quicker and which of itself will be of benefit long term, then they should exercise the order IMO.
as for the 2700s, they are probably going to go with bringing them back anyway so they should just get on with it. they are just dilly dallying IMO.

Stephen15

CatInABox wrote: »

There's also the problem of buying all these carriages, only to electrify the lines and turn them into Dart lines. Hybrid trains might work, but surely they'll be way more expensive in comparison to pure Dart units.

Perhaps but what could be done is some of the 29000s could be moved down to Cork and Limerick and the 2600 and 2800 could be withdrawn once there is more electrification within Dublin on the Maynooth and Northern lines

XPS_Zero

Keyzer wrote: »

Ridiculous.

Trains have been packed for years. It's beyond a joke right now.

You'd need to be training with the Irish rugby team to be able to get on a train in the morning.

I know I'm like a broken record on this, but nobody else makes this point around here so I will keep doing so: it will keep up like this as long as you tell canvassers during elections you want tax cuts over better public services.


People over 40 usually don't bring up policy AT ALL when I knock on their door, they'll make their decision on who to vote for with just their general vibe of the candidate or how that candidate pushes their emotional buttons, so that attitude won't help better transport come along. Their agreeing with you that travelers have a culture of ignorance of the law or that people on jobseekers should be forced to eat coal for dinner might give you temporary emotional satisfaction when you talk to them but it won't improve your life one damn bit


People under 40 do tend to be very policy orientated esp millennials but they usually don't bring up public transport.



You need to make it a public issue by contacting reps about it and saying it's your main issue when they or their teams knock at your door. They don't see this issue as a vote getter because nobody talks about it TO THEM, telling your mates in the pub and at the BBQ or dinner party how sh1t the system is is not enough you need to tell the people who actually have power over it AND tell them you want it more than a minor tax cut you'll barely notice (which is how the govt atm thinks your vote can be got)

Jamie2k9

Its interesting they have come up with 3 years wonder how they have judged this and is it based on the assumption the remaining Mark IV set will return to traffic, Enterprise is not substituted by an ICR at a time when demand is highest on the network thus potentially impacting existing services if there is a failure, questionable rolling stock allocation, route adjustments (i.e. to park the fleet in Bray) good use of resources (?) particularly with the 10 minute DART and existing issues on other routes at peak times.

They will not be under enough pressure until all of the above are addressed.