DART+ (DART Expansion)

Had a quick look at some drawings. I always said adding tracks between Clontarf Road and Howth J wasn't realistic so no surprised it is not proposed. I would have thought however more could be down at Clontarf Road itself, make an island platform with DARTs stopping on the Westwood side to allow another train continue through.

I don't see the benefit in the changes at Malahide if all trains have to use the existing platforms. There is space south of the station to work with. Extend the platforms south going under the bridge and there could be a turnback platform there beside the car park. Surely allowing trains terminating in Malahide wait off the mainline would be the best solution here? Assuming the bridge span is wide enough to allow sufficient width platforms extend under, it would be a pretty straightforward job, if not, go the whole hog and replace the bridge allowing for a central terminating platform underneath.

page 25 of the main options report (the implication is that Darts stop at all stations, it's explicitly stated that the commuter services to Dundalk will also service all stops):

Where there are existing DART services, nine DART services will operate in each direction to Clongriffin, with seven in each direction continuing on to Malahide. In peak hours, five DART services in each direction will extend north from the current terminus at Malahide to Drogheda MacBride Station. These will be accompanied by two DMU commuter services an hour from Dublin Connolly to Dundalk in each direction, stopping at all stations

Well I think that we will have to disagree on that.

Yes there will have to be significant earthworks and stations rebuilt, and I think they can be done for one track without any CPO, but that is going to have to happen ultimately to deliver the 90 minute Enterprise.

Otherwise everything will just trundle along at DART speed and the railway will become totally uncompetitive.

It is a cost that will have to happen one way or another.

Adding even one track without CPOs would require digging out a narrow and steep embankment and build a retaining wall, while working from said narrow and steep embankment immediately adjacent to an active rail line. There isn't space to carry that scale of works, nevermind doing so in a safe manner. There is no way large scale CPOs will happen there, its not even worth suggesting.

For the Enterprise we are talking about an hourly train in each direction.

For that you don’t need extra tracks the whole way, but you certainly need the ability to overtake a DART between Killester and Raheny.

Ideally that could also be used by outer suburban services.

There are buildings right next to the railway around Kilbarrack which would make adding extra tracks there impossible.

He is on the record as saying that there will have to be additional tracks added between Connolly and Howth Junction, something you are writing off completely as never going to happen.

I am saying that I believe the space is there for one additional track without significant CPO, but two tracks will require CPO.

The work would in all probability require an extended blockade to do it, but one way or another that bullet is going to have to be bitten at some point.

For the record I’m not in any way diminishing the work that would be required, but ultimately the railway can’t deliver competitive journey times for either Intercity or outer suburban services without extra capacity between Connolly and Howth Junction.

The problem with your idea of putting the extra tracks south of Killester is that from an operational perspective you need the ability to pass north of Killester. South of that doesn’t really help as it’s too close to Connolly. Don’t get me wrong, an extended third or fourth track at some point south of Killester wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

His comments were made made in a newspaper interview last year and Oireachtas committee meetings.

Yes I am putting a lot of stock in it because I’ve sat down and looked at the pathing in detail.

As I said, it’s not going to be straightforward and in all probability will require an extended engineering blockade. But to deliver the improvements outlined by Jim Meade in Enterprise journey times, then the infrastructure changes will have to happen.

I would prefer that it happened at the same time as DART+ rather than having to do a whole set of other works.

Thanks for confirming.

Not necessarily - it depends on the constraints that the NTA set. Their track record in that record is far from good.

They aren’t interested in the Enterprise as it is outside their control.

I’d suggest that you are putting far too much faith in that organisation.

Running DMUs stopping at every station on the line from dundalk is madness.

Long term, enterprise needs to be moved to new tracks further west

Stopping at all stations to Drogheda is madness too. They'd be better off leaving things as they are.

The proposals look to me to be about adding a few train paths but at the expense of journey times. I never liked the idea of DART beyond Malahide, electrification yes but not relatively long distance trains stopping at every stop along the way. Would be better retaining the current DART/Commuter set up.

IMHO, Metro North should be a quad track DART, linked to DART underground. and extended past the airport, to hit the northern Line around Rush/Lusk.

Do any part of the DART+ plans include adding new entrances to stations (besides Connolly), does anyone know?

There are a bunch of DART stations I can think of where the station entrance is at one end of the platforms and where a second entrance or entrances at the opposite ends of the platforms would greatly improve the utility of the station, expanding its effective catchment area and sometimes provide much better connection opportunities with bus routes.

I would imagine improvements like this would score highly on a cost/benefit score. Also surely there are safety benefits to providing more entrance/exit capacity to allow quicker evacuation if required.

Rail based PT that I've used in other European cities heavily exploit the cheap/easy benefits of having multiple station entrances but very few (if any) DART stations do. It's especially weird that the city centre stations don't have it: a Townsend St entrance at Tara (without waiting for ML) and a Sandwich St entrance at Pearse, a Clanwilliam Terrace entrance at GCD, etc. all seem like candidates.

there's a new entrance to Connolly going in from Preston St. Pearse also has a newish entrance directly off Pearse St.