DART+ (DART Expansion)

Sorry I'm editing this after listening to the video. Specifically the stations being cut and cover, I don't know.

He missed the Finglas Luas extension! And his pronunciation was gas. Great effort. Enjoyed that!

"So" was in response to your statement regarding that layout not being officially proposed. My point was it should be, it's that simple. Rather than tolerate more aggressive and pointless posts from you I'll just pop you on ignore going forward.

Are there any plans for using the new battery-electric DART fleet to service the next few stops after OHE lines are completed?

For example, to go to Dundalk after Drogheda, Enfield or Kilcock after Maynooth, Wicklow after Greystones, Kildare after Hazelhatch.

It's probably not feasible due to the tight margins it would be operating on (e.g. they're about 30km after their respective terminus, so 60km in total would be the distance travelled on battery - leaves only ~20km of "spare" battery). I know often a somewhat simple idea is not the best one, but it seems like a short-win way to bring electrified trains to these areas.

I feel these are the boundaries that could be considered acceptable to travel with stops. Other services like Portlaoise-Heuston, Longford-Connolly, etc. could service only one DART station before going non-stop to their Dublin terminus.

That's fair. I find it easy to fall into the trap of brand new shiny train = better. Dundalk is likely fair enough, it is quite far out.

I think it's something that's a source of a bit of conflict in South Kildare where there's the most debate about a potential extension. A regular less stop service from Kildare/Newbridge/Sallins would be great, though it'll be interesting to see how much time exactly will be saved seeing as by the time you get to Hazelhatch you've a lot of the journey done already.

I will say that there does seem to be vague plans for a full extension to Wicklow. I'm not entirely sure why this is the case. Would Wicklow not benefit from a similar less stopping service instead of stopping at the many stations along the DART line in South Dublin?

My guess then is the extension to Wicklow is more to do with trying to get it a more reliable and frequent service.

With the South Kildare/Naas situation, I think what can be hard to convey sometimes is how beneficial it will be for the area to be <20 minutes from the DART network regardless of their inclusion in it directly.

Also interesting to see how DART+ affects trains running from Newbridge's 3rd terminus platform. I'd struggle to see that convert to a few stop route - it'd essentially only serve Newbridge and Sallins and a small no. of Hazelhatch passengers who didn't get the last DART then straight to Heuston/GCD. While it will serve the lines two busiest stations (Newbridge + S&N), I don't see IR justifying a fast route just for what's really only picking up at 2 stations - though I could be wrong.

It would make a difference because the line to Wicklow is not scheduled for elecrtrification. Remember that only a small share of the newly-ordered trains are battery-electric - an extension like this would swallow up most of them on a line that's already mostly electrified. And Wicklow-Dublin is a long journey to do comfortably on an urban train...

Dart+ will see 3 services an hour to/from Greystones. Possibly one of those will be extended to Wicklow Town. Whether it's a limited stop service remains to be seen; there's not a huge benefit to limited stopping on the SE line as you'll only get stuck behind an all-stops DART anyway.

1 train an hour from Wicklow for commuters isn't sufficient.

they currently have 5 trains a day; 1 an hour would be a massive improvement and not terrible for a town that far from Dublin.

New signalling, a new passing loop at Greystones, and the new faster DART trains should allow DART services to clear the Bray-Greystones bottleneck quicker than at present. This provide for more than one slot per hour for trains coming from south of Greystones.

The last sentence in my post explains exactly why.

The initial 185 carriage DART+ fleet order comprises 30 electric and 155 battery-electric carriages, which have been ordered in two phases: 95 carriages (30 electric and 65 battery-electric) in December 2021 and a further 90 (all battery-electric) in December 2022.

Full length train will be 10 carriages long. Alstom have been awarded the contract for charging at Drogheda, and planning permission granted by Louth CoCo. Irish Rail :similar charging infrastructure envisaged elsewhere in the Greater Dublin Area, and also being examined for the Cork Commuter network and for Wicklow.

Would be brilliant if IÉ were to lead the way in BEMU (though scary in other ways because it is strange territory 😅).

Is there any semblance of plans as to the rollout of new DART+ trains/services? i.e. Can we expect certain services to rollout before full OHE lines? I guess it won't be happening for DART+ SW before Heuston West, quad-tracking from Park West & Cherry Orchard, and possibly improvements to PPT, but for other services like Maynooth and Drogheda (which I'm nearly sure is the plan for Drogheda), it could be a possibility?

But the service has been bad for as long as I remember. They never seem to have any intention to utilise it. They can only blame shortage of drivers or rolling stock for so long.