DART+ (DART Expansion)

I’ll remind everyone that Iarnród Éireann have received EU funding to instigate a study that will examine the feasibility of additional tracks along the Northern Line - I think that will tell us precisely what can and cannot be done, and what CPO activity would be required. Anything else is subjective.

Grange Road.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hgcoh5mDgS2qtFk58

It's not very severe. It could be made steeper, but given the amount of HGV traffic coming out of the industrial estate heading towards m50/m1 it's probably not a very good idea.

The funding has only just been awarded so I would imagine it won’t be completed until 2025.

Heuston West station is already in the plans and work is ongoing in planning for Cabra, the time penalty for more stops is painful

Which opening?

The northern tunnel portal leads from and into curves that are too severe to meet accessibility requirements for new stations. You could not fit an eight-car platform into the straight section there.

Heuston West will be the far side of the river to the southern portal.

It should be technically feasible, no? The buildings on the northern end are old warehouses / offices and car parks. There is one older red brick building alright. As already mentioned, I don't think it makes sense right now, but I believe it's possible.

I think you may be thinking of the old hump-backed bridge (Furnace's Bridge) that was demolished in the early 2000's and replaced with a flat/box bridge..

Old Bridge:

New Bridge:

Whilst the new bridge looks like it may not be wide enough for 4 tracks, I would imagine that 3 would be possible, going on the photo above alone. Someone else here may have more information. It may have been built with 4 tracking in mind though.

4 tracking from Connolly to Howth Junction and then 3 tracking from there to Malahide would surely be a reasonable compromise. The 3rd line could be a bi-directional fast line if 4 tracking would not be possible?

I would disagree. There is large amount of residential construction work going on, on the north side of the city and the bulk of it (as far as I can see) is following the train line. It makes sense to future proof it now are at a lower cost than the have to CPO a heap of buildings later.

Its only a matter of time until all the fields between Clongriffin and Malahide are full of houses and apartments.

Even now in Donabate there's a crazy amount of building work going on. The R126 has gaps in the road the whole way around the town to housing estates that are yet to be built

These:

They should 4 track (If they can) for as far north as they can.

Aye

Kilbarrack is one of the many issues. (I live close enough to it). I think 4 or 3 tracking will end up be Kilbarrack station being demolished as there is literally no space there. People would need to use Howth Junction or Raheny.... politically unsavory I'd imagine.

That being said, there is a lot of dumping and anti-social behavior that goes on there.

Worst case scenario for people who live right beside it: 15 min walk to either Raheny or Howth Junction

The further away you go the less of an increase of a walk you have about 8 to 10 mins

I really don’t think that will happen.

As I said, with a 10 minute DART, you need to be able to have one train overtake another before Howth Junction and multiple tracks between Clontarf Road and Raheny would deliver that.

If you think the station will be demolished (and not replaced) along with local houses, others will lose their back gardens, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

I really would never expect NTA/IR to ever 4 track the existing line between Killester and Clongriffin. The 3rd and 4th tracks are for inter-city, long distance commuter trains, right? Trains that we don't want stopping at DART stations like Killester, Raheny, Howth junction etc. So why would we ever demolish people's houses to put a 3rd /4th track along the existing alignment. Not to talk to the disruption it would cause to DART, Commutter and Inter-city trains during construction.

We need a 3rd/4th track. There's no benefit to it being alongside the existing railway line. So why not create a new alignment? A more much likely outcome would be to tunnel the inter-city train service from Clontarf Golf Course to north of Dublin at Belcamp. The railway review review recommended that a new alignment be delivered between Connolly and Drogheda anyway, likely following the M1 motorway.

Maybe something like this:

You'll piss off way less people, reduce disruption to the existing railway and provide a better more direct service. It could actually happen. Wholesale demolition along the northern line isn't happening. Either politically or for cost reasons. Building out hundreds of houses isn't likely to be cheap either politically or ecomonically.

Yeah this is what happens currently, but I'm suggesting there should be a stop on the outer network of the city. You shouldn't have to spend 20minutes commuting from Hazelhatch into Heuston only to be brought back out past Hazelhatch. Or come all the way from Cork into the heart of Dublin, only to get a train back out along the same line.

Many European cities use this logic. Trains from Milan Central to Rome stop at Milan Rogoredo, which has trains from all directions feeding into it, as well as bus routes and a Metro line. Berlin has the same with Südkreuz.