DART+ (DART Expansion)

If BEMUs are used from Connolly (or Pearse) to Drogheda, with about 23 miles on Battery power from Malahide to Drogheda, how much time will be needed to get a sufficient battery recharge to get safely back to Malahide? If it's more than 10 minutes, this will surely effect utilisation rates for BEMUs. Talk of Irish Rail being a pioneer of BEMU operation is perhaps a bit misleading; its more a matter of Irish DoT, NTA, TII, or whoever, being very reluctant to do what everyone else in Eurpe does: electrify highly-used rail lines.

Only in Ireland could a <2 mile track doubling be described as a massive job. A bit like electrification, the powers that be are spooked at making investment decisions. Why soed Ireland seem so exceptional in this (even worse than the UK in some respects)?

The guy mentions a time of 18 minutes in the presentation, I can't recall if it was for recharging or turnaround.

@Economics101 We are electrifying the line. The choice was between replacing diesel rolling stock with electric trains in 2025, or waiting until the electrification gets all the way to Drogheda.

If you're not aware, the DART+ Coastal North project, starting later, but running in parallel, is going to extend the 1500 V electrification all the way to Drogheda, but that's not happening overnight. IÉ took the right approach, and decoupled their rolling-stock renewal project (critically needed) from the line electrification project: it's almost like they knew what happens to large projects in planning, and mitigated against that risk.

As for distance, the battery range is given as 80 km. The unelectrified stretch to Drogheda is 38 km. The trains will be able to top up their charge sufficiently at Drogheda to make their return to the electric stretch without a particularly long dwell time, as they can also charge by drawing power from the overhead lines.

I don't think there was much of a sales job needed by Alstom: the BEMU option significantly de-risks the electrification of the former diesel commuter lines.

In Drogheda’s case, the plan is to stop at all stations to Connolly, so I suspect the time benefits of electrification will be cancelled out by the need to stop at more stations on the way.

Thanks, but I was thinking more about (a) how long it has taken to start electrifying main suburban routes in the GDA generally. and (b) the zero real plans for long-distance routes (apart from the sensible Irish Rail policy of 25kv AC beyone Hazlehatch).

On the 80km range using battery power, given that some cars can now manage 400km, and remembering the much lower rolling resistance of trains, the 80km range has always seemed to me to be very low. Any thoughts?

Very Irish thing to do. Build transport that makes little sense. These routes may be busy for 1 hour each way per day. Building more tracks so they could have both direct trains and those that stop everywhere would be far more beneficial.

The RTE report said that they will carry 550 passengers, am I right in thinking that when in operation, each train will consist of two such units? How does that compare to whats used at present, full DART set and the commuter sets?

They would be much heavier alright, plus heavier again with a multiple of passengers. Although the train would have much lower rolling resistance than the bus and much smaller frontal area and so lower coefficient of drag.

Although this may not be very important with the lower speeds of DARTs and busses, the sheer heft of getting a heavy object moving would be very energy intensive.

There will be an extra station at Cross Guns for the Metro, and in the longer term, if Metro West is ever revived, at Porterstown. Would two more stops cancel out any gains?

Overlooking the fact, that the line is already effectively 4-tracked between Broombridge/Glasnevin and Connolly, this is nonsensical!!!! 3 or 4-tracking between Coolmine and Clonsilla would be a much better choice.

Darts on the West line will use a combination of Connolly/GCD and Spencer Dock, while South-West Darts will use a combination of Heuston Main, Connolly/GCD and Spencer Dock, so appropriate timetabling can leave that section free from conflicts to allow Sligo IC / Longford Commuter trains a good run into Connolly from Glasnevin.

An inbound Dart departs Maynooth, 10minutes later an IC / Commuter departs Maynooth and has a 10 minute run before catching up with the Dart between Coolmine and Clonsilla.

Meanwhile any inbound Dart closer to the city can terminate in Heuston Main or transfer to the Royal Canal line, leaving IC/Commuter a clear run into Connolly.

there was a plan in the 70's to put a motorway along the canal and railway, but it never got off the ground.

I think that was the Grand Canal on the Southside. The Royal Canal has very deep cuttings east of Clonsilla, and a huge embankment over the Rye water near Leixlip; not very easy just to lay 2 more tracks alongside the railway.

Both were proposed at various times. Within city bounds only, wouldn't have got as far out as Clonsilla

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/dublin-news/new-electric-dart-service-with-improved-accessibility-due-next-year/a1039699331.html

I see from this that the charging in Drogdeda will take "less than an hour".

Let's hope this is not true, but the ueusal cr*p reporting from the Indo.

BTW, I don't mean literally "not true", I mean misleading. Less than an hour signifies a lot more than 10 to 15 minutes to me.

new model requires a lot of testing. Though I also suspect that as IR always updates their timetable in early December they've decided they won't make the 2024 revision, so they can relax and aim for Dec. 2025.