DART+ (DART Expansion)

Both, we are moving from a route signalling approach to a speed signalling approach (ETCS L1), ETCS provides a distance to next stop signal and a speed profile which is a function of the trains capabilities instead of a default one size fits all as is current

DART+ includes closure of most level crossings which has a significant impact on journey times

DART+ fleet have a higher top speed and accelerate faster than the current DART fleet. Should be at 70mph before the current diesel fleet gets to 40mph

the new proposed timetable shows many services running slower, and that's before Woodbrook has even opened. So I'd be skeptical of any timing improvements from the new trains.

In 40+ years the Dart has only ever gotten slower to the point where having the word "rapid" in it's name seems like an ironic joke. They have the line closed every weekend for "improvements", what exactly are they improving?

Which makes some of the current Dublin commuter services so unacceptable.

One hour between Maynooth services in the evening. This needs to improve pre-DART.

While its not trip speed related, in the ~7 years I used the Luas to get to work I was never aware of the timetable except for during lockdown when there were bugger all and I needed to make sure to get one that tied in with the limited trains. Absolutely pointless even checking

Ditto metro/tube timetables when on holiday; whereas when staying in Santiago de Compostella which (then, at least) has appalling Google Maps support, and at a hotel with a 30m headway bus I was back to having photos of timetables in my phone.

Speaking of dwell times, they appear to be very long at times, especially on the DART. Is this because of undemanding schedules and thus waiting for correct departure time? Or is it because of the very slow laid back actions of alighting and boarding passengers? Or is it something else?

What drew my attention to this were the very short dwell times on European suburban systems, even in Southern Europe with their supposedly relaxed attitudes to punctuality.

All timetables need slack to allow for delays, and unused slack turns into a longer wait at the station. You see the same with buses in countries where the buses run on time.

DART+ should remove two big causes of delay (signalling granularity, and having to share track between electric DART and diesel commuter trains), which would allow the timetable to ruin with less slack.

That time saving will be used to add a station, rather than make services faster end to end, because that's a better use of time. It's well understood that commuters of all kinds care more about having a predictable travel time than a faster but less predictable one. The train can often be no faster than driving on a "good day", but unlike driving it will almost always take the same time regardess of weather or season, and catching an extra half hour of sleep on the way to work is not something you can really do when you're driving in.

Is ETCS planned for just on DART and CAR track at the moment?

Is there any talk (even rumors) of extending it across other areas of track?

Apart for Dublin and Cork, what other areas of the track would benefit from ETCS the most ATM?

OOC what needs to happen as part of the ETCS upgrade? Is it a big hardware job the length of all of the tracks or is it mostly isolated to upgrades to trains, signal posts, software in the control centre etc?

The UK operators have had problems retrofitting their stock with ETCS, and decided instead to phase it in as new replacement stock is purchased.

That said, the UK operators all lack engineering resources, and many are running older trains; the bulk of IÉ's long distance trains are the 22000 sets, and they are new enough that the manufacturer should have an ETCS solution already available.

The locomotive hauled trains are where the difficulty in upgrading lies, but that problem will solve itself: the Enterprise is being replaced with a new train type (tenders being sought now), which will have ETCS, and the 201s are coming closer to replacement time too. Between DART+ and the Enterprise replacement, I expect Dublin-Belfast will be the first long distance line to be fully resignalled.

22001 is fitted, one DART set was also fitted with IE's somewhat insane hybrid IEHS which in theory is L1 compatible…

As someone who used to live there; I'm confused as to why someone needs to take a bus to get to the commuter service?

Tender is ready to go out for retrofitting of older units, but I've heard the NTA aren't happy with the projected cost.

A second set of ICRs is lined up to be fitted out with equipment, to speed up testing. I figure they don't want any holdups on testing the new sets when they start arriving later in the year.

The NTA is primarily a bus outfit and has little understanding of railways and a history of delaying projects trying to find a better solution only to return to the original plan, the costs of course having increased in the interim.

The problem is Ireland negotiated an exemption with the EU from ETCS due our isolated status, that now has come full circle as IE's "better" solution IEHS turned out to be a nightmare and ETCS is the only show in town, but is not legally required.

Had that exemption not been sought, IE would have the upper hand as it is a legally required upgrade.