Cross-border review of rail network officially launched

I would also argue that being in the era of (maybe overly) strict feasibility and planning means that anyone who gets a feasibility study over the line for a new single track to wherever is likely getting a report back saying "In order to make this route viable, dual tracking and signaling improvements would first be required on line x to achieve suitable service patterns on the new route"

The country has built basically no new rail, especially not in the era of heavy scrutiny of plans, so its unlikely proposals to fire lines up to Cavan will take top billing. (Not that Cavan doesn't deserve rail access!)

I'd disagree that it's that wild, Armagh is a pretty big city in NI not to have a railway link, but the line as a whole would provide an entirely separate backbone line to the network rather than having the sole north-south link being the congested coastal route. Adding that line gives options for Derry to Dublin trains via Portadown, alternative route for Belfast trains and just generally not requiring all trains to run via Dublin.

If built as a modern route to modern standards its not going to be a meandering, painfully slow line, couple it with dualling of the Mullingar to Maynooth line and you've got a fairly good option.

Compare that to West Cork, yes there are a decent number of people who could be served, but does it serve a greater purpose in the network? It just adds new lines that will probably not even terminate connected to the rest of the network (without tunneling under Cork). Again, not saying it shouldn't happen!

I think the worst aspect of the AIRR plan is the 'other decarbonised railways', if youre building a new line, electrifying it from the outset is really a drop in the bucket of the total cost, so it would be crazy not to do it. Similarly building new single track lines, modern scoping would probably require you to plan ahead for dualling anyway, so dual sized land take, and dual spaced bridges, if you're going to all that effort (which you should be) then going the whole way, or at least having significant passing loop sections is a no-brainer.

Battery electric hybrids I'd say will definitely feature fairly heavily in the network, full electrification won't happen overnight.

That line would likely just use spare hybrid stock that will already be available. But yes as a new line from whole cloth, it would be pretty weird not to electrify by default.

they should have just had these as "proposed future lines" and left out the spec, which will be decided closer to the time anyway, if they're ever actually built.

Craigavon bridge never carried a line as such, the lower deck was a sort of siding owned by the harbour using to move wagons across the river, the bends on either side were not suitable for a full train.

I've thought that it might be worth reviving a second terminating station like Foyle Road. A station on the other side of the river, located just south of the railway museum. It would be a far more convenient location than Waterside, and it could specifically be built to take the Dublin-Derry trains. The main downside though is lack of connectivity between a new Foyle Road station and Waterside station. Perhaps they could be linked by a pedestrian subway.

If I was designing the Letterkenny train station, I'd take the opportunity to knock down the Retail Park and completely redesign the whole area around the station. It'd hopefully be friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists and have all the shops as well as apartments, providing the town with a new neighbourhood. Obviously getting to Sligo would be much more difficult from such a location, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it (in 50 years).

due tomorrow according to IÉ twitter

I wouldn't expect anything materially different, no. They don't have the luxury of resources sitting around idle!

In previous years, most changes between the two versions have been fairly minor.

Hopefully common sense will prevail in terms of the Northern Line timetable and the 40/20 split which offers the faster journey times will be chosen.

The UK Labour Party have nothing to do with it.

Transport in NI is a devolved matter to the NI Executive.

We know what is happening with the Enterprise in broad terms - I don’t see that changing from the draft of two hourly initially and then hourly later in the year.

Nothing to do with it other than providing the funding for it... if they wanted it prioritised they could provide funding beyond the Barnett formula

Right now (these weeks/months, not this hour!), the terminal station in Belfast is closed so you're changing to bus at Newry.

Normally it is one train.

The Labour government is laying the groundwork over the last few days for cutting any forms of spending they can, with several infrastructure projects already being cancelled and all others being "reviewed".

Rail transport in NI won't be anywhere near a priority for them.

Right now, yes, I agree. In five years, though, maybe not.

Rail is being re-nationalised in the UK, in that existing operator contracts will not be re-tendered when they expire. That will make it possible to start investing again. The structure that the UK used to privatise rail was a disaster that managed to combine the worst aspects of a nationalised monopoly with the worst aspects of private enterprise… you ended up with a collection of regional monopolists shaving operations costs to the bone while inflating fares in pursuit of profit: there was no incentive for investment at all.

(To see how rail liberalisation should work, look at Italy or Spain)

Lol, their plans for NI are managed decline only.

If even half of these measures are actually implemented it'd represent just about the most ambitious rail investment in the western world in a relatively short period of time.

Ireland delivered one of the world's most ambitious motorway building programs, about 1,000km delivered in a decade and giving us one of the highest amount of kms of motorway per head of population in the world. If we could replicate that energy on the railways that'd be great but it just seems like it's harder to do things now. Maybe less resources and stricter rules are the main reasons. Still, I think if we got the ABP/JR mess sorted out we could deliver an excellent railway just like the motorway network.