DART coming to Maynooth line in 2024

This is the d15 forum, pretty much everyone here will be inconvenienced to some extent. The Clonsilla crossing is about 5km from my house and I go through it about once a month, so no, it doesn’t affect me directly at all.

It’s instructive that you dismiss basic logic such as “don’t close the crossing until the alternative infrastructure is in place” as some sort of NIMBYism though. With critical thinking skills like that, you’ll be headhunted by IE in no time.

Yes, I contributed to the consultations and as you so accurately point out, it was four years ago. You can understand why I wouldn’t be confident of an efficient delivery of any of this.

Again, your beef is with the guy who said closing the crossings now would allow for more trains now. We both agree that this is completely inaccurate.

I was just observing that the crossings are not the reason we have had such a rubbish service for so long. Again, you agree with me on this also.

My main concern is that the crossings will close (which tbh I’m ok with) but we’ll still have a rubbish service. I simply don’t believe IE will deliver it and I’m extremely suspicious of the absence of any hard commitments to service levels.

And I’m sorry but closing the crossings before the alternatives are in place just doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t and I don’t believe that even IE are that incompetent.

The simple answer to the question is that, railways operate on the basis of very strict rules, and removing level crossings reduces risk and makes the signalling and therefore daily operation simpler.

A train approaching Clonsilla from the west for example cannot enter the station until the level crossing gates are shut and the distant signal to the west of the station allows the train proceed.

The reason for that is that there is the risk of trains overshooting the signal at the end of the platform protecting the level crossing and crashing into the gates.

If for any reason the gates are delayed in closing the train has to wait at the distant signal until the gates are closed and the signal changed to a green or amber.

That process is removed if the level crossing is removed. Doing so removes permanent speed restrictions that may be in place, or indeed potentially removes some padding in the timetable that allows for such delays taking place.

I didn’t actually comment on the other post, but seeing as though you seem to want me to, it’s unlikely that there would be scope for additional trains at peak times without re-signalling happening.

Equally your post was wrong, when you stated that there could be more trains in the morning but the company is “choosing not to”. There can’t because there aren’t enough resources to do it, be that rolling stock, drivers, and/or funding, and at peak times the railway line is near capacity as it is and needs re-signalling, which the level crossing removal is part of.

I never said anything about closing the crossings without other options being in place, so please stop putting words into my mouth. They can’t be closed until the alternative crossings are in place. That just won’t work.

As to frequencies, they are building a railway that is designed to meet commuter demand well into the future, and have rolling stock orders to deliver it. The NTA now dictate what future frequencies are going to be, not Irish Rail anymore, and the railway is going to have to deliver them.

Now hang on a minute. I take exception to that accusation. I didn’t actually see the other post originally to be honest.

I happened to see your post, and I wanted to correct the record and explain why the trains couldn’t run, as you seemed to be unaware of the reason.

I don’t recall any rule stating that we are all under any obligation to answer every post here. To be honest I’ve better things to do with my time, but I did make my view clear in my last post that I didn’t agree with the other posts.

I’ve no connection whatsoever with IE, but I do know how railways work, and I have a very good understanding of the politics involved.

And if you think that someone actually the taking the time to explain how the railways work in layman’s terms is being a “shill”, well to be honest, that says a lot more about you than me, as clearly you can’t resist resorting to personal abuse if someone corrects you. It’s rather pathetic to be honest.

The argument for level crossing being the limitation is weak considering there are other lines with level crossings that have higher frequency.

Lots of the same excuses for decades at this point.

I guess D15 just has to wait and wait.... and wait...

As I posted above, it’s a combination of the signalling and the level crossings - the two are intertwined.

The signalling on the Maynooth line is near the end of its life at this stage.

Other lines may have been renewed with shorter signalling sections in the meantime, but the level crossings south of Pearse are still a major limiting factor and ideally will be removed as well.

So back to standing....and waiting...

I don’t need anything explained to me, thanks, I’ve clarified repeatedly that I didn’t literally mean “tomorrow “ , it was an expression to convey that the third world train service we have is absolutely nothing to do with level crossings, it's the result of chronic incompetence and contempt from IE.

As a resident of D15 and a user of this train line, I have a huge vested interest in a better service but also it being built and delivered in a coherent and efficient manner. That’s why I’m posting here.

You are neither of those things, correct? You might say you’re not an IE shill and that’s fair enough but literally the only thing you’ve posted here is defence of and deflection of blame from IE. So frankly, it it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

Correcting the record, give me a break

It was 4 carriages last night at least.

Id imagine that train will be busier once the college term returns, not to mention id imagine it would be busier coming back into the city

4 carriages this morning standing room only.

A colleague mentioned their train (not sure which) had a new carriage on it this am

Yeah one on my train home this evening. That's a great addition

Yeah they reported reduction in carriages to a number of Maynooth services today due to vandalism , not sure if that was one of them .

Separate note, revised timetable from Monday earlier/later departures and longer trip times.