At last, a sensible railway proposal

J

jpd

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Irish Rail are to look at doubling up the tracks in north Dublin and Finglas to allow separation of mainline and commuter traffic and even a spur line to the airport

Why this wasn't proposed and done 50 years ago just shows how bad we are at infrastructure planning and implementation

It's unlikely to get done any time soon, but it has to be a cheaper option than an underground metro
 
It would also be great if they could get rid of level crossings in urban areas. The delays to traffic is dreadful.
 
There is one thing "having a look at building " and another actually doing it. It's not even about money it's about planning and thinking ahead because all that area beside railway would be heavily built up now so where are they going to put it?. Most of irish building experience is building on green field and open sites not putting infrastructure into heavily urbanised settings like other cities,
 
jpd said:
It's unlikely to get done any time soon, but it has to be a cheaper option than an underground metro
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It’s not an either/or - both should be done!

Four-tracking the Northern Line past Malahide is a no-brainer as it allows commuter and inter-city traffic without interference with each other.

By way of context Irish Rail is currently spending €100m on rejuvenating a single-line alignment for freight between Limerick and Foynes without an identified freight use case. If we can spend money on follies we can for sure spend money on useful stuff.
 



Both a metro to north Dublin suburbs and more capacity on the main railway line northbounds are required.

The five DART + projects aim to expand the capacity of the four railway lines: https://www.dartplus.ie/en-ie/home



The DART+ Coastal North Project will provide an extension of the existing electrified rail network from Malahide to Drogheda MacBride stations and will provide the infrastructure to facilitate an increase to the rail capacity on the Northern Line between Dublin City Centre and Drogheda MacBride Station, including the Howth Branch.The DART+ Coastal North project has now sought statutory approval for its design, with the submission of a Railway Order application to An Bord Pleanála on the 12th July 2024.


DART+ DART+ Coastal North

www.dartplus.ie
 
As well as the DART + north project going through the Railway Order process, IE have a project called FourNorth.



"Background In January IÉ applied to the EU for funding under its Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme to complete a range of studies to upgrade the Northern line to 4-track. This application was successful with an award of €1.2m recently confirmed through the Department of Transport. This intervention, as proposed by our long-term strategy and suggested for consideration by the draft All-island Strategic Rail Review, will build on DART+ Coastal North in support of raising the capacity of the railway for all users along the line. The project will complete a range of studies that take the 4-track proposal through the initial Government decision making stage."



 
All these publications and nice sound names etc like dart+dart+coastal North don't really go into the specifics of what's involved. So 4 tracks will be installed between malahide and drogheda? So the mainline Belfast train runs on a separate line than the dart from drogheda to malahide but then what happens. Does everyone get off the Belfast train onto the dart at malahide or does the train continue on the dart line into connelly. Forgive me I'm not overly familiar how the dart and mainline trains work now, I imagine it's on the same track?
 
All pie in the sky

Unless we get real about infrastructure planning and implementation. And it is not a question of money, we have money enough for these projects but they will bogged down on planning, appeals and judicial reviews, etc, etc

Why would you expect anything different?
 
joe sod said:
All these publications and nice sound names etc like dart+dart+coastal North don't really go into the specifics of what's involved. So 4 tracks will be installed between malahide and drogheda?
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4 Track between Connolly and Malahide - from the linked doc
Iarnród Éireann has received EuropeanUnion funding for a project, calledFourNorth, to develop plans to upgradethe rail network on the busy section fromConnolly to Malahide to 4-track standard
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jdwex said:
4 Track between Connolly and Malahide - from the linked doc
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yes I read the article in the irish times

"“We believe this [four-track approach] needs to be replicated north of Connolly Station, ideally between Connolly and Malahide, and this ambition is also included in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review,” he told the Oireachtas transport committee on Wednesday."

Its still alot of words and aspiration, of course it would be ideal to have 4 tracks but the devil is in the detail, how are they going to deliver it, there is an awful lot of valuable properties all along that route, are they going to buy all those up, demolish them to make room for the 4 tracks. Thats where the lack of planning and forethought comes into everything that happens here, even housing estates built in the celtic tiger were placed right beside railway lines
 


DART+ projects are not pie in the sky.

One of the five projects is DART+ fleet, ordering new trains.

The tender was issued, the framework contract has been signed, with Alstom, for 750 vehicles. This happened in December 2021.

Two orders have been placed, and the trains are under construction.
 
DART+ West is the most advanced of the four railway projects in Dublin.


2020-2022: design and consultation

July 2022: applied to ABP for permission, known as a Railway order



To Oct 2022 = statutory consultation


July 2024, two years later, ABP approved DART+ West, but with some conditions about flooding
 
It's a simple rule, in this country....

If something makes sense we won't do it, we'll just talk about it from time to time, with politicans using it to get a bit of publicity, squander a bit of taxpayer money toying with the concept, but then find a rediculous excuse not to proceed. If you want an example, just look do a little research on DART Underground.

The reverse is equally true, if it's a rediculous idea, we'll proceed with it - case in point being to build the Childrens Hospital in the middle of town, with restricted traffic access etc. Not to be outdone with initially selecting a bad location for it, our geniuses went a step further, and relocated the new hospital from a bad location, to an even worse location, having initially squandered quite a lot of money on the original plan to put it at site of the Mater hospital !

How we've continued to encourage the enlargement of Dublin City and Dublin Airport, rather than invest in good infrastructure elseehere in the country, to connect cities properly by rail, road and air, build decent housing at more affordable prices, encourage and support inward commercial investment etc.

We'll be lucky to see Metro North up and running, during many of our lifetimes, not alone see additional train lines put in, to facilitate a regular Dublin-Belfast service, and a seperate, frequent, commuter service to transport people from Drogheda, or North County Dublin, into Dublin City, or to the airport etc.

Despite the above, we persist in electing the same individuals, and retain the same senior county council staff, civil servants etc. What's that saying about making the same mistakes, time and time again, but expecting a different result...?
 
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Protocol said:
July 2022: applied to ABP for permission, known as a Railway order

DART+ DART+ West Railway Order Application
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I had a look at the plan, it took a bit of waiding through but finally got to see the maps, alot of property each side of railway will be open to compulsory purchase or temporary occupation. All this from central to North dublin, also temporary closure of canal. That will be interesting how that goes. Of course the glossy press release doesn't say anything about that but the maps way down in the report show the area each side of railway
 
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