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Losty Dublin |
DART Underground moves a step closer. |
Lead | |
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Looking at todays Irish Times, deep in the innards of the personal ads is advert from CIE Property Management signaling their intention to obtain a Railway
Order for the long awaited Interconnector project. This doesn't appear on their online paper to the best of my knowledge; perhaps somebody will scan it for
those who missed it. There is also an advert for some Public Information events relating to the project; this information also appears on
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=568
Visit us at http://www.heritagerailway.ie
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Wilkinstown |
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Don't hold your breath.
To my mind Irish Rail have a mountain to climb to prove that they have a viable and realistic post-tunnel service plan. Given their less than shining record on leveraging service improvements from previous investments, it is hard to have confidence that the tunnel will deliver a fraction of what is being promised. |
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intercityexpress |
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The noises that I am hearing from my friends within the dept of finance is that funds will not be made available -this is unofficial and mere speculation, of
course. The truth of the matter is that the government simply don't have the money.
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MGH2 |
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In any case, what exactly would the justification be for the tunnel at this stage? The original thinking was that it would allow the DART to serve new towns
and developments along the Cork line as far as Hazelhatch.....you don't need a Masters in Economics to see that these ain't going to happen soon or
perhaps ever.
Mark |
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intercityexpress |
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...indeed.
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Wilkinstown |
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Not sure whether Metro North will fly either, although a design, build and operate PPP is the likely direction here. Another factor in favour of Metro North is
the major transport deficit (and hence potential custom) in the areas to be served by Metro North.
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jhb171achill |
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I really can't see why they don't open up the tunnel with a new station at cabra as at least a temporary measure.
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metrovick001 |
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Yes, would make a lot of sense to run through the park tunnel into platform 7 on Connolly and docklands.
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Wilkinstown |
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Irish Rail don't want to do this, but there must be some scope for a bi-level station in the West Road area with interchange between Docklands services
(from Glasnevin Junction via the low level line) and the existing north/south route. Maybe even move Connolly suburban to this site with interconnecting
walkways and shopping malls ! Perhaps a lot cheaper than the proposed tunnel, less disruptive to established traffic patterns, a better use of existing assets
and maybe just as attractive from a customer point of view..
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Redstarcastles |
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Thing is, you have to provide the infrastructure looking at least 20 years into the future. For years it has been a fire brigade effort. Proper planning
would see the infrastructure put in first.
Would people on the Kildare route prefer to be dropped off at Docklands rather than Heuston? |
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Wilkinstown |
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I doubt that Docklands would be much more attractive than Heuston, unless you happened to work close by.
However a service from Kildare to Docklands would provide access to the Drumcondra area (and future Metro North interchange) as well as a potential Connolly Low level station (DART, Northern Suburban, Belfast, Sligo & Rosslare). The line from Islandbridge to Glasnevin Junction is now virtually unused, but is fully signalled for passenger trains at intervals of five minutes or less. The line from Glasnevin Junction to Docklands is not exactly overtaxed and could easily accommodate services from Dunboyne, Kildare and elsewhere. It would be a useful start ! |
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metrovick001 |
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It would be a useful start
Exactly. P10 at Heuston is unused. A direct link from Docklands to Heuston via Drumcondra via Cabra has to have some value. |
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trackie1 |
from todays Irish Times 28/December/2009 | ||
Dart line to be split to make way for undergroundOLIVIA KELLYDUBLIN'S DART line, which has carried passengers from Howth to Bray for 25 years, is to be severed following construction of the Dart Underground, Iarnród Éireann has confirmed. The company will next March seek a railway order to construct the new Dart line, which will run underground from the Docklands to Heuston Station and Inchicore via St Stephen's Green. The underground line, due to open in 2015, will result in the current north-south Dart line being split in two. Currently Dart trains run from Howth on the north coast of Dublin to Greystones, south of Bray, Co Wicklow, with city centre stops at Connolly, Tara Street and Pearse stations. Once the underground line is built, passengers travelling from the north side will no longer have direct access to Connolly or Tara Street stations. Their Dart will run as normal to Clontarf Road, but will then enter a tunnel at East Wall and continue to underground stations at Docklands, Pearse, St Stephen's Green, Christchurch, Heuston, and emerging at a surface station at Inchicore. Passengers heading south will have to change at Pearse to return to the current Dart route. Southside passengers travelling into the city will still have access to Pearse, Tara Street and Connolly stations. However, after passing through Connolly, their train will turn west, through Drumcondra and out to Maynooth in Co Kildare. To head north on the current Dart line, they also will have to change at Pearse Station. Presenting the proposed lines to a recent meeting of Dublin city councillors, Dart underground project manager Peter Muldoon said the severing of the current Dart line would not affect journey times. "If you are going from one side of the city to the other, you will have to change trains; just like every other major city. We hope to have one train every five or six minutes, so the time from leaving your house to arriving at work will not be adversely affected," he added. Capacity constraints at Connolly Station meant it was not feasible to construct the underground line from Connolly to Heuston stations and preserve the existing north-south Dart line. "We have a major capacity problem with the tracks coming into Dublin," Mr Muldoon said. "There are a huge number of tracks coming into Connolly and only one track coming out." The current line capacity at Connolly meant that extra trains could not be added to improve the frequency of the service, he said. The changes would allow a far greater number of trains to move through the city and would ensure passengers had a fully integrated public transport system, which brought them quickly to their destinations. "This proposal takes people where they want to go - the Docklands and the south inner city. Merely transferring people between Heuston and Connolly doesn't take people where they want to go," Mr Muldoon said. Iarnród Éireann will begin a new round of public consultation on the line and the proposed stations in the new year before it seeks a railway order, for
permission to undertake the project, next March.
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Redstarcastles |
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What shocking news.....never heard that before.
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Wilkinstown |
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The original plan was to operate from Hazelhatch to Maynooth. No particular reason has ever been published for this change of plan which was made several
years ago.
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Redstarcastles |
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Thameslink operates at 20 trains per hour and the RER in Paris is better still. Significant investment in signalling is required.
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gswr |
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Wilkinstown: I'm open to correction but as far as I am aware the plan was always Howth/Malahide/Balbriggan or whatever to Hazlehatch (or at least to the
GSWR line). Also Maynooth -Bray was always on the cards.
I take your point about chokepoints on the Norhern line, and you can add the likely mess at Cherry Orchard - Inchicore to that. However the newspaper article of a couple of days a go was ridiculously negative: all those poor Southsiders who can't go direct to Connolly! The point which the idiot journalists will never get is that there will be more winners than losers, and as usual in Ireland there is a danger that those who stand to lose get a stranglehold on developments. |
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Wilkinstown |
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GSWR, the proposal to connect the Belfast and Cork lines via the Spencer Dock and Stephen's Green is a variant of the original. I will have to do some
digging to establish when the change was made. While linking Maynooth to Bray and Drogheda to Hazelhatch may look maginally better on a map I am not sure that
the disruption to existing traffic flows justifies the change. Given that through services will no longer be available from the northern line to Tara Street or
any south eastern station (other than Pearse) passengers are likely to experience yet another increase in journey time. One suspects the numbers of through
passengers for Heuston and beyond might not match the number of passengers travelling to Grand Canal Dock and beyond.
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trackie1 |
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I remember reading in around 1992 about the proposal to connect Connolly to Heuston via a tunnel to enable trains to access the city centre. This plan looks
totally out of place considering the congestion there. Wasn't there also a plan to have a central rail station in the docklands somewhere?
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tallmanirl |
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Re either tunnel, I'd still love to see at least some inter city services being transferred to a location much closer to the city centre.
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TonyRPSI |
Dublin Central Station | ||
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A friend of mine had a lease on a property on Wellington Quay many moons ago, pre Temple Bar becoming the "Latin" quarter of Dublin.
I seem to recall that most of the area had been purchased by CIÉ Properties to build a "Central Station" for all public transport. Can't remember all the details nor why the plan, if there was actually one, never came to pass. Anyone else recall that or am I dreaming again? |
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