sounds like a plan, as long as there are no other issues besides the paperwork and testing...just in case someone in charge from Irish Rail reading this...get moving

Apart from embarrassment to IE (a showstopper in most cases), is there anything stopping the PPs from being deployed as a stopgap?

I seem to remember a discussion saying the locomotive would be liable to go down through the track in parts of the route.

are we talking about the same thing? I'm talking about Northern Commuter - if the loco would go down through there the Enterprise would be in trouble :D

The topic was Drogheda-Rosslare, so I assumed that's what you were on about.

Obviously there is no problem with 200-class locomotives on the Northern commuter line :)

I see your point - sorry about that :)

Hey there's nothing embarrassing about a Mk3 push/pull when you compare it to any of the Commuter DMU's. Just because it has a locomotive pulling it you think its embarrassing?

I think IÉ would rather consign the Mk3s to history.

They could still come in very handy for some routes. Western Rail Corridor comes to mind. Anyway they are not discarding all of the Mk3 coaches which suggests they believe they do have a future.

Aren't locos that much less reliable than DMUs. While sure, the hangar queens are probably scrap by now, but what happens if a loco breaks down at say Donabate .... or Connolly platform 5-7 and you get a matching tail-back?

Are two locos more reliable than one?

when I said embarrassment I was talking in the context of IE being forced to use carriages they were dying to flog off, not that Mk3s are an embarrassment per se.

Ok no worries

Here some updates whats going on on the 6.30 Drohegda - Rosslare:

- this morning the train failed at Connolly. Technical Issue. Train tried to leave but did not move.

- yesterday morning the train (4 car set) terminated in Connolly and was replaced by another 4 car set later

things do not improve at all...

A lot of the trains out of the city at that hour are mostly empty (the 8:02 to Dundalk from Connolly leaves with a handful of people on it.) I think that train you mention becomes the 8:18 from Maynooth which is my usual train and that gets very busy on the way in to Pearse and has been very uncomfortable when it has been replaced by a 4 or 6 car set in the past.

fair enough, this was just an example. As mentioned it is very uncomfortable when a train is replaced by a shorter train. This is what happens to the 6.30 to Rosslare every week on some days. So this morning I was in a 4 car set train again... :eek:

for the last weeks the train only has 4 cars for at least 2 out of 5 days on a regular basis now. Today as well, and actually today there seemed to be extra passengers because of the Dublin Bus disruptions...but there seems to be no urgency to respond to that appropriately (not to mention that this train should be 6 cars anyway, Bus strike or not). This just summarizes the current mess of public transport. :confused:

yesterday the 6.30am Rosslare train failed at Connolly, today the train failed at Laytown and was cancelled. Then the train after the Rosslare train was only 4 cars only which meant that it was full to the rafters in Rush/Lusk. How long do we have to wait until the Rosslare service in the morning will be replaced by a decent, reliable service (new trains)? Anyone..., Bueller?

I think you meant, How long do we have to wait until Rosslare services get separated from Drogheda & Maynooth services so Iarnrod Eireann can operate 8coach 29k on the morning Drogheda service.Not long:D:D

Not quiet AFAIK there is only 1 6-coach set [AFAIK- 1 rosslare set will still be 28k operated] that will be offloaded!

anthing that is operated with more than 4 cars and won't break down on the way will do... :D

can you specify that? does it mean the morning service will still run all the way to rosslare with a maximum 6 car set?