I don't know if it means anything but this morning's 07:00 Dundalk to Connolly is operated by a 22k, six carriages I think (I'm in coach F). First time I've seen one on the route. Will be intersting to see how it copes with the passenger loads. Seats fairly full leaving Balbriggan.

Well if they want to charge fares based on an express service, they need to radically improve the service offering. This might be a small first step. Next move should be to start this train out of Newry at 0645 or indeed Belfast at 0600, loose a few stops and arrive around Dublin at 0800.

As regards seats (traditionally strictly rationed on the northern line), there are substantially more on a six car 22k v an 8-car 29k.

Had the luxury of travelling into to Heuston during the morning peak last Friday. About 100-110 passengers shared 2x3x22k. The next train, a similar formation, had an equally modest load.

Wasn't too crazy overcrowded, but did suffer from there being little or no standing space around the doors and there was a space left in the aisles. Took a bit longer than normal to get everyone out the door at Connolly too. All exactly what you'd expect really.

I don't think there's much hope of a 6-car 22k coping with the passenger loads that are currently served by a full 8-car 29k. Seats are nice and all but like most commuter services in the world, they need the standing room. That 07:00 from Dundalk usually runs with a 4-car 29k, less popular I guess because it doesn't serve stations beyond Connolly while the two services either side of it do.

On the bright side, the 22ks are quieter and seem more RF-friendly. Might have just been the day in it but I didn't lose 3G signal the whole journey, normally there's a few blackspots. Also got solid GPS reception.

A 6 piece set is likely to do the Newry service will cut times by 10 minutes

The plan once the signalling is sorted is to run some express services from Dundalk/Drogheda so there will be more services and more seats for all

"Sorting out" the signalling is not a pre-requisite for express services from Drogheda & Dundalk. Sufficient additional workings could be relatively easily accommodated within the existing infrastructure, provided they operated to/from Connolly only.

The yet to be commissioned signalling does a number of things, none of which particularly facilitate express services. The main feature will be additional intermediate signals between Malahde and Grand Canal Dock which will theoretically allow reduced headways although, if the signalling system is utilised to capacity, all trains will have to trave at the speed of the slowest trains and therefore journey time from Malahide will be dictated by DART and will average little more than 20mph, irrespective of the service, expess or otherwise.

Crucially, the new signalling does nothing to sort out the dysfunctional layout at Malahide and will see overtaking facilities commissioned in only one direction at Clongriffin.

While it will be possible to turn trains back towards the city at both Clongriffin and Bayside, these features are unlikely to be much used unless the Malahide or Howth DART services are curtailed at these locations.

It's been reported on an enthusiast's site that the 22000s used on Sligo and Rosslare services have been moved to Drogheda as their depot, instead of swapping with Heuston side services to go to Portlaoise. Presumably this is why they might be seen more often now on the Northern line.

The service was operated by a 22k every morning last week and this morning. Seems to be a trend.

I would expect at least a 20 minute reduction in journey time on this service with ICRs (or for that matter C3Ks/C4Ks), even if the current stopping pattern were retained.

Target journey time from Newry to Dublin should be closer to 1hr-20 than 1hr-30. The present journey time is a pathetic 1hr-54 minutes, an average speed of just over 36 mph. The much derided morning Nenagh to Limerick commuter service has a higher average speed !

Came across this article dated 4 Jan:
http://www.thejournal.ie/faults-mean...19376-Jan2012/

Is the above through or is it Irish Rail makeing excuses for them not being in service. What makes this batch of ICR so faulty compared to the rest?

I have also taken note of 6 sets in Heuston which have not moved in the last 6 weeks. So much for them going through a commissioning process.

My understanding is very little has changed and it will be some time yet before any of the new trains are in service

Its in Limerick now.

First stage of this re-signalling has been defered (again), this time to April.

A spotter 2700 class farewell special has been organised for Ballybrophy-Limerick-Waterford (with connections via service trains to and from Dublin) for 31.03.2012 (hat tip "Hungerford" on boards.ie)

One can only assume that IE feel they will be in a position to deploy some "block 2" 22000s to service diagrams in the near future, which the arrival of set 2805/6 in Limerick also seems to indicate.

I won't cry seeing these 2700's go. In fact I will celebrate it.

Be careful of what you wish for, Destructix, you might end up on a 2600 for an hour or two: they apparently will operate as a common fleet with the 2800s.

How common are brake faults on the ICR. Was on the 18.05 ex Waterford and it was doing close to 90-100 mph and on came onto the platform at Sallins/Nass the brakes came on. It happened once before on another service.

I almost certain it wasn't the driver as they nerver stop so suddenly and he let train go until it came to a complete stop itself. We were then stopped for about 2 or 3 mins and we moved again.

Also from the minute we left Waterford until we arrived in Heuston the train kept banging and scraping along the track from side to side and up and down combined with a loud constent beeping noise the whole way up. Passengers couldn't walk without nearly falling as it kept moving from side to side so much. The ticket checker also fell.

There are numerous circumstances where the train will stop quickly

If the driver takes his foot off the safety pedal, or fails to acknowledge a signal change will result in a full emergency stop and the train by design will not move for at least 2 minutes after stopping.

If there was a brake fault the train would stay stopped for considerable time

The driver's safety device (deadman) is probably a bit more sophisticated these days than a pedal - I would expect the system monitors the use of the cab controls and interprets inputs as evidence that the driver is alive and active.

A fault with the engines caused a power failure to a number of coaches on the train. There were issues after it arrived in Waterford that afternoon. Maintence were at the train in Dublin.

This has being braught to the Chief Mechanical Engineering Department for their attention and investigation into why there was soo much movement. There was a high level of complaints over the last week.