[article]Irish Rail plan to link Dublin Airport with rest of country

Mark Gleeson · 26-01-2015, 07:55

Nothing terribly new here http://www.independent.ie/irish-news...-30936601.html

Quote:

RISH Rail is planning a new line to allow intercity trains to travel direct to Dublin airport from Cork, Galway and Belfast.

James Howard · 26-01-2015, 08:11

How are they planning on achieving this without having to do a reversal around Connolly? That would go down really well in the middle of the morning rush-hour.

Kilocharlie · 26-01-2015, 09:50

A stop in Connolly would not be a problem apart from congestion. After all the InterCity trains need to serve some City stations.

Would they also bypass Heuston? Doesn't make sense to enter Heuston and then reverse out again. Or perhaps a train change at Hazelhatch for those that want to go to Heuston?

James Howard · 26-01-2015, 10:43

The whole operation would just take too long to be viable. The Heuston options are to either a double reversal or use the remote platform. But they would still need to cater for the 90% of customers who would want to go to the city centre as opposed to the airport.

The article itself quotes a 3:30 time to get to the airport which would mean that the Heuston to Airport section would be about an hour. It would be far more efficient and quicker to just have the intercity services stop at Adamstown and have an express coach transfer to the airport from there.

The idea of a heavy rail airport link in Dublin makes very little sense. The airport is too close to the city to make it necessary especially when the massively underused port tunnel makes it a 20 minute taxi trip from docklands. I would be highly surprised if Irish Rail could beat a port-tunnel bus run from Connolly even. Then there is the issue that hardly anybody wants to go into the city centre from the airport.

A luas line is an entirely different proposition.

Mark Gleeson · 26-01-2015, 10:54

There is a game afoot, Irish Rail appear to have learned how to play the game.

There is no plan to operate Intercity services on the Airport spur if built, just wouldn't work

Plan is for a 15 minute interval DART service from Airport to the southside.

The only way to get the parish pump politicians onside is to try to sell this as some class of country wide project and not a much needed piece of Dublin infrastructure

Kilocharlie · 26-01-2015, 11:41

This really needs the DART Underground to work effectively with DARTs from Heuston to the Airport. Anything else has limited capability; Connolly does not have the space to accommodate more that a few additional InterCity services.

Inniskeen · 26-01-2015, 12:55

Metro North is the only proposal that delivers anything worthwhile to north county Dublin in terms of attracting major new traffic flows onto an entirely new and uncongested high capacity corridor. Metro North will give better access to the city centre, be more frequent and at least as fast as DART. Airport DART only makes sense if it can deliver an attractive journey time and has the potential to operate frequently at peak periods. Given the congestion on the northern line neither is realistic without additional tracks.

26-01-2015, 10:54	#5
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	There is a game afoot, Irish Rail appear to have learned how to play the game. There is no plan to operate Intercity services on the Airport spur if built, just wouldn't work Plan is for a 15 minute interval DART service from Airport to the southside. The only way to get the parish pump politicians onside is to try to sell this as some class of country wide project and not a much needed piece of Dublin infrastructure __________________ Unhappy with new timetable - let us know

26-01-2015, 12:55	#7
Inniskeen Really Regular Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 951	Metro North is the only proposal that delivers anything worthwhile to north county Dublin in terms of attracting major new traffic flows onto an entirely new and uncongested high capacity corridor. Metro North will give better access to the city centre, be more frequent and at least as fast as DART. Airport DART only makes sense if it can deliver an attractive journey time and has the potential to operate frequently at peak periods. Given the congestion on the northern line neither is realistic without additional tracks. Last edited by Inniskeen : 26-01-2015 at 13:02.

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26-01-2015, 08:11	#2
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	How are they planning on achieving this without having to do a reversal around Connolly? That would go down really well in the middle of the morning rush-hour.

26-01-2015, 09:50	#3
Kilocharlie Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 395	A stop in Connolly would not be a problem apart from congestion. After all the InterCity trains need to serve some City stations. Would they also bypass Heuston? Doesn't make sense to enter Heuston and then reverse out again. Or perhaps a train change at Hazelhatch for those that want to go to Heuston?

26-01-2015, 10:43	#4
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	The whole operation would just take too long to be viable. The Heuston options are to either a double reversal or use the remote platform. But they would still need to cater for the 90% of customers who would want to go to the city centre as opposed to the airport. The article itself quotes a 3:30 time to get to the airport which would mean that the Heuston to Airport section would be about an hour. It would be far more efficient and quicker to just have the intercity services stop at Adamstown and have an express coach transfer to the airport from there. The idea of a heavy rail airport link in Dublin makes very little sense. The airport is too close to the city to make it necessary especially when the massively underused port tunnel makes it a 20 minute taxi trip from docklands. I would be highly surprised if Irish Rail could beat a port-tunnel bus run from Connolly even. Then there is the issue that hardly anybody wants to go into the city centre from the airport. A luas line is an entirely different proposition.

26-01-2015, 11:41	#6
Kilocharlie Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 395	This really needs the DART Underground to work effectively with DARTs from Heuston to the Airport. Anything else has limited capability; Connolly does not have the space to accommodate more that a few additional InterCity services.