[Article] Rail Against the Machine

[Mark Gleeson]

For reference the 8200 DART fleet is out of service due to a refusal within Irish Rail to buy the spare parts. Price is a factor but they are several vendors.

Parts are available. The 8200 fleet uses an Alstom ONIX drive system which is common in most Alstom products between 1997 and today, i.e several thousand of units. In fact some parts are directly exchangeable between the Luas fleet and the 8200's. The Alstom ONIX is recognised as being one of the best in the business.

The bogies are the same as the LHB fleet and IE has several spare.