[article] Standing room only: Irish Rail and Dart carriages 'out of service' as passe

[Mark Gleeson]

More than two dozen Irish Rail and 10 Dart carriages are lying idle despite chronic overcrowding on commuter trains in the capital.

The carriages were retired during the height of the recession as passenger numbers fellhttp://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/standing-room-only-irish-rail-and-dart-carriages-out-of-service-as-passenger-numbers-return-to-boomtime-levels-31030805.html

For the record

27 2700 carriages
1 2600 carriage
10 8200 carriages
3 * Mk4 sets (24)

Are formally out of use. A further 10-14 DART carriages have seen little or no use in recent months

[berneyarms]

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/standing-room-only-irish-rail-and-dart-carriages-out-of-service-as-passenger-numbers-return-to-boomtime-levels-31030805.html

For the record

27 2700 carriages
1 2600 carriage
10 8200 carriages
3 * Mk4 sets (24)

Are formally out of use. A further 10-14 DART carriages have seen little or no use in recent months

The real issue is the DART carriages that are in service, but not being used, if people are being left behind on DART services.

The rest is really a red herring until numbers justify their reinstatement.

[Inniskeen]

The DART service would be much improved if peak period trains were all at least 6 cars with 8 cars on the very few workings (mainly am) that actually require them. This would probably require mixed formations of japanese and german car elements of the fleet.

While there has been some uplift in DART demand it is nothing approaching the scale that would need or justify the resusitation of the ten 8200s. Indeed demand for DART never reached the numbers required to justify the degree of fleet expansion that took place in the mid 2000s.