It might do however it's really comes down to what IE ask for in terms of capital funding. Take the recent ballast works on the Heuston side, you got to wonder if they even bother asking for capital spend outside of Dublin/Cork which isn't required for safety reasons.

I fully accept money is tight however all we ever see is Government funding to improve Belfast/Cork routes and nowhere else see's a penny. When have Galway/Wateford/Westport/Sligo/Rosslare been given a few million to do any works?

To be fair any money spent on Kildare Hazelhatch benefits all services to/from Heuston, most of the track there is 1980-1984 era so in dire need of money

As far as Portarlington all routes bar Waterford win, Portlaoise Cork/Tralee/Limerick +commuter win

The bulk of track beyond Dublin Cork line dates from post 1996 so doesn't need money and has new signalling as well.

I totally agree most benefit however its' really all about Cork and if it didn't require faster times would be really be in the same position as we are today, I am not so sure. Track/Signalling are newish however line speed remains an issue and the recently upgraded sections on Galwa/Waterford are chopping and changing every few miles it makes the upgrade more less worthless. Will they request funding for a "constant high speed" on these routes at some stage as I expect if they made the case hard enough something could be given in the short term.

Based on Irish rail tweet there may not be rail services west of maynooth come tomorrow

Picture tweeted by Irish rail. They said the other side of bridge was submerged

https://twitter.com/IrishRail/status/675661721227403264

Flooding reported at Broombridge around 1515, water above the rail on the inbound line ?

Update to include tomorrow:

On a general note while water is above the rail head what would be the possibility of a 201 for example hauling a few sets out of Sligo. Would it be allowed or is it IE would't want to damage engines etc

As for Kilcock, looks like very poor work for drainage from above road, not IE's fault.

The information on the IR website doesn't make sense - what happens passengers on the 0545 and 1800 from Sligo when they reach Longford (Train from Sligo to Carrick on Shannon, bus to Longford) as it appears the connecting trains will be gone. Do the buses continue to Dublin or is there some other arrangement ?

Bus from Carrick on Shannon to Dublin, journey planner is accurate on website.

Journey planner may be accurate (I didn't look at it), the travel info on the website is not !

The 0545 arrangement is working well this morning. It takes the overcrowding pressure off and the train is on-time leaving Mullingar. Which goes to prove that simple and relatively cheap measures make a massive difference to passengers.

The information as posted is very confusing. I can't see anything that goes with the star on the first line. Also, "this weekend" posted on a Saturday is very ambiguous. The good news is however that the forecast for the next few days is relatively dry so there is a reasonable chance it will have dropped at least enough to rescue a couple of trainsets by the middle of the week.

All in all a complete and utter mess!

The Sligo early bird stopped at leixlip to try help reduce the crowds with the level crossing failures this morning. It had to stop at Clonsilla then as there were people fainting on the train.

Long delays, capacity issues and a few nasty tweets to Irish rail going around, yep its looking like another long week on the maynooth line!

https://twitter.com/IrishRail/status...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Footage from Sligo line

Also in the last hour Athenry-Limerick has been fully closed due to new flooding between Ennis-Limerick.

It doesn't actually look all that deep on that video so it could drop relatively quickly if it stays dry for a couple of days.

They 17:05 has been horrible the last couple of days. Massive overcrowding. I'd estimate we had over a hundred in one car leaving Connolly this evening. I counted 15 still standing coming into Mullingar. It doesn't bear thinking what Friday is going to be like.

Apparently "All available carriages are in service." Of course if they were able to borrow Great Southern stock for the MGW, it might be possible to put another Mark 4 set in service for a couple of weeks and borrow the freed up 22K set. It is utter craziness to run the evening service with one train missing and the following train at little more than half strength.

That video doesn't brim me with much it will be sorted out by the end of the week.

Maynooth line has been nothing but chaos for last 2 weeks. Lot of passengers at ashtown being left behind in the morning peak.

A bit of anger from maynooth line passengers on twitter.

17:28 Connolly maynooth currently held at ashtown awaiting ambulance for an Ill passenger.

An awful lot of reports of passengers fainting as well since the flooding started.

This is now the worse sustained period of disruption I've experienced in 12 years of commuting. The overcrowding on the 17:05 in particular is horrendous. Two passengers have collapsed already this week - there is a substantial risk of somebody sustaining a serious injury if they hit their head while falling and yet nothing is being done.

Hopefully whatever solicitor is involved in the resulting case finds this forum in their web searches.

They don't seem to be trying to do anything about this. This Friday will be one of the biggest travelling days of the year and instead of the normal 11 cars running between the 16:00 and the 17:05, they'll have 4. And they keep trotting out the same rubbish on twitter - all available carriages are in use (this is a lie - there are mark 4 carriages lying idle that could result in freed up 22K units), and they claim that a full service is being provided and hence no compensation is due to commuters who are either avoid travel or are stuck driving to Dublin.

Unfortunately getting the remaining Mk 4 sets back into service would probably take as long as the track will be closed, as they would have to undergo a detailed exam beforehand.

There isn't really an awful lot that can be done given that five sets are trapped on the Sligo side of the flood.

I'd imagine that one of the contributory factors towards people fainting is the exceptionally unseasonable mild weather. Sets would in all probability be configured for colder weather - heating/air con levels can only be adjusted in the depot and each set won't visit a depot every day, which means it's Hobson's choice as to whether you set the heating at a particular level or not. It's basically a lottery - if they leave it too low you'll have people complaining that it's too cold!

It's a very frustrating position to be in where you are paying such a huge sum of money every year to such an unreliable operator and you have basically got no option but to continue to do so.

Whatever about excuses or "reasons" the treatment of passengers over the last couple of weeks is quite simply unacceptable. The risk of the trains getting trapped was entirely foreseeable and quite simply Irish Rail couldn't be bother putting any kind of contingency in place. This is not hindsight in action. Something similar but less serious happened a couple of years back and the line has closed multiple times over the last few years due to flooding in the exact same place.

If the present arrangement continues on until Friday, it will make national media. It's likely there will be about a thousand people trying to get onto the 17:05 and there won't be enough capacity left on the 19:05 to get them all home.

You really need to stop making excuses for them as if there was an Mark IV readily available do you honestly believe it would be in service.

NIR were able to magic up 4 units recently to cover Belfast/Dublin, there is no reason why they cannot supply 2 again until full capacity is available down here. Remember it's them who make a balls of the refurb.

A 4 coach could perhaps be make available from Tralee branch (not ideal) but 2600 do plenty of runs when ICR's are not available at short notice.

The 15.00 Sligo/Dublin could be a full bus transfer for duration as demand will be heavily weighted the other way and it would result in an extra set been back in Dublin by peak departure time and either run as a relief to Maynooth at 17.00-17.05 and ease pressure on existing 17.05. That is if both are 4 coach units, if 3 then just single 17.05 service.

There are plenty of options but the willingness is not there for something to be implemented.