Shorter and greener trains
 

A thought struck me on the way to work on the 8.44 from Drumcondra this morning: given that the passenger numbers on the ex. city centre trains are lower than the trains going to the city centre, if Irish Rail cut the number of carriages in half, would it accelerate quicker and be more fuel efficient?

When NUIM and St Patrick's Drumcondra are out of term, the numbers are vastly reduced again.

Probably, but the carriages have to come from somewhere to run the services in the other direction.

There is no performance difference on paper

There are far too many 8 coach trains floating around during the day, between 11am and 3:30pm there is no reason for a 8 coach train anywhere in the Dublin commuter belt

In the rush hour there will always be empty 8 coach trains going the wrong way having been full going the other

I'll get my coat.