Quote:
Originally Posted by KeithStephen
Should Connolly station be the terminating station for Rosslare services?
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No. IMO Sligo and Longford should.
Think about this - not only are there track-path advantages running through Dublin City Centre on merged Sligo and Rosslare lines, (that being less conflict with DARTs) but users on both lines would have more destination choices, with Sligo users having direct trains to Tara St. and Pearse, while Rosslare users could get direct interchange with the Metro at Drumcondra.
If some vision and lateral thinking had been applied to the Midland line, an interchange could have been built there and Maynooth-Bray DART, Longford-Arklow Commuter and Sligo-Rosslare Intercity could have all gone down the Midland line and into the suburban station at Connolly, this could have opened boodles of track paths to bring Kildare Commuter and Heuston-based Intercity trains into Connolly sheds, which would have had its own advantages. But alas, the Metro was built in such a way that an interchange with the Midland Line was impossible and the RPA didn't look at it because IE made their disinterest in that line very clear
But even without the Midland Line, matched, through running trains make a certain degree of sense.
Maynooth and Drogheda do not make sense as terminii for Rosslare service because they're Commuter destinations (the former soon to be DART) while Connolly and Sligo are Intercity terminii.