Dont see how sets 60 and 61 could be a replacement for 10 and 11 unless Irish Rail have negotiated a reduction in the order.
The most recent order was for 17 3-car sets (effectively sets 47 to 63 inclusive, all of which have now been delivered). These additional units were supposedly for longer distance suburban services - preseumeably Portlaoise, Longford, Gorey, Carlow, Athlone, Dundalk. So far there is only one ICR working from Dundalk while the south eastern and Longford outer suburban services are still typically worked by 29ks. So there would seem to be a defic on the Connolly side rather that the Heuston side.
The obvious strategy would see the northern line ICR allocation used to provide express commuter services from Drogheda/Dundalk and Newry thus relieving the inner suburban services, attracting new passengers and leveraging some benefit from the 90 mph line limit.
Similarly I would expect that some effort should be made to separate Longford/Mullingar traffic from Maynooth traffic again to impove the overall product offering.
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