Connolly Capacity

[KSW]

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

capacity and accessability into connolly is a major issue!

Surely as an maynooth line passenger, you have noticed the amount of time some of the maynooth line services sit stuck between drumcondra and connolly, Its because part of the line inbound is shared with northbound services. Could you imagine if you threw heuston services in aswell!?

Just on that quote.if i was a passenger traveling from Galway to Heuston i would love the odd train terminating at Connolly City Center rather getting the luas to the city center.Even the idea of half the Cork trains going to Connolly be curious to see how many people who vote on that idea.the Phoenix park tunnel is there why not use it.The idea of trains departing Connolly for Belfast,Sligo,Wexford,Waterford,Limerick,Galway,We stport,Tralee and Cork including Drogheda/Dundalk,Maynooth,DART trains would make the station Ireland-wide from one location.

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by KSW

Just on that quote.if i was a passenger traveling from Galway to Heuston i would love the odd train terminating at Connolly City Center rather getting the luas to the city center.Even the idea of half the Cork trains going to Connolly be curious to see how many people who vote on that idea.the Phoenix park tunnel is there why not use it.The idea of trains departing Connolly for Belfast,Sligo,Wexford,Waterford,Limerick,Galway,We stport,Tralee and Cork including Drogheda/Dundalk,Maynooth,DART trains would make the station Ireland-wide from one location.

Absolutely not! A major upgrade was needed on the heuston side to 4-track to provide an effective operation of these and Kildare services.

The Connolly area especially the nothern/maynooth line section of track at Connolly is crippled as it is such as the long waits northern/maynooth/darts have waiting into Connolly.

Not to mention the 8 platforms heuston has versus connollys 7!

Barring a major upgrade of the Connolly area including the station and signalling and no of tracks this is a catalyst for chaos!

[joey]

One extra platform, thats all heuston has in comparison to connolly, is that all?

I use the maynooth line a lot and yes there are delays getting into connolly sometimes and it is fustrating. They want to factor that into the next timetable maybe i don't know. But surely a 6 or 8 carriage train going to and from connolly to heuston every half an hour or even one an hour would not affect a huge deal on services in and out of connolly. Ok maybe an upgrade would be needed to facilitate this, be a lot cheaper than an underground. Lets face it when the underground is built it will be another laughing stock of the capital, need i mention port tunnel - too small for double decker lorries, luas - to small and short amount of trams. Although I think the underground maybe is a good idea linking the two sations, I think it may be a waste too, they'll probably build it and have a small 3 carraige train running to and fro. The infastructure which is pretty much there lying dormant I think it could be re-started if the will was there.

[Mark Gleeson]

The Luas gets from Connolly to Heuston faster than the current tour of Dublin you take to get from Connolly to Heuston plus you have to do a reversal at Islandbridge before getting to Heuston that would play havoc with Heuston at peak hour. Plus you are stuck with platforms 6.7.8 in Heuston unless you want to block the entire station for 5 minutes. Add in adding in some weird conflicts at Glasnevin Junction

Connolly is ridiculously congested at peak hour, there is neither the capacity or rolling stock

Best case routing some Heuston trains to Connolly/Docklands would generate 2000 journeys per peak hour (most of which would be existing users, so little net gain) These train would not serve Heuston at all

In comparison Interconnector numbers are quoting upwards of 25,000 per hour due to its route, 13 trains per hour in each direction and an order of up to 250 extra coaches to cope, its connections and its journey times. Quoting 70 million extra journeys per annum, total Irish Rail carryings in 2010 39 million. With the interconnector in place all the conflicts vanish into a free flow and you can do things like Cork Belfast if you really want to

[Inniskeen]

I wouldn't be so sure that the interconnector will deliver anything like the benefits promised. The apparent absence of turn-back facilities at the Docklands (towards Heuston) means that all tunnel services will have to travel onto the northern line. This means either a frequency of service that will effectively sterilise the northern line for anything other than DART or alternately the frequency in the tunnel will be dictated by the requirements of the northern line and the need to provide journey times that will keep the railway relevant for users travelling north of Malahide. Extending DART to Drogheda might provide a more frequent service but is unlikely to deliver an overall improvement in the service offering.

The provision of additional tracks north of East Wall is the only way of providing for both longer distance commuters, Enterprise users and DART. A double track railway can accommodate frequent stopping services or frequent fast services but not both. Irish Rail's proposals to run some 17 trains per hour per direction on the northern line means that all services will be forced to travel at the same speed - inevitably that of the slowest train.

Running mainline services off the Cork line into Connolly is a non-starter, the station simply does not have the capacity.

Running commuter services via the Phoenix Park tunnel is a different matter entirely. There are already four tracks east of Glasnevin Junction, ample capacity to handle a decent service frequency from the Heuston direction in addition to the Maynooth line. One option would be to divert all Maynooth services into the Docklands and to split the Kildare service between Docklands and Connolly. All services would serve the Drumcondra area, either at the existing station or a new one on the low level line depending on routing. The big disadvantage with this proposal, of course, is that the Docklands has limited appeal as a commuter destination although a station on the low level line at West Road could be linked to Connolly mainline & suburban by covered walkways and/or subways.

[joey]

absolutely, if the will is there it can be done. a 29k type train running to and from heuston and connolly i reckon can be done running every half hour, with little impact on northern or maynooth services. its all about convenience to the rail traveler, walk out of hueston to get the luas to connolly it is jam packed no matter what time of the day it is, its a nightmare. surely a loop could be added at hueston to allow for the easy operation in and out of a train onto platforms, plenty of space around that end. could put another platform in at connolly next to the car park surely, bags of space there.

trust me it's a runner