[article] Commuter safety at risk as fainting spate hits crowded, creaking trains

[James Shields]

Originally Posted by philip

There is of course, but it's politically unpopular as it would mean terminating all Maynooth services at P7 in Connolly and asking Maynooth pax to change to DART to go southbound. It'd be much neater to do this. Also, stop running Rosslare trains as far as Connolly, run them from Pearse. Some trackwork might be needed for his but so what. They could get more people through the system if they made the tough decisions.

There is some logic in this, but I don't think IE are using all of the capacity currently available to them, so it's a little premature.

I was hoping for some idea of what plans IE actually have to increase capacity pre-Interconnector, but it seems that if they have any, they haven't been made public.

In the short term, the problem is lack of rolling stock, not lack of slots in Connolly. A limited amount of stock will become available as the CDEs free up Mk3s for Intercity routes. This should probably go to make some 4-car sets into 8-car sets.

36 2900 coaches will become available in 2007-08 when Sligo and Roslare get IC DMUs. These could provide a number of extra peak-time services on the Maynooth and Northern lines. The extra Maynooth services could originate from Spencer Dock, while extra Northern services could start from the sheds in Connolly. Currently there are a lot of people walking over to Pearse from the IFSC via the new footbridge in the hopes of nabbing a seat. Extra trains from Connolly would take a lot of the pressure off Pearse as well as saving a lot of people the extra walk. I would fit them all in like this:

1. DART to Howth.
2. DMU from Pearse to Maynooth.
3. DMU from Connolly to Drogheda/Dundalk (departs Connolly at same time as Maynooth train, skips Howth Junction).
4. DMU from Pearse to Drogheda/Dundalk (follows Connolly train closely, stops at Howth Junction).
5. DMU from Connolly P7 to Maynooth (departs Connolly at same time as second Northern train).
6. DART to Malahide.

In the 2009-10 timescale, I would hope we'd see electrification to Maynooth, with a new DART line. This would free up a lot of stock for the Northern line, though the Kildare Route Project would also be coming on stream around then, so it would need a fair bit of it. We should also have extra capacity through Connolly-Pearse with DASH2.

Of course we need the Interconnector to really get to the root of the problem, and we need it as soon as possible.

[MrX]

I wonder if the Air Con units are re-circulating too much air given the number of passengers on board.

Perhaps it might be possible to configure them to suck in more air from outside?

[Thomas J Stamp]

Mr X may have a point there with the a/c. Another point is (in relation to the DART) surely they can have Howth Junction Howth as a two car shuttle service at least during the winter months? Perhaps this wouldnt be needed if they brought back the older refurbished darts. (Or will the drivers refuse to drive the "NEW" trains?)

In relation to the Sligo line, its fairly obvous from what Sean says that these trains were never intended to go all the way to sligo, someone pulled some sort of stroke, and they really should have been used on the Maynooth and northern line. Anyone got a view on that?