New cross border timetable more or less available

[Mickey H]

*"lrge pass flow 09:35 Belfast Ctl-Dublin Connolly 52 mins late Belfast Ct"

From today's translink twitter

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Translink could pull the hidden rule in the transport act which allows operation to Dun Laoghaire at no extra cost.

This one? http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1...nacted/en/html

The mail pier doesn't exist any more surely?

[Traincustomer]

A few historical and contemporary notes…

The Mailboat Pier (usually referred to as the Carlisle Pier in more recent decades) continues to be used nowadays albeit by some visiting cruise ships. I saw the MSY Wind Surf cruise ship alongside there.

The pier was last used by a Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead ferry in 1997.

The last ferry (the HSS) ran between Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead in September 2014.

Probably quite unlikely but it’s not impossible that a ferry will once again run from the port to Holyhead in 2017.

There was a NIR Enterprise set that ran through to Dún Laoghaire for a period (think a brief one) in the 1990s – recollection is that it was in the evening only in connection with the 20.45 sailing of the St. Columba to Holyhead.

[James Shields]

Thanks for the information. There isn't a rail line on Carlisle Pier any more, is there?

(However there is a third platform, which might make it a handy place to terminate a Belfast or northern line commuter.)

[Mark Gleeson]

Translink could leverage the rules to stable a 3CK there instead of Drogheda or Dundalk

Its almost as if Irish Rail are trying to make life difficult

[Traincustomer]

Originally Posted by James Shields

Thanks for the information. There isn't a rail line on Carlisle Pier any more, is there?

(However there is a third platform, which might make it a handy place to terminate a Belfast or northern line commuter.)

Indeed there’s no rail line on the Carlisle Pier anymore; the short branch and pier station closed in 1980. Apparently this was due to preparatory work for the DART. It is said that such was the track curvature from the mainline immediately south of Mallin station onto the Pier branch that DART operation was precluded. Also, as happened south of Dún Laoghaire, the trackbed had to be lowered to facilitate the installation of the overhead power equipment though there doesn’t appear to be any preventing reason why the trackbed couldn’t have been lowered on the pier branch too.

As a brief aside a re-created period station and reinstated connection to the mainline could form an integral element of a Diaspora Centre (if ever built) on the pier.

The trackbed reservation remains from just south of Mallin station (easy to discern from a passing train) through the overbridge carrying Queen’s Road to the internal public road in the harbour where the terminal used to be (Google Streetview still has the July 2009 imagery for anyone interested in seeing what the terminal and trainshed looked like).

Back to the present if the loop was still at Mosney I wonder would the NIR set have been permitted to stable there.

It seems incredible that one relatively small train cannot be facilitated for a layover in the capital. If it is going to stable in Dún Laoghaire it may as well operate in service the whole way there.

While the traditional reason for serving Dún Laoghaire is gone for now/ever an occasional service from Belfast travelling to Dún Laoghaire has an USP as it would give direct access to the south city business area as well as facilitating recreational users.