Docklands Station

[Mark Gleeson]

Just in from crystal on Harcourt street aka the vatican (much much better nice beer garden), though I know there are sad people this very minute standing in Sheriff Street watching the Docklands station

We are a 24 hour organisation

[Thomas J Stamp]

Yes because the new DMU left Droug at 22,45 and apparently sounded very quiet.

The Vatican, eh? I used to go there. In fact i used to go there before it was the vatican. Had my first rubber chicken and chips there as the law stated they had to provide you with a substantial meal to get their later licence.

And that was before the nitelink and, yes, it was all in black and white and he was called Cassius Clay then.

Good Night!!

[Dave]

Ah the vatican used to be the only place I'd get into with my fake usit card when I was 16

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

Morning Mark. Nice to see the late shift is alive and well.

At least Mark has an excuse.

[Mark Gleeson]

So I'll be out tomorrow to check out the 'experience' in mystery shopper mode.

Tried Clonsilla TVM on Saturday and Pearse on Sunday neither had Docklands as a destination

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

So I'll be out tomorrow to check out the 'experience' in mystery shopper mode.

Tried Clonsilla TVM on Saturday and Pearse on Sunday neither had Docklands as a destination

Should we all be shocked?

[packetswitch]

RTÉ Radio 1 news (the bulletin on air right now, the midnight news) has the new station opening as the LEAD STORY. Isn't this all a little disproportionate? Yes, the new services are great, and yes it's great that there's a functioning passenger station in an area that needs it (let's ignore that whole demolish-in-ten-years thing for a moment, mmkay?), and yes it's good to see it come in without too much trauma over time and money..and even, it's cool that that bit of rail track along the canal is being used while we think of where to put new bits of track. And sometime this week I'll go and have a look around it and maybe even hop on a train to Broombridge and back.

But seriously. It's hardly a high-speed electric line from Dublin to Cork with 15-minute service. And yet RTÉ are awfully excited. Are our expectations this low?

[Mark Gleeson]

Main piece on the midnight tv news as well

One of the big problems in this business is the media are very gullible and will take the word of a certain PR man as gospel. I'd love to know how it cost €24 million, station is worth maybe 5 million tops, signalling and track €10 million and thats being extremely generous

We are still awating details of when the promised Kildare service starts....

[Mark Gleeson]

At least the Irish Times can poor some cold water on the IE pr line about a new station in the city. it is isolated and its not somewhere I'm comfortable walking at any time of the day and the Luas goes nowhere near

The good Mr Kenny himself abandoned the Maynooth line in favour of the DART.

Originally Posted by Irish Times

Spencer Dock train station opens today
Liam Reid, Environment Correspondent

The first new train station in Dublin city centre in 116 years is to be opened later today at Spencer Dock. The station, which was built in less than nine months, will act as a terminus for new commuter train services between the city centre and west Dublin.

The last new railway station to be opened in the city centre was Tara Street in 1891, although a number of new stations have opened elsewhere in the city since then.

These include stations opened along the Dart line at Grand Canal Dock and Drumcondra in the last 10 years.
The new Spencer Dock Station will allow for an additional 15 services to and from Clonsilla Station from this week, catering for up to 2,500 extra commuters a day.

It will also act as a terminus for the proposed new Dunboyne line, which is now scheduled to open in 2010. The station is linked through a new 1km stretch of track to the main Maynooth commuter rail line, which normally brings services to Connolly Station.

Prior to the opening of the station, Irish Rail has been unable to provide extra services along this line because Connolly Station is operating at capacity.

This congestion at Connolly Station will not be alleviated until a major upgrade of signalling in the city centre takes place, alongside the construction of a new rail tunnel between Spencer Dock, through St Stephen's Green, on to Heuston Station.

Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny said Spencer Dock Station will allow for further additional services that could not have been provided for under the existing station layout system.

"You could not provide the extra capacity needed for west Dublin, which is one of the fastest growing areas in the country," he said.
"The trains passing through Clonsilla are always full, so there are people getting on who haven't seen a seat in more than a decade."

He rejected criticism that the station, which is effectively surrounded at present by a building site, is too remote. The station is at the centre of the docklands regeneration area on the northside of the Liffey.

The station is a three-minute walk from the Irish Financial Services Centre, Mr Kenny said, while it is served by two bus routes which connect to the city centre and other rail services.

An extension of the Tallaght Luas line to the Point Depot, which will have a stop beside the station, is also to be completed by 2009.

The new station, which will be opened this afternoon by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, was completed under budget for €20 million, and within nine months of having received planning approval.

It is located beside the site of a proposed larger station for the underground rail tunnel or interconnector, on which Irish Rail hopes to begin construction in 2011.

Mr Kenny said services at the new station would be unaffected by the interconnector work. Other new Dublin stations this year will include Adamstown and the Phoenix Park.

© 2007 The Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ire...443050012.html

[ThomasJ]

Delays to all services due to faulty gates at ashtown. An on the 07.45 docklands bound train

[Mark Gleeson]

Also on 7:45 got stuck just outside Ashtown, it was 7 minutes late before that incident anyway

PA was fairly garbled

And we where going to Spencer Dock according to the driver

Got my free coffee mug as well

And in platform 2 there was a intercity railcar

Note the 7:00 ex Clonsilla was 3 late into Docklands owing to a failed engine on a coach

[al2637]

What were the loads like on the new service this morning?

[ThomasJ]

I have to say other than the delay all things worked well. The free coffee and crossaunts the free mug with the docklands logo on it the intercity i walked with someone who works in the ifsc and they were pleaspantly suprised at the time it took them to walk. Fm104 were outside the station. We exited through the bus terminus side didnt know exit each side. Good loadings on the train. Happy man!

[Mark Gleeson]

51 on the 7:00 and about 130 on the 7:45

have my green IE logo coffee thing, note the clocks on the P1 and P2 displays are different

The TVM in Castlenock and Clonsilla don't have Docklands on them

[Mark Hennessy]

With all of the hype surrounding the new station, its good to see that IE have once again made no effort to get the displays working at any of the stations along the Maynooth line.

Obviously people will be caught out jumping on a train to the docklands but its not as if IE would care.



(I know why the displays aren't working, I just wish there could be a hint of "can-do" culture to actually get them working)

[Mark Gleeson]

Well the ones in Docklands do seem to work, in fact IE have made it even more complex than before to get the displays working, the computer needs to access not 2 interlockings (CY and ND) as on the DART but a total of 5, (CY, CW, CL, DS and SL) controlled from up to 4 locations using 3 distinct technologies with 30 years between them, loads of fun

Yes this is actually quite easy I work with a group of event driven middleware people they would consider this easy

First thing would be for IE to get the destinations on the front of the trains actually working

[Mark Gleeson]

The very first Clonsilla bound train at Docklands station ready to depart, new intercity railcar on the right.



Spot the goof

[Aphfaneire]

Is it just me, but even with a temporary station, 2 platforms sounds like a shortcoming?

And i obviously am very confused about the rail allignment in this city, as i dont understand how it skips drumcondra by going down along the canal, i though the track went over that line to get under phoenix park Its all very complicated, and heres me an avid player of ttd and ttt (trains and trucks tycoon) and i cant phatom are archaic rail network. That and i briefly believed that a belfast-cork train used to exist, thats not possible, in dublin anyway.

[Mark Gleeson]

This should explain the geography

Cork Dublin Belfast did exist via a reversal in Connolly in the early 1950's

Its quite simple only trains from the Sligo line can access Docklands and can only do so by the Midland line aka the one under the Canal End Croke Park

[sean]

Aphf, you normally use the Northern line so you wouldn't be so familiar with the lines going into Connolly from the West.

Trains to the Docklands skip Drumcondra because to get to the Docklands they have to use the Midland Line, this is a short, previously unused twin track line running from Glasenvin Junction to Newcommon Curve just outside Connolly and onto the Docklands area. It runs roughly paralell to the Drumcondra route, which is used by present Maynooth, Longford, Sligo services and freight trains that have to go from the Connolly network to Heuston via the Park Tunnel.

At Glasnevin there is a sort of Z junction. Like this

[CODE]
Heuston P10/PPT Connolly all platforms and Dublin Port
<========//======>
//
<=======//=======>
Maynooth/Sligo Connolly Platform 7 and Docklands station
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