SBP - Midland Rail and Meath on Track

[Mark]

Did anyone read the article in the Sunday Business Post on a push to reopen the Moate station and line?

Also lots of MoT quotes and references to the sewer we found in Dunsany!

[dowlingm]

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/st...290-qqqx=1.asp

[Mark Gleeson]

There is no sewer main

"I'm sick of hearing about some supposed sewer pipe on the Navan rail alignment"

, Mr Tom Dowling, Meath County Manager, at a public meeting in Navan 2nd February 2006

Strange that ?

Have a letter saying it does exist, not to mention photos

Spot on about the Dail seats game though

[comcor]

Closed in the 1970s, the Ennis line, which was reopened in 1983, now carries 150,000 passengers a year.

Interesting this when they say the 750 a day estimate is wrong...

On another note, the government would do well not to regard Meath East as safe for two seats. This seat is going to be a lot closer than a lot of people think.

Then again Navan isn't in Meath East.

[Oisin88]

While local campaigners have focused on the line’s potential as a commuter route, some believe it could cut half an hour from rail journeys between Galway and Dublin.

I honestly don't get the logic of opening the Athlone-Mullingar stretch. There must be more to it. Connolly-Mullingar is the slow winding follow the canal, so even if they did TGV speed from Mullingar to Athlone, would they knock more than 10 minutes of the existing time? Irish rail might take 10-15 minutes of that back on "padding." Putting another inter-city service over the level crossings on the royal canal line might not be an advantage. Also, I think it's better for "integration" if the inter-cities all run to the same station and Connolly can be dedicated to commuters!

The only advantage to it would be to add more commuting options around the midlands. But then I see the half empty townlink bus in Tullamore every day....

I should add that since I use the Athlone-Portarlington line daily I suppose I have a vested interest in that one getting better before they open other lines.

[sean]

Firstly, Connolly presently serves the Enterprise and Sligo services and they can't be rerouted to Heuston anyway.

Second, in the 2005 schedule, IE mangaged to do Dublin Connolly-Mullingar non-stop in 1 hr 1 minute and this was dead reliable. And yes, I'm talking 071+Mk2D here. Assume there's 10 min of padding, it could be done in 50. the Mullingar-Athlone line looks pretty decent on a map enginneringwise, so I imagine that this stretch could also be done in reasonable time.

All that would be needed IMO would be some dynamic passing loops from Maynooth to Dublin to facilitate lots more long distance trains and locals on the same tracks - it's not like the Kildare route. Also doubling all the lines within 20 miles of Mullingar would help because most of the tracks around Mullingar are fairly straight so a speed improvement could be put to good use.

[Oisin88]

I've done some calculations and I have to keep questioning:

While local campaigners have focused on the line’s potential as a commuter route, some believe it could cut half an hour from rail journeys between Galway and Dublin.

Connolly-Mullingar: 1:05 fastest time in current timetable (include padding)
Heuston-Athlone: 1:17 fastest time (include Kildare line padding).

Mullingar to Athlone, can it be done in 12 minutes? Now, using my 1906 railway map, it's 20 "statute" miles from Mullingar to Athlone. So, will the new trains be able to go at 100 miles an hour, not stop at Moate and still be able for the bendy bit along the Royal canal into Dublin?

By the same token, I have been on trains which have done 50 minutes to Tullamore. The distance from there to Athlone on the same map, is 15 miles. The line is open.

Could the money not be better spent, e.g. reopening any of the navan lines? Lets have the line re-opened but let's not pretend it's about inter city speeds. Doubling the tracks Galway-Athenry for the Galway commuter service would probably do more (wouldn't it?). Maybe to stretch the government spacial plan thing where the midlands has 4 gateway towns or whatever. Maybe a rural link service linking the two lines.

[Mark]

Perhaps the time is including the connection from Heuston into "Dublin"?

[ACustomer]

Mullingar to Athlone (Midland) is just over 27.75 miles, which makes it impossible to match the timings on the Tullamore route. (The 20 statute miles might be Irish miles of 2240 yds?). However unlike Mullingar-Dublin the route is straight, i.e. it's not tacked on to the Royal Canal.

[Mark Gleeson]

The Heuston times allow for 90mph to Cherryville and 100 mph through Monestervin then 80mph to Athlone

Beyond Maynooth there are a fair few sections where you could head to 100 mph and it won't take 6 miles from a standing start as it does currently, the entire Mullingar Athlone section would be good for 100 mph apart from possibly one bend half way between Athlone and Moate, line is fairly decent a fair bit is on embankment

55 minutes to Mullingar would be easy, and including a stop in Moate no more than 25 to Athlone, 80 minutes with stops at Maynooth, Mullingar, Moate and Athlone thats 60mph average and avoids Heuston that worth 15 minutes. The 7:10 Cu na Mara takes 1 hour 24 minutes

This assumes you go with 2 tracks to Mullingar and onwards to Athlone, the major slow down to Athlone is having to pull in in the middle of nowhere eg Clonydonnin and sit for 5 minutes

[Oisin88]

So 4 minutes saved on a trip to Galway?

From other threads I understand that there is a capacity problem in Connolly. Space for 1 inter city per hour into Spencer dock? Could this be nearly as far from Temple Bar as Heuston is currently..

Sounds like I really have it in for this line. I'd love to see it open, but as soon as it was the nice planning people would probably start thinking of closing the Portarlington-Athlone stretch, and suddenly I'd be a motorist again, or have to move

How likely is this to happen? Offaly seems to have better politicians than Westmeath traditionally....

[Mark]

How long might it take to go Galway to Sligo via the Moate line with a change in Mullingar?

[Mark Gleeson]

About 3:50 if you are lucky

Galway Athlone 65 minutes, Athlone Mullingar 30 minutes then 2 hours to Sligo allow 15 minutes for the connection

Best advice go to Galway Station
Board bus to Sligo
Arrive Sligo station 2:30-3 hours later, bus every 2 hours

QED and thats without the road improvements

[Navan Junction]

Originally Posted by Mark

references to the sewer we found in Dunsany!

It was good to see it mentioned alright..