[article] High Speed Trains Planned for Dublin Cork Route

[Mark Gleeson]

It must be a really slow news day, this entire story appeared over a year ago when a journalist got over excited by the fact the Mk4 coaches can do 125mph

Truth is the Mk4 is limited to 100mph and the older Mk3 are good for 110-125mph

Of course we know 125mph in the KRP is off the agenda anyway since the clearances are not there



Sunday Tribune © 2007

[James Shields]

Talk about lazy journalism - the TGV may only have started in 1981, but the French had run trains at 320 kph as early as 1967. 200 kph may be faster than we've ever run passenger services before, but it really isn't very fast by European standards.

If IE ever do achieve 200 kph on the Dublin Cork line, I suspect it will only hit its top speed for a few short sections, with lots of restricted sections.

[Mark Gleeson]

By modern standards high speed in 225 km/h or better and ultra high speed is in the 320 km/h bracket. The Spanish, Japanese and the French are eyeing up 350km/h. The French have put in many thousands of miles at 400 km/h+

The French set the traditional locomotive + train benchmark in 1955 at 331 km/h and began operating 200kph trains in the mid 1960's. The 1955 record stood until Sept 2006. The German's and Japanese followed and the UK beat the whole lot of them with the HST in the mid 1970's, CIE could have of course purchased HST off the shelf they certainly had the cash in the early 1980's

I have been roving the country with my track measuring kit and we have a lot of work to do

[Mark Gleeson]

The IE spinmeister was in top spinning form yesterday http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-r...007-06-06.smil its a little over a hour in. I listened in live so I might have missed some of the details but it was a useless radio piece

Of course its a whole load of tripe, no chance this will be done by 2010, 105 miles of track to relay and resignal. The nastiest curve between Dublin and Limerick Junc is the Curragh, that said its a 85mph limit to get rid of that would require a works order.

Of course we still need the 125mph power cars to haul the train, which of course don't exist even as a prototype.

Of course by just renewing the life expired sections on a like for like basis would bring times down to 2:25 with 3 stops

[James Shields]

If an upgrade were to take place on a phased basis, what sections would make the biggest difference to journey times? If the current route is upgraded to 125mph capable track without realigning, would it allow speeds to increase on sections that couldn't achieve 125mph?

I agree the 2010 deadline is nonsense, but the track needs to be relaid anyway, so it would be short sighted to go through another round of maintaining the status quo. If power cars are put out to tender now, the track upgrade would be well underway by the time they arrive.

In relation to power cars, is there really noone who can supply a 125mph power car now? Is it not just a matter of finding a suitable locomotive and giving it a pointy nose? Even if the tendering and supply process took 5 years, would it not be reasonable to expect to have power cars by 2012, by which time the track upgrade should be 33%-50% complete?

[Mark]

The only two routes that could possibly sustain high-ish speeds are Dublin-Cork-Dublin and Dublin-Belfast-Dublin no? Im basing this on the populations at either end of the route and at possible major stops/hubs in between. Dublin-Cork-Dublin being the more promising.

Even at that rate these routes are not as far apart as many high speed routes in Europe. Im just being conservative but would spending enough money so that the journey time beats the car be sufficient? The interurban routes when finished arent going to get any faster..

I just think the cost of purchasing 125mph capable power cars might not match the gain. Could 2.25 hours be improved on without purchasing new stock?

Economist I am not!

[Mark Gleeson]

Best guesses are

Assuming 100mph non stop, accounting for Portarlington 60, Limerick Junc 80, Mallow 80 which are curve related limits best time repeatable is ballpark 2:05, that aligns with the 2:07 record time of the mid 1980's. Since IE are on record on only being interested in the Limerick Junc Dublin section there are several more minutes to be saved between Cork and Mallow

Assuming three stops 2:15-2:20 is the best you can get, of course if you pick Portarlington, Limerick Junction and Mallow as stops you get the lowest time.

Its all about acceleration so when you hit a restriction the power is there to accelerate and its fairly hilly out on the Cork line in places

[Mark]

By the end of the year 2010 journey times by road
between Cork and Dublin could come down to
between 2.5 – 3 hours without exceeding any speed
limits.

Source: Cork County Council

Thats what the train has to beat.