Dublin to get new DART service

[constellation]

IE getting a little ambitious, no?

From http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0628/rail.html

Plans to develop a second high-capacity DART Interconnector service in Dublin are due to be announced today by Iarnród Éireann.

The €1.3bn proposal includes the building of a tunnel under the River Liffey between Heuston Station and the Docklands.

There are also plans to extended the DART to Maynooth in Co Kildare and Dunboyne in Co Meath.

Work on the project is due to begin in 2010, subject to planning approval from An Bord Pleanála.

Speaking on RTÉ'S Morning Ireland, Iarnród Éireann spokesman, Barry Kenny, said the proposals were part of the Government's Transport 21 programme.

The proposals are being published today on the Iarnrod Eireann website www.irishrail.ie and will be the subject of a public consultation process next Tuesday and Wednesday.

[Mark Gleeson]

Of course the offical unveiling took place way back in 2005 in the National Concert Hall, in fact we know nothing more today that we did then

We're going underground
Let the brass bands play as tunnel vision is no pipedream

By Treacy Hogan
Thursday June 28 2007


A NEW €1.3bn tunnel vision for Dublin being unveiled today might raise more than a few sceptical eyebrows and even hearty laughs from stressed-out commuters.

It involves an underground DART running 5.3km in a giant tunnel under the River Liffey between Heuston Station and the Docklands, with stops along the way.

Commuters would be able to take the DART underground through the heart of Dublin city to Christchurch Cathedral.

Throw in DART extensions to Maynooth and Dunboyne and, hey presto, 100 million commuter journeys will have been made by trains instead of cars.

But will it be that simple?

The track record for major infrastructure projects here has not been good. We have two Luas lines that don't meet and massive cost over-runs and delays that clobbered the Luas and Port Tunnel projects, while chronic overcrowding on trains drives commuters round the twist at peak times.

An official project being unveiled today by Iarnrod Eireann and due to go before Bord Pleanala for approval may appear to many to be yet another pipedream.

Like the buses and trains, we wait ages for one, and then along come two or three. We have a raft of plans for Metros and new Luas lines - and now an underground DART through the heart of the city centre under the River Liffey.

Commuters will be waiting anxiously to see if there is light at the end of the tunnel vision for 2015.

However, rail bosses are adamant that the biggest infrastructural project since the Port Tunnel will actually happen, possibly even sooner than the target completion date of 2015.

And the track record of Iarnrod Eireann in delivering new infrastructure and expanding rail services has been very good of late.

The money is there and the underground DART tunnel under the Liffey between Heuston and the Docklands goes out to public consultation today.

Iarnrod Eireann will lodge a formal planning application with Bord Pleanala and start building it in 2010 after the usual Irish-style planning wrangles and compensation claims are sorted.

Linking

The underground DART will run from Heuston Station to Christchurch, on to St Stephen's Green, through Pearse Station, under the Liffey before linking up with the new Docklands station beside Connolly.

The line involves:

* Northern line DART services from Balbriggan and Howth, which will branch off the existing line after Clontarf Road.

* It goes underground at Docklands Station where it connects with the Luas line from Tallaght.

* It continues to Pearse, connecting with what will be the Maynooth to Bray DART line.

* It moves on to St Stephen's Green where it connects with the Luas line from Sandyford and the Metro to the airport.

* The line continues underground to Christchurch and Heuston, linking again with the Tallaght Luas, and intercity and commuter rail services before moving above ground to Hazelhatch in Kildare.

The line will quadruple city rail capacity from the present 25 million passenger journeys annually to over 100 million.

Funding for the ambitious project has been committed by the Government in the Transport 21 programme.

The new line will dramatically increase frequency and capacity for commuters on DART Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines.

The plan includes the extension of the DART to Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Dunboyne.

Rail chiefs are gambling that it will be the single most important piece of infrastructure to convince people to move from their cars to public transport.

Crucially, the new city centre DART underground will link DART, commuter rail, Intercity, Luas and Metro to form an integrated network.

Iarnrod Eireann have yet to decide whether to locate the station directly beneath the River Liffey at the Docklands, with station entrances from both the north and south quays.

Plans for the DART Underground - to be called Dublin's Interconnector - are going on display to allow the public to view station options and routes.

Open days are being held at Dublin City Council's civic offices at Wood Quay on July 3 and 4.

Barry Kenny, Iarnrod Eireann spokesman, said yesterday that the tunnel from Docklands to Heuston Station would complete the transformation of the Greater Dublin area's rail-service capacity.

The Dart station for Christchurch will be located on the High Street area, with three alternative sites on view for the public.

- Treacy Hogan

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...nd-858561.html

[Peter FitzPatrick]

Any of the station alignment stuff new to you lads ?

http://www.irishrail.ie/projects/dart_underground.asp

http://www.irishrail.ie/projects/pdf...nnector_A2.pdf

[Mark Gleeson]

We have seen all of it before, the alignment hasn't changed in 3 years

Only change in recent times is really the confirmation of the Heuston station location, that was made public several months ago

Of course the whole thing goes back to 1975

[Mark]

Station name changes: Spencer Dock to Docklands and High Street to Christchurch. Simple stuff really.

We know all the depths of the stations.

Pearse station box having an entrance onto Merrion Square is a nice addition. We knew about the entrance to Pearse Street.

Open days were only to be expected. Nice to see it back in the news tho, some pessimists were having their doubts about it..

[Peter FitzPatrick]

I notice the project is now entitled the 'Dart Underground'.

[Mark Gleeson]

Well IE are calling it "DART Underground - Dublin's Interconnector"

Yes interconnector sucks as a name but we have to go with whatever IE use or else it just gets too confusing

The actual overall project title is

Provision of a fully intergrated rail system for Dublin 2008-201?

[clonsilladart]

* Yea... Good to see it in the public domain!!! Makes it a little more real!!!
* Good to hear "Hight Street" changing to "Christchurch"
* Good to hear the Dart Underground Name

I see they are still targeting 2015, after the program for government stated that they would explore options to accelerate the project!

Also, IE mentions that the Maynooth and Northern Line "Dartification" will take place much earlier that 2015. Any idea on the earliest this may happen???

[constellation]

Plans to develop a second high-capacity DART Interconnector service in Dublin are due to be announced today by Iarnród Éireann.

As Jon Stewart would say, "I'm not afraid to spell out the joke here". The "second high-capacity DART Interconnector" anyone? What about the first one...?

Moving swiftly on...

[Mark]

Originally Posted by clonsilladart

* Yea... Good to see it in the public domain!!! Makes it a little more real!!!
* Good to hear "Hight Street" changing to "Christchurch"
* Good to hear the Dart Underground Name

I see they are still targeting 2015, after the program for government stated that they would explore options to accelerate the project!

Also, IE mentions that the Maynooth and Northern Line "Dartification" will take place much earlier that 2015. Any idea on the earliest this may happen???

The tunnelling cant really be accellerated. Everything else can tho.

[MOH]

Sorry, I'm a bit confused.

DARTs from Howth branching off at Clontarf and going to Heuston? Does this apply to Malahide DARTs too?

So if you're going from the northside to the southside, you have to change at Pearse?

And is that all or just some of them, because they'd really need to start getting their bloody train information right or people are going to end up all over the place!

[Mark Gleeson]

All DART trains to or from a destination on the Northside go via the tunnel to Heuston with a portion onwards to Hazelhatch

All Maynooth and Pace service go via Connolly and Pearse to Bray and Greystones

There is no mix and match

http://www.platform11.org/campaigns/..._commuters.php

[MOH]

Sorry, should have read that, that's very clear, thanks.

Bit of a pain having to change in Pearse if you're making a north/south commute, but then what's the chances of me still living/working in the same place by the time this is finished?

(Actually, what's the chances of me living by the time this is finished?)

[Mark Gleeson]

Just to point out that the technical disuccsion on the route has been going on for ages in the members area of the board

Posts of a technical nature will be moved to the members area

[tomcosgrave]

So what happens the Loop Line? Is it going?
I must say I'm little bit miffed at having to go to Docklands to get a Luas to Connolly if I want to get a train to say, Belfast or Sligo - why not retain the original Howth/Malahide to Greystones route as well as the new one - or at the very least, have some DART services go into Connolly and terminate there?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by tomcosgrave

So what happens the Loop Line? Is it going?
I must say I'm little bit miffed at having to go to Docklands to get a Luas to Connolly if I want to get a train to say, Belfast or Sligo - why not retain the original Howth/Malahide to Greystones route as well as the new one - or at the very least, have some DART services go into Connolly and terminate there?

Compare how often you get an intercity train to how often you use the DART. Herein lies your answer.

Im a northern line user. The interconnector will get both my fellow northern line users as well as Kildare line users closer to the city centre than ever before. Cant ask for much more than that really.

[ThomasJ]

A few reports out there including a recent transport 21 progress report are saying 2010 for the introduction of maynooth and pace dart services

[Mark Gleeson]

We can verify those reports as being quite accurate

[Gary]

Yea same here not too impressed with a trip from Kilester to Landsdown now involving 2 train journeys, adds inconvience and time and makes the car more attractive, hardly a move forward!

Why can't they match and mix with some trains to Heuston and some to Bray? The Howth to Bray Coastal Tour on the Dart is a legend with itself without breaking it up.

[tomcosgrave]

Originally Posted by Mark

Compare how often you get an intercity train to how often you use the DART. Herein lies your answer.

Im a northern line user. The interconnector will get both my fellow northern line users as well as Kildare line users closer to the city centre than ever before. Cant ask for much more than that really.

Fair enough in that regard I suppose, but the point still stands for the times when you want an Intercity service - or to use Bus Áras, for that matter. My mother regularly takes the train to Belfast and the bus to Donegal to see family members - she lives close to Bayside DART station. It sounds like she'll be restricted to taking the Luas from Docklands to Connolly instead of using the direct line to it, as far as I can see. I'm not suggesting a lot of train services be routed via the Loop Line, but surely some of them should be in order to facilitate people like her?

Anyway - if the Loop Line isn't going to be used, is it then going to be redundant and closed down - will the bridges over Amiens St and the Liffey, and the ones over Westland Row and Townsend St be removed?

To bring this back to the topic of media discussion, I've not seen any journalist or the like bring this up - it'll be interesting if it is.