[article]Irish Rail plan to link Dublin Airport with rest of country

[Colm Moore]

With every change that a passenger needs to make, public transport can lose 50% of it's potential passengers. Operating direct from the airport to strong demand-generating locations (South County Dublin, coastal areas of the northside, Cork) means that Irish Rail could grab a substantial amount of business. Potentially twice the share it gets now. It would pose a substantial challenge to those coach services that operate from the airport to regional locations.

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Instead of extending DART wires over a spur and spreading the DART fleet more thinly

I don't think the DART fleet is being pushed at the moment. However, in the next 5-10 years, they will need to look at mid-life upgrades and possibly fleet renewal.

[James Howard]

This reluctance to change is especially bad in Ireland and is primarily due to poor service frequency and reliability.

The idea of an express diesel shuttle on a third line makes more sense than just thinning out the Malahide DART service. I really don't think the airport spur idea makes very much sense at all without DART underground. If they went ahead with this spur on a stopping DART service, you would need an average 7 minute wait followed by a 30 minute journey to Connolly. Plus wherever they put a station in the airport is likely to be a 5 - 10 minute walk and possibly a 15 - 20 minute walk from the more distant terminal.

Compare this with a 20 minute door-to-door taxi spin through the tunnel to the financial district and you know which route the business travellers will take. The 30 quid for the taxi is still less that the Heathrow Express. Southside passengers are adequately served by Aircoach and intercity travelers for a lot of the country are very well served by Bus Eireann.

But as part of a properly integrated city transport system, an airport rail service becomes a far more important link than as simply an outpost of half of the city's rail service that poorly serves about a quarter of the population.

[Inniskeen]

A rail connection to Dublin Airport could be a major addition to the state's transport infrastructure and a huge opportunity for Irish Rail but only if the proposal is realistic in terms of frequency, operational practicality, integration with other services, reliability and journey times.

Doing it properly means more tracks north of Connolly, a station under the main airport terminals and direct services to Cork, Belfast, Killarney etc etc ...

And yes people don't like changing trains for all the reasons stated.

[dowlingm]

Toronto's airport link operation posted a status report today. Could be a guide to what Dublin should be seeking in terms of quality of product:
http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf...adiness_EN.pdf

[eugene]

Here in Geneva where I am now, all Swiss area start and finish in general from under the airport.. Dublin needs something as close to this as possible..

Can I ask when the Dublin resignalling is now going to be completed.. seems to be in progress for an age.

[Inniskeen]

The city centre resignalling scheme is unlikely to be completed for at least 18 months to two years. It is essentially a renewal of end of life assets with some additional intermediate signals, a purpose designed turnback at Grand Canal Dock and a partial reconfiguration of signals on the Howth branch to reduce delays for motorists at level crossings. A new loop and third platform at Clongriffin provides some operaltional flexibility in the northbound direction but track has not been provided for the matching facility in the citybound direction.

While the new signalling will facilitate more trains, north of Grand Canal Dock, the proposed pattern of operations will result in journey time penalties of as much as twenty minutes for the majority of passengers travelling beyond Howth Junction.

The resignalling project does not form the basis for a reliable or worthwhile service to the airport or for significant useful expansion of services north of Connolly.

The main practical benefit of the scheme will be the ability to run additional trains northbound from Grand Canal Dock, some of which will run towards Kildare via the Phoenix Park tunnel.

[Jamie2k9]

According to media reports they suggest that Luas to airport/Swords will be likely outcome come June.

Personally I think leaving Dart until there is sufficent infrastructure in place ie. Dart Underground is the only way to deliver quality service for the whole country especially thoses who use N Commuter lines daily.