News 148

Irish Railway Record Society

Irish Railway News 148

The IRRS Journal contains a wealth of news covering all aspects of Railways in Ireland.

METRO

At its meeting on 16 January, the Government gave its approval for the RPA to seek expressions of interest from companies or consortia wishing to take part in the bidding process to design, build, operate and finance the first of two phases of Dublin’s proposed Metro system. This will consist of a line from Dublin Airport to Broadstone and then via a tunnel under the city centre to Ranelagh. A branch from near Finglas would serve Blanchardstown. The Luas light rail line between Ranelagh and Sandyford, Line B, will be upgraded to Metro standards and extended southwards to Shanganagh near Bray.

Over 300 delegates, representing 100 national and international companies with worldwide experience of implementing similar major projects, attended a Public Private Partnership (PPP) conference organised by the RPA at the end of February. Delegates were addressed by the Chairman and the Acting Chief Executive of the RPA and received presentations from senior executives and consultants to the Agency. The Chairman outlined the programme for the development of phase one of the Metro project. The RPA plan to complete an Outline Business Case and submit the proposal for the development of phase one of the Dublin Metro to the Department of Public Enterprise at the end of October 2002.

The Dublin Transportation Office has estimated the construction cost of the entire Metro system at €7 billion. However, more precise costs will depend on the PPP process and will be determined by issues such as route alignment, commercial development potential and station location. A public consultation process focusing on Phase One will be launched within the next few months

TIMETABLE

An additional train from Galway to Dublin Heuston has operated most Sundays from the end of November. It acts as a relief to the popular 14.45 Galway-Dublin, departing Galway at 13.50 and arriving in Heuston at 16.35. It is generally formed by a 4-car 2600-class railcar and only stops to cross down trains en route. The railcar works the 18.05 Heuston-Athlone on Saturday and works empty to Galway at 11.40 on Sunday to form this relief.

A new Sundays-Only Dublin Heuston-Westport train was introduced from 24 March. It departs at 13.15 and serves all stations from Athlone to Westport to arrive at 17.20. From the same date, the 07.30 Westport-Athlone is deferred to 08.05 and runs through to Heuston, arriving at 12.10. The connecting service leaves Ballina at 07.55. This new service is in response to customer demand and fills a gap in the service to the West of Ireland. Both up and down trains are formed by Mk III stock.

From Monday 25 March, the 06.45 Arklow-Dundalk reverted to its original starting time of 06.55. This follows completion of engineering works between Wicklow and Greystones.

As a result of reduced siding and track space available at Heuston due to the re-development works, it became necessary to keep one of the two tracks in the Valeting Plant free at all times for shunting movements to and from the platforms. Consequently, some ‘heavy’ carriage inspections were transferred to Inchicore from April. Inchicore does not have the same facilities as Heuston, where a complete train can be inspected on raised track with bogie and underfloor work being carried out at a comfortable height. This plus associated time to transfer stock to and from Inchicore, resulted in longer out of service periods for carriages.

To allow the full complement of trains be inspected, it became necessary to cancel the 14.00 Dublin-Limerick and 17.35 return Monday-Thursday from Tuesday 2 April to free up the set to cover for others undergoing maintenance. Both trains continued to operate on Fridays and Saturdays, but ceased to serve Monasterevan. Dublin-Limerick passengers were directed to the 15.20 Dublin-Cork, which also stopped additionally at Portlaoise Monday-Thursday. The 14.30 Dublin-Galway stopped additionally at Monasterevan Monday-Saturday, as did the 19.58 Portlaoise-Dublin. The latter also ceased to call at Kildare. Limerick-Dublin passengers were directed to the 17.55 Limerick-Limerick Junction and to connect into the 17.30 Cork-Dublin.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 148, published June 2002.