Irish Railway Record Society

Irish Railway News  - Journal 151

LUAS CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS

There has been some further slippage in the completion dates for the two lines. The main contractor, AMB JV, has advised the RPA that construction of the Tallaght-Connolly line is likely to be completed in May 2004, with passenger services commencing in August of that year. The St. Stephen’s Green-Sandyford line is expected to be finished in March 2004, with passenger services starting in May.

At the end of 2002, the budget for the project was revised to €691 million. A further €100 million has been set aside as a ‘contingency fund’. The reasons behind this revision included the redesign of facilities at Connolly station, which would now be a major transport interchange connecting mainline rail, DART and Commuter services, Luas and bus services. Property acquisition costs have also been higher than expected with some €36.15 million already having been spent, €19.4 million for the Tallaght-Connolly line and €16.75 million for Line B.

DASH

Work has commenced on the project to upgrade capacity in the Dublin suburban area. The DART and Suburban Enhancement Project is known as DASH. The first phase, representing an investment of €170 million, will see peak capacity on DART and commuter services through the central area (Connolly-Pearse) grow by over 30%. Activities in Phase I of DASH include:

§      Platform and power supply upgrades to enable operation of 8-car DART and outer suburban trains through the current DART electrified area.

§      Improved station infrastructure to enable increased passenger flows at stations on the DART network.

§      Provision of access facilities for mobility impaired customers to all platforms on the DART network.

§      Modifying the bay platforms at Dun Laoghaire to provide a single platform for 8-car trains.

§      Storage facilities for the increased number of DART vehicles.

This phase will see passenger capacity increase from 11,800 to 16,000 per hour in each direction.

Station upgrade works will be carried out at the following stations, with 45 platforms to be extended. These are Howth, Sutton, Bayside, Howth Junction, Kilbarrack, Raheny, Harmonstown, Killester, Clontarf Road, Tara Street, Pearse, Lansdowne Road, Sandymount, Sydney Parade, Booterstown, Blackrock, Seapoint, Salthill, Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove, Glenageary, Dalkey, Killiney, Shankill and Bray. Two stations, Bayside and Howth Junction, are to be completely rebuilt. Footbridges are to be replaced with wheelchair accessible bridges at stations where a platform is currently inaccessible to mobility impaired. These include Booterstown, Blackrock and Killiney. Stations at level crossings will be upgraded to allow entrance to all platforms.

In March, IÉ applied for planning permission for some of these works. The Bayside station upgrade includes the construction of a new 6-metre high station building with a floor area of 438m². At Howth, the planning permission was for platform extensions at the east end. It included emergency escape gates and stairs. The planning applications for Blackrock and Killiney were in respect of new overbridges with lifts, to replace existing footbridges.

The lift to the northbound platform at Tara Street was taken out of service from Monday 24 February to allow work commence on extending the platform for 8-car trains. This work will see a new lift being installed and is scheduled to be completed by September 2003. Work will be undertaken primarily at weekends to minimise disruption to passengers.

Tara Street station was closed on several Saturdays and Sundays in March, April and May to allow platform extensions and station enlargement. Trains ran through the station without serving it and passengers were advised to use either Connolly or Pearse.

IÉ have decided to proceed with the construction of a southern entrance/exit for Tara Street station in advance of construction of the new office block development and associated station re-development.

The remainder of these articles appear in IRRS Journal number 151, published June 2003.

Copyright © 2003 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: January 07, 2004 .