Irish Railway Record Society
STATIONS
HEUSTON
RE-DEVELOPMENT
Progress
was good on the installation of track and signalling and all commissioning dates
were achieved on time. Phase 3, stage 3.1, was commissioned on Sunday 23
February. This brought back into use platforms 1 to 4 and two running lines
south of the Valeting Plant. Along with previously commissioned platforms 5 to 8
and platform 10, this greatly enhanced operational flexibility.
From
23 February, the line formerly known as the Down Main line and situated on the
north side of the Valeting Plant was taken out of service at the west end to
became a stub ended siding. This left a single-track arrival and departure line,
the Up Main Line (north of the Valeting Plant), to access Platforms 6 to 8. This
was a temporary arrangement until track in the vicinity of the west end of the
Valeting Plant was completed in April.
Platform
1 is 93 metres long from signal to buffer stop, while platforms 2, 3, 4 and 5
are 280 metres, 6, 7 and 8 are 255 metres and platform 10 is 212 metres. All
have three aspect starting signals, with platforms 1 to 8 signals numbered HN311
to HN318 respectively. ‘OFF’ indicators are provided at the departure ends
of platforms 2, 7 and 8. These indicate to platform staff unable to see the
starting signal that it has been cleared and the train depart.
New
sidings on the south side of the Relief Line in the area of the former ‘old’
Guinness/St. John’s Road sidings, are designated the Run-out siding, Loop
siding, Maintenance of Way sidings, and Machine siding. The former catch points
leading into these sidings have been replaced by motorised points normally set
for the Run-out sidings. The loop siding has connections at both end to the
Relief Line and is 105-metres long.
A
total of twenty new signals and twelve new
The
extended concourse at the buffer stop end of platforms 2 to 5 was brought into
use. Platforms 1 to 4 have been re-surfaced with cobble-lock type brick. Two new
large departure indicator boards have been provided, one at the main concourse
and the other at the concourse for platforms 6, 7 and 8. Located throughout the
station are many smaller TV screen size monitors that show arrivals. These are
also located in all retail outlets. Each platform has an electronic information
board at its entrance that normally shows train destination details. There are
ticket vending machines for the purchase of mainline tickets in the main
concourse.
On
late evening of Friday 21 and during Saturday 22 February, there were various
cancellations and amendments to mainline and Kildare services to allow
commissioning take place. These included combining some Westport and Galway
departures, with other trains starting and terminating at Newbridge and
Tullamore. There were no cancellations on the Sunday.
The
newly laid and signalled track was handed over on time at 14.00 on Sunday 23
February following a period of testing using locomotives 154 and 170. The first
arrival via the new track on the south side of the Valeting plant was the 14.00
Cork-Dublin (229 + 8 Mk III + EGV) into platform 5 at 16.50. The flexibility of
the new layout was demonstrated by the fact that this train was only two minutes
behind the 13.50 Galway-Dublin (071 + 4 Mk IId + EGV), which arrived into
platform 8 via the north side of the Valeting plant. The first departure using
the new track was the 19.05 Dublin-Tralee, which departed from platform 5 at
19.23. This delay was due to the late arrival, at 18.59, of the incoming train,
the 13.45 Tralee-Dublin, which was unrelated to the work at Heuston. The first
arrival into the ‘old’ train shed was the 17.20 Limerick-Dublin, a 4-car
2600-class, which arrived six minutes early at 19.45.
From
23 February, access to the Valeting Plant, the Wash Road and a new siding
between them, known as the Holding Road, was only available from platforms 4 and
5. No access was provided to the Valeting Plant from the west end. This was
restored on Sunday 27 April with the commissioning of the remaining points and
signals for the entire project.
Finishing
work includes excavating, re-laying and concreting the track on platforms 4 and
5 between April and July 2003 and construction of a secondary concourse to
service platforms 6 to 8, scheduled from July 2003 to February 2004. Platform 5
was taken out of service on 6 April, followed by Platform 4 on 27 April.
Connolly
The
buffer stops at platforms 3 and 4 were re-located towards the concourse on 8
February by 20 and 15 metres respectively. They had been temporarily moved
northwards to allow the concourse be extended several years ago. Platform 3 is
now 205 metres from the top of the ramp to the buffer stop, while platform 4 is
290 metres long.
Platform
Lengthening
The Minister for Transport told the Dáil that he had approved
expenditure by IÉ for a feasibility study in the Border-Midlands-Western Region
to examine all railway platforms. He said that funds had been allocated to raise
and lengthen platforms at Mullingar, Longford, Ballyhaunis, Castlebar, Westport
and Clara. He also said that Kilcock station platform would be extended to
accommodate 8-car trains in 2003. Enfield down platform will also be extended in
2003.
Tidy
Stations Tullamore
was named as the overall winner of the 2002 Tidy Stations competition. It was
Tullamore's first win and it also won the Best InterCity Station award. Dundalk
retained the Heritage award, as well as the Best Major Station award. Skerries
was named Best Suburban Halt for the seventh year in a row. Castlebar was the
best InterCity Halt for the sixth year in a row. Other winners were Killiney as
Best DART Halt, Hazelhatch as Best Unmanned Station, Malahide for Community
Involvement, Mallow for Best Staff Effort and Rathdrum for Innovation.
Copyright © 2003 by Irish Railway Record Society Ltd.
Revised: January 07, 2004
.