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Pity I’ll miss this - stuck here as I am beside the GWR main line ….Fabulous pics JHB. Apparently I was on the last steam ECS into GVS with 171  in 1975 but aged 4 I don’t recall it! . So sad that we can’t have a final steam departure from under the Boyne Bridge with 171, 85 or 131. But at long last Belfast is getting a station that will hopefully be a worthy successor to the termini of old. I still think the Victorians missed a trick in not building a US-style Union station though!  

Agreed. They are needed. I have a free travel pass now - but, in all seriousness, while I'm OK for now, many my age and older NEED regular visits to such cubicles. In all reality, if you're caught short, you're caught short. It would be fine if the maximum journey on these things was ten minutes, but with increasing congestion and ever slower speeds, journey times are increasing. Lately, on a couple of occasions, I have had the misfortune to travel from Malahide to the DSER several times. I am going to Bray in the morning. I will be driving. Dublin commuter routes, especially Drogheda - Wicklow, is painfully, and unacceptably slow. Every trains stops at every hole in the hedge, and they crawl between them at walking pace. It's an absolute ordeal. On NIR, even the stopping trains seem to get a bit of a move on, as do those in Cork; and yes, i do accept that one may not be comparing like with like there. As from later this year, I will be regularly visiting a relative who is moving to the outskirts of Wicklow. Two hours of stop-starting, and no toilet? And the government wants me to use public transport? Sorry, lads, you're having an absolute laugh.

at least being cantilevered, they'll be easier to clean under. I quite like the Dart + overall but the lack of jacks completely boggles the mind. Would call on within 5 years a new order of cars with jacks will be put in. 

Malahide to Wicklow will be TWO hours! Well, now I sympathise with certain members of society who have been known to relieve themselves in or near seats....

Several stations have single platforms because there is/was no operational need to cross passenger trains at that particular station and it would be difficult to make the financial case for constructing a second platform that would meet current requirements (lifts, fencing, lighting without considering the cost of the civil works) To the best of my knowledge the down or loop platform at Enfield was re-opened to cater for Longford/Mullingar commuter trains and Connolly-Sligo services run through without stopping on the Main Line. It would be difficult to see the NTA or Meath County Council funding a second platform if existing platform can handle current traffic needs. The loop at Clara was originally a goods loop, passenger trains of the Portarlington-Athlone section of the Dublin-Galway-Westport route are regularly scheduled to cross at Geashill, Tullamore and Clonydonnin crossing loop (approx. mid way Clara-Athlone), though occasionally passenger trains cross at Clara. There is/was a low Up platform at Tipperary though likely to have been out of use for many years. With a sparse passenger service (2 trains daily each direction)and CIE/IE wanting to close the line to passenger traffic from the late 70s it unlikely that IE/NTA or Tipperary County Council would be willing to fund an upgrade/new platform. Wexford always had one platform Connolly-Rosslare passenger trains not regularly scheduled to cross at Wexford, the present crossing loop north of the station was installed in to 2000s when the line was upgraded to CTC operation. Wexford North was historically the terminus of the line from Dublin the line between Waterford and Wexford was originally operated by a separate company. Apart from Connolly-Rosslare passenger trains Wexford North was the terminus for Dublin-Wexford and Waterford-Wexford freight services and Rosslare Harbout-Wexford local passenger trains into the late 1970s. Carrick-on-Shannon had a crossing loop and two platforms until the station ceased to be a block post and crossing loop removed as an economy measure during the late 1980s. The present crossing loop was installed when the Lines signalling system was upgraded to CTC operation during the early 2000s. Reinstating the original up platform would have involved substantial and disruptive civil engineering works including widening the underbridge at the Dublin end of the station to accommodate the crossing loop and platform.