Darrman

I quickly looked up bus schedules between Navan and Drogheda and there's an hourly bus between the two. I wonder how well they're used? Is there any equivalent to the railway censuses for buses? Cursory searches didn't provide any information beyond broad strokes "there were x million passengers using buses in year". https://www.buseireann.ie/routes-and-timetables/190

I can't see any long-term future for the Navan Branch. I'd like to be proven wrong, but even if Taras start again they won't last forever, and how much traffic potential is there between Navan and Drogheda and stations north of it? Even if they started a passenger service tomorrow, you'd either have a shuttle onto a non-existent branch platform at Drogheda at 25mph for 17 miles, or make the already-existing congestion on the GNR even worse by continuing on to Connolly. An extra 31 3/4 miles results in a journey of 48 3/4 miles from Connolly to Navan, which doesn't compare favourably with the 55km (~35 miles) Google's giving me by road from centre to centre. If it were to be brought into passenger use again, a speed upgrade would be mandatory. Beauparc wouldn't reopen. Duleek is worth considering, but the station's a bit far from the town. Dart+ is already planning a platform on the Navan Branch, so that would solve that particular issue. Accessing the rest of the station would be impossible. Quadrupling the Northern for a distance (~Clongriffin or so) is already necessary, but extra Navans would make it even more vital. The MGWR's line to Navan was a lot shorter - Navan Junction was 30 1/2 miles from Broadstone, so probably about ~32 miles or so to the Docklands - but that's implying it will ever get built. Forgive the idle chatter, but if a magic money tree sprouted, how (non-)feasible would it be to have some sort of preservation outfit once the Taras officially cease? (Yes, I know it's hard enough in Downpatrick as it is.) Nice video, too. I'd love to travel on the Navan Branch at least once.

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41478433.html The actual beginning of works passed without comment in the media, so I'll just post this Echo article noting that the start of works and reduction in evening service was imminent.

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/planning-permission-sought-oranmore Planning permission is about to be lodged for 1km passing loop and platform at Oranmore: construction scheduled to begin autumn 2025. We'll see if they keep to that.

Got my invoice, paid for my coaches, and now I wait.

I've stared at plenty of railway maps throughout the years, and there's plenty of lines that should never have closed, or at least would be viable today if the land was kept with the state. I'm sure every line ever constructed has someone look back fondly on it, but there's a few that beg the question of why they ever got the go-ahead. Even just looking at the operational dates shows Bagenalstown to Palace East as a questionable proposition: it spent a good amount of the 1860s closed, the little section from Ballywilliam to the junction was run by the DSER for a time, and the whole exercise strikes me as a bit pointless. Borris is a small little place. Did the GSWR hope to reach Wexford at some point? Moving over to the Midland, the Horseleap Branch to Clara never struck me as particularly useful. It's the result of a cut-down MGWR proposal to Tullamore to try to keep the GSWR out from Athlone, which failed and they ended up having to build it to Clara as part of an arbitration settlement. It serves nowhere of note that can't be accessed another way. Armagh to Castleblayney has the dubious honour of being the shortest-lived railway in Ireland, thanks to partition. If the Kingscourt-Armagh plan became a reality, the line could have served as an alternative route to Belfast, though partition would still have proven an obstacle. But in the end, what remained was a short branch to Keady, which in turn soon succumbed. I could bring up things like the baronial lines and most narrow-gauge lines too, but a lot of people here like them, so I'll leave well alone on those ones! I will say, in the interests of naming one Cork line as the Corkman that I am, the Donoughmore branch of the Cork and Muskerry strikes me as spectacularly pointless. It served a lot of nothing and a few crossroads. Am I missing something?

I had a shopping itch to scratch, so this came at the perfect time. Threw in a pack of mags into my order of Bulleids - now my Last Magnesite Wagon won't be by itself.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41463925.html Bam have been awarded the contract to double the line to Midleton. Work is due to begin at the end of September. Last train Mondays to Wednesdays 7:15pm Cork-Midleton, 7:45pm Midleton-Cork. Bus transfers after that. Work will also take place on Cork Tunnel maintenance around the same time. I just hope this goes according to plan: we're dealing with the same people who are in charge of the mythical Events Centre here...

I passed through the station on opening day, but I blinked and missed it. I filmed the train passing by on my return trip on Thursday - it's a lot cleaner but the platforms are still empty, and we had just overtaken a train on the slows. I'll just post one frame. https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2024/08/26/new-dublin-train-station-opens-15-years-after-construction/ Here's a piece in the Times about Kishoge's opening.

Well Monday's Enterprise journey was a bit of a mess: the 14:50 departed 40 late after its previous turn arrived 50 late, got held up at Fairview due to an incident on Clontarf Road, passed through Drogheda 70 late, and there weren't enough buses at Newry so I was waiting for their backup for 20 more minutes. In the end, I got into Lanyon Place 90 late and had missed two Derry trains. By then I was driven to madness - I started writing poetry about the state of the Enterprise. It's probably worth mentioning it was a CAF? On a brighter note, my long trip to reach Fintown was worth it, and there were a fair few people on board. However, the Giant's Causeway train was closed for maintenance, so that one is still on the to-do list.

If NIR have decided that Dundalk is only a halt, then that clearly means that the only stations south of the border are, using the definitely-relevant statistic of town populations... Dublin Connolly/Heuston/Pearse, Cork Kent, Limerick Colbert, Galway Ceannt, Waterford Plunkett, and Drogheda MacBride. Dundalk comes next, and that's just some sleepy rural halt, unlike the hotspots of Poyntzpass and Scarva further down the line. On an unrelated note, I'll be on board a truncated Enterprise tomorrow to tick off a few pieces of narrow gauge up the country. I'll give you all the details once I'm back at home.

Not quite the right thread, but I don't think it's worth its own and the works are partially within County Cork. https://www.railmagazine.com/news/2024/08/06/manned-crossings-to-be-replaced-on-dublin-cork-line Approval has finally been given to replace some level crossings: it just took over three years! It's worth noting Irish Rail's own project page has not been updated and says a decision is pending. The Irish planning system never fails to be inefficient.

The map on the review suggests a direct branch line off the Derry Road rather than following either of the former routes. While a triangle around the edge of the car park doesn't seem completely impossible, the line to Armagh and beyond is also proposed and would need to be factored in to such a plan. I can't see the authorities allowing a level crossing, so presumably the Armagh line would have to dive under this curve with only about 150m between the junction and where this hypothetical crossing would be. The A4 is only 30 metres further down the line, and would also need to be dealt with anyway. If Armagh has to dive under this curve, you can't get a curve off the curve from the Derry Road or the Great Northern's main line to reach Armagh. Personally, I don't see any neat solutions at this point where three lines diverged. I'd just have Dublin-Derry trains reverse at Portadown.

Interesting thread. I've spent a while looking at the Derry Road on maps online over the past few days. This isn't as good as actually visiting the places, but I'll still leave a few comments on the line after Dungannon. Some housing estates south of Donaghmore block the alignment, but these can be easily avoided. The station itself has been taken over with farm sheds. The village has 1,000 people so it wouldn't be impossible to open a station there, but it would be about 800m distant immediately south of its original location and may be skipped due to proximity to Dungannon. Up to 250m walking could be cut off for the sake of one house. The site of Pomeroy station has been cleared and a shed is somewhat in the way, but otherwise there are no apparent obstructions here. With less than a thousand people living there a station would be dubious: it goes against keeping the original alignment when possible, but would bypassing Pomeroy and Carrickmore (less than a thousand, widely dispersed) entirely be worth it to knock a few miles off the route? Both Sixmilecross and Beragh station sites are in use as storage yards, with a football pitch and car park blocking the alignment soon after Beragh. All of these are easily avoidable. Neither village is big, but Beragh, with about 500 people, is the larger one. Omagh. The fifth-largest town in Ireland without a railway station. The alignment is buried under the A5. I have no idea where to begin with figuring out an alignment or a station location. Do you break the bank with tunnels, or have a station uselessly distant from the town centre? Build on top of the A5 if it gets replaced? Mountjoy Halt's trackbed is now an access road to a builder's yard near a petrol station on the A5 and not much else. It's worth noting the Ulster American Folk Park is built on top of the trackbed around here and would need to be avoided. Newtownstewart, with 1,500, is worth considering for a station. However, the trackbed is again buried under the A5 and is on the wrong side of the river. Going around south isn't impossible. The Victoria Bridge station has been demolished and replaced with an empty field. A housing estate and some sort of water works block the other side. It looks possible to get through, though it may take knocking a house and building on some gardens. The trackbed through Sion Mills is largely a farmer's track to the south and football pitch access to the north of the station. There seems to be room to have a railway pass through while leaving an access track. A population of 2,000 is well worth considering for a station. Strabane is another big problem. A housing estate, followed by an industrial estate, followed by the A5 all get in the way. It's possible to get around via hopping into the Republic for a bit, but no decent station sites are apparent - any would be on the wrong side of the A5. As already mentioned in the thread, it's possible a Northern Irish government would want to keep the line out of the Republic. Along the original route west of the Foyle, there's one house in the way and most of the alignment has been converted to farmer's tracks. The original stations are passable, but it may be simpler to leave them with their owners and bypass the villages along the way - St. Johnston is the largest at 500. The proposed Letterkenny railway would benefit from the Derry Road staying where it originally was. A cycle path appears once re-entering the North, which would have to be dealt with somehow. Once within the city limits housing estates are somewhat avoidable (though a few lay-bys will have to go) and the last approach to Foyle Road is largely clear, aside from the remnants of the Foyle Valley Railway and an electricity substation blocking the way to the car park on top of Foyle Road proper. If using the east route, it is slightly shorter and would have Waterside as the target station. Many more houses have been built across the trackbed, which was built for 3' instead of 5'3". Newbuildings poses a similar problem to the major towns earlier along the route, and the alignment has been entirely built on. From there, we meet the A5 once again on the original alignment. It just about seems possible to head east of Newbuildings and the Derry suburbs along the Foyle, and cross the A5 approaching Victoria Road - a bike path would have to go. From there, demolish everything in the way of a connection to Waterside. A hybrid approach of some kind isn't impossible: more so taking the west bank until bridging the Foyle at some point to get to Waterside than the other way round. One last bit of analysis: station numbers and populations. There's no doubt most of the previous halts won't re-open, and it's very possible that Dungannon, Omagh, and Strabane will be the only stations built. Some stations have the potential for larger catchment areas, but I'll just stick to census figures for the one place. Bold = major town. Italics = no station originally. Only halts Johnson gives in CAPS are listed - railmotor halts are ignored. Sources for population are the 2021 census for the North and the 2022 census for the Republic. (Portadown) Scotch Street: 675 Annaghmore: 98 Vernersbridge: N/A Trew and Moy: N/A (Moy has 1,941, but is 4km from station) Killyman: 1,057 Dungannon: 16,361 Donaghmore: 1,182 Pomeroy: 786 Carrickmore: 625 Sixmilecross: 251 Beragh: 694 Omagh: 20,353 Mountjoy: 110 Newtownstewart: 1,414 Victoria Bridge: 362 Sion Mills: 1,970 Strabane: 13,456 Porthall: N/A St. Johnston: 571 Carrigans: 389 (Derry)

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/dublin-news/plans-to-extend-dart-network-to-kildare-and-meath-get-green-light/a805532602.html Dart+ West has been mostly approved. Line electrification and level crossing closures will go ahead, but the depot west of Maynooth will not due to "flood risk". So we might end up with a railway, but nowhere to store the trains. It's worth asking at this point: how much space does Fairview have? Plenty of Dart+ trains have been bought and they need somewhere to be stored.

There isn't a dedicated thread for all the work to do with the proposed Dart upgrades, so I'll just make this to serve as one. To start with some news posted yesterday, the Coastal North railway order has been lodged, according to Irish Rail's own reports. This project covers electrification to Drogheda. How long will it take to get through the planning system? Well Maynooth has been in the system for two years. Best not hold your breath.

https://www.limerickleader.ie/video/home/1543881/watch-time-lapse-of-viaduct-installation-on-limerick-to-foynes-rail-freight-project.html The Limerick Leader have a video of Robertstown Viaduct being reinstated.

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/NTA-National-Rail-Census-Report-2023.pdf The annual census results have been released. Departures and arrivals (or "boardings and alightings") for each station can be found in the appendices. Connolly is the busiest station, as usual. It saw 18,049 departures and 17,461 arrivals. Cloughjordan is the quietest this year, with three departures and seven arrivals on census day.

That greenway to Youghal isn't going anywhere, whether for bus use or rail use. My own suggestions are simply that. Certainly no mention of Youghal's been made today: that article of rumours is from three months ago. Anyway, here's the original Blarney/Monard plan, or at least a 2005 revision of it: https://web.archive.org/web/20071220084842/http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/901445608.pdf . These give southeast of the original Blarney station site, which is currently occupied by SOS 24 Hour Recovery (according to street view) and formerly by Dairygold for Blarney station and Rathpeacon sidings for Monard station. There's every possibility these have different sites in the current plans. Another Examiner article has some extra information, but it's behind a paywall. It says Kilbarry, Water Rock and "Carrigtwohill East" (presumably meant to be West) will open sooner while Monard and Ballynoe will open later. From there I assume the park and ride stations at Blarney and Dunkettle will be in the sooner category, rounding things out to five. Blarney will "get a significant park-and-ride and terminal station ... with a third platform, a passing loop, and charging infrastructure required" and be involved with the M20 somehow, presumably via having a junction for it. Slowing of intercity services is my greatest concern, so hearing about a loop is good news. It also suggests not every train will run to Mallow. Finally, the article says the units for Cork will come from the 750 Dart carriage agreement signed with Alstom. With two orders of 95 and 90 carriages respectively, an extra 150 will put us at 335/750. Those seem reasonable enough. I'd shift Tivoli a bit further west for ease of access from places such as Mayfield, but I'm looking at it from 2024 and not whatever Tivoli master plan is out there. Old Dunkettle is completely inaccessible nowadays and the North Esk yard is well-located for a Dunkettle park and ride. It would be a lot less work compared to draining the marsh and making that the car park, plus building an access road and bridge south of the roundabout. Rail freight's probably not coming back, so we're as well off using it for something. I'd place Tivoli slightly east of its original location, around the junction with the R635, but there's still two kilometres between one end and the other of the Tivoli docks. Ultimately, I just hope there's no Kishogue jobs!

The contract, worth €50 million, has been signed for design of the new stations, depot, and trains. The Examiner has a bit more detail than the Irish Rail press release, so I'll go off of that. Stations at Blarney (and Stoneview, which is north of the old station), Monard (plans from 2001 suggested Rathpeacon sidings, take with pinch of salt as the new town wasn't built), Kilbarry (at the old station), Tivoli, Dunkettle (on North Esk yard), Ballynoe, Carrigtwohill West, Water Rock. The article says five will be built immediately while the rest will be built with the houses, without specifying which stations will be delayed. The fleet will be up to 150 battery carriages, with charging points at the termini and depots. Aside from that, no wires. The depot location is also undetermined, with the Examiner article saying there are six candidates. RTE's report says there will be 30 five-car sets. The railway order application is planned for the end of 2025 and completion of works by 2030, subject to planning and funding, of course. Hopefully everything goes well.

I've been doing a bunch of research into these things mostly for my own curiosity as to what lines would be best to double-track or where would be a good place to lay more passing loops, and I figured I'd share my notes. Block distances were calculated via Johnson's Atlas and Gazetter's mileage. Timings taken from a random train on each route using Irish Rail's API or the Translink public timetable. Legend: Block length (miles/chains). Station code of the station/loop at the down end of the station (eg: Cork-Waterfall would have the hypothetical Waterfall code), or an abbreviation of similar length. Time to pass the block. Dwell time is factored out of the starting and ending stations in the South, but not in the North. Intermediate stations are assumed to be called at and their dwell time factored in. Trains each way using the section on an ordinary weekday. Sometimes they're unbalanced and I arbitrarily picked whether to use the up or down number. Friday onlys are excluded. Freight's presence will be acknowledged, but without specific numbers. 2x = Double track area. These are often simplified. Waterford: 12:29, 11:04, 10:12, 14:66, 14:77, 15:65 ATHY , CRLOW, MNEBG, KKNNY, BAHLE, WFORD 11:00, 11:00, 10:00, 17:00, 17:30, 24:00 10+F Cherryville Junction - Carlow 7+F Carlow - Waterford Athlone: 8:54 , 7:47 , 6:73 , 8:00 , 7:53 , 0:43 GSHIL, TMORE, CLARA, CYDNN, ATLNE, ATHMD 8:30 , 6:30 , 7:30 , 7:00 , 9:00 , 2:00 13+F at Portarlington 14+F Tullamore - Athlone 16+F Athlone - Mayo Junction Galway: 13:30, 10:03, 12:18, 12:77 BSLOE, WLAWN, ATHRY, GALWY 12:00, 8:30 , 10:30* 19:00 *The service used for these timings skipped Attymon, add in ~2 minutes to factor it in. 10 Mayo Junction - Athenry 17 Athenry - Galway Westport: 11:75, 6:19 , 16:44, 11:49, 11:78, 26:11 KGHRY, RSCMN, CSREA, BYHNS, CLMRS, WPORT 13:30, 6:30 , 16:30, 13:00, 13:30, 36:00 6+F Mayo Junction - Westport Ballina: 20:25 BALNA 27:00 9+F Manulla Junction - Ballina Ballybrophy: 10:04, 32:32, 10:10 RCREA, BHILL, KONAN 16:30, 55:30, 22:30 2 Ballybrophy - Nenagh 3 Nenagh - Killonan J Waterford and Limerick: 4:16 , 7:30 , 9:76 , 3:13 , 24:37, 28:00 KONAN, DRKEN, LLOOP, TIPRY, CLMEL, WFORD 7:00 , 6:30 , 8:30*, 12:30, 40:00, 50:30 2x *The passing loop isn't explicitly timed so I used the timing for signal LJ364 for this. No trains run straight through to Tipperary, slowing the timing for it. 30 depart from Limerick 21 Ennis Junction - Killonan Junction 19 Killonan Junction - Limerick Junction 2 Limerick Junction Direct Curve 17 Curve - Limerick Junction Platform 3 2 Limerick Junction - Waterford Tralee: 10:54, 8:26 , 6:37 , 14:32, 10:55, 10:17 BTEER, MLSRT, RMORE, KLRNY, FFORE, TRLEE 11:00, 9:00 , 8:30 18:00, 13:30* 16:00 *Five minutes spent reversing into Killarney Check factored out. 8 Mallow - Tralee Midleton: 2:60 , 3:38 CGTWL, MDLTN 4:00 , 7:00 31 Cobh Junction - Midelton Rosslare: 14:00, 4:65 , 11:15, 7:69 , 12:75, 10:40, 17:76, 15:14, 6:20 , 3:14 BRAY , GSTNS, WLOW , RDRUM, ARKLW, GOREY, ECRTY, WXFRD, RLSTD, RLEPT 40:30, 9:30 , 16:00, 13:00, 16:30, 12:30, 20:00, 20:30* 17:00, 5:00 2x *The loop in Wexford is passed 30 seconds before arriving in the station. Bray timings/mileage start from Pearse: add 5:30 for the mile to Connolly. 159 through Pearse 132 Pearse - Grand Canal Dock 105 Grand Canal Dock - Bray 38 Bray - Greystones 6 Greystones - Gorey 5 Gorey - Wexford 4 Wexford - Rosslare Harbour Sligo: 16:05, 11:32, 15:18, 8:39 , 17:35, 8:50 , 9:03 , 10:37, 8:51 , 27:63 MYNTH, ENFLD, KLCAN, MLGAR, ETOWN, LFORD, DRMOD, CKOSH, BOYLE, SLIGO 35:30, 15:50, 15:00, 9:30 , 17:00, 10:30, 12:00, 10:30* 12:30, 37:30 2x *Time for Carrick-on-Shannon is for the station. The loop is passed 1:30 later. 74 depart Connolly via GSWR dock line 11 depart Docklands via MGWR dock line 58 Glasnevin Junction - Clonsilla 47 Clonsilla - Maynooth 11 Maynooth - Mullingar 10 Mullingar - Longford 8 Longford - Sligo Limerick-Athenry: 24:51, 18:54, 18:21 ENNIS, GORT , ATHRY 39:00, 21:00, 28:00 9 Ennis Junction - Ennis 5 Ennis - Athenry Derry: 6:07 , 7:58 , 5:39 , 5:60 , 5:75 , 9:73 , 10:03, 8:24 , 13:16, 20:24 Mkstn, Tplpk, Antrm, Mgabg, Bmena, Klgan, Bmony, Clran, Belrn, Derry 9:00*, ( 14:00 ) ( 16:00 ) ( 27:00 ), 13:00, 17:00, 22:00 2x *Monkstown approximated with Mossley West timing. Intermediate passing loops don't appear on the NIR public timetables, so their timings have been merged with the nearest station. 89 departed Great Victoria Street (presumably will carry over to Grand Central on opening) 97 City Junction - Lanyon Place (Enterprises will soon leave this section) 107 Lanyon Place - Lagan Junction 55 Lagan Junction - Bleach Green Junction 19 Bleach Green Junction - Coleraine 16 Coleraine - Derry Larne: 7:64 , 2:15 , 4:53 , 4:52 SaltJ, Whthd, Mgmrn, LarnH 20:00* 4:00 , 8:00 , 11:00 2x *Bleach Green to Saltmines Junction approximated by starting two minutes after Whiteabbey departure and finishing halfway between Downshire and Whitehead. 36 Bleach Green Junction - Carrickfergus 32 Carrickfergus - Whitehead 18 Whitehead - Larne Town 15 Larne Town - Larne Harbour Portrush: 6:00 Ptrsh 14:00 18 Coleraine - Portrush For comprehensiveness's sake, I'll post my frequency tables for the double track lines, though I won't try to figure out capacity. Cork: 68 Heuston departures 94+F Islandbridge Junction - Hazelhatch 73+F Hazelhatch - Newbridge 61+F Newbridge - Kildare 60+F Kildare - Cherryville Junction 50+F Cherryville Junction - Portarlington 37 Portarlington - Portlaoise 19 Portlaoise - Thurles 20 Thurles - Limerick Junction 16 Limerick Junction - Mallow 31 Mallow - Killarney Junction 27 Killarney Junction - Cork Belfast: 133 northbound Connolly departures 84+F Howth Junction - Malahide 38+F Malahide - Drogheda 15 Drogheda - Dundalk 9 Dundalk - Newry 13 Newry - Portadown 46 Portadown - Lisburn 62 Lisburn - Central Junction 54 Central Junction - Great Victoria Street (Grand Central) 8 Central Junction - City Junction Howth: 49 Howth Junction - Howth M3: 24 Clonsilla - M3 Parkway Cobh: 62 Cork departures 31 Cobh Junction - Cobh Bangor: 52 Lagan Junction - Bangor So, that should be about everything that sees passenger trains. As far as goods are concerned, it's 18:02 miles from Drogheda to Tara Mines, 4:02 miles from Waterford to Belview, and 0:79 miles from North Strand Junction to the level crossing after North Wall along with 0:32 for the East Wall branch, all of which have 0 trains a day plus any freight. Statistics: The busiest single track sections are: Across Bray Head (38 each way), The approach to Whitehead (32 each way), The line to Midleton (31 each way), The NCC main line to Coleraine (19 each way), Limerick Junction to Killonan Junction (19 each way), The Portrush branch (18 each way), The Larne line from Whitehead to Larne Town (18 each way), Athenry to Galway (17 each way), The NCC main line to Derry (16 each way), and Tullamore to Athlone on the GSWR Athlone branch (14 each way, plus freight trains). Larne Town - Larne Harbour has 15, but no freight, so it gets an honourable mention. Single bridges worth noting: The Dargan Bridge in Belfast (55 each way), The White Bridge in Athlone (16 each way plus freight), The Boyne Viaduct in Drogheda (15 each way). The longest blocks (by length) are: Roscrea - Birdhill (32:32 miles, 55:30 minutes) Clonmel - Waterford (28:00 miles, 50:30 minutes) Boyle - Sligo (27:63 miles, 37:30 minutes) Claremorris - Westport (26:11 miles, 36 minutes) Limerick - Ennis (24:51 miles, 39 minutes) Tipperary - Clonmel (24:37 miles, 40 minutes) Manulla - Ballina (20:25 miles, 27 minutes) Bellarena - Derry (20:24 miles, 22 minutes) Ennis - Gort (18:54 miles, 21 minutes) Gort - Athenry (18:21 miles, 28 minutes) The longest blocks (by time) are: Roscrea - Birdhill (55:30 minutes, 32:32 miles) Clonmel - Waterford (50:30 minutes, 28:00 miles) Tipperary - Clonmel (40 minutes, 24:37 miles) Limerick - Ennis (39 minutes, 24:51 miles) Boyle - Sligo (37:30 minutes, 27:63 miles) Claremorris - Westport (36 minutes, 26:11 miles) Gort - Athenry (28 minutes, 18:21 miles) Manulla - Ballina (27 minutes, 20:25 miles) Ballyhale - Waterford (24 minutes, 15:65 miles) Birdhill - Killonan (23:30 minutes, 10:10 miles) Bellarena - Derry (22 minutes, 20:24 miles) Ennis - Gort (21 minutes, 18:54 miles) Enniscorthy - Wexford (20:30 minutes, 15:14 miles) Gorey - Enniscorthy (20 minutes, 17:76 miles) Athenry - Galway (19 minutes, 12:77 miles) An honourable mention to Wexford - Rosslare Strand, which requires 17 minutes for 6:20 miles, due to the 5mph speed restriction along the quays. To sum things up, there are a lot of line sections that would benefit from being doubled. Many timetabling difficulties would be resolved if Bray Head could be dealt with, but realistically it's not going to be feasible and the best we can hope for is to knock a few hundred metres off either side of the section. I don't know how feasible it is to smooth out Dargan Bridge either. Midleton doubling is approved, and hopefully Limerick Junction will follow suit soon. If the Western Railway Corridor is to be extended, Athenry-Galway needs to be doubled to handle Claremorris trains. Doubling the NCC main line to Antrim would help support any reinstatement of services on the Antrim branch and generally improve Derry intercities. Finally, doubling the Athlone branch would accelerate both Galway and Westport intercities and free up more space for Ballina liners and timber trains. In terms of block sections, Limerick - Ennis is the worst offender for a line with more than two trains a day each way. A loop in Sixmilebridge would go a long way. If the Nenagh Branch and the Waterford and Limerick beyond Limerick Junction ever get more than three services a day those blocks will need cutting, but will they? The Ballina Branch having no loop at all is also something I feel should be addressed; I'd place one at Foxford. Loops have a bit of a tendency to reduce in frequency the further away from Dublin the line gets: Sligo and Westport have it worst and could do with loops at Ballymote and Manulla, though perhaps a wiser investment may be to have a loop at about MP 33 to break Enfield - Killucan up instead to have more Longford trains. The DSER has plenty of long sections: placing a loop between Gorey and Enniscorthy (at Ferns if you wanted to add stations, or at the midpoint if you didn't) would eliminate the longest section. A loop somewhere between Greystones and Wicklow for commuter services would be useful too, terrain allowing. That should be about everything. Please let me know of any errors or omissions. or thoughts about which line should be the highest priority for upgrading and would give the most benefits.

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/limerick/news/location-of-new-limerick-train-station-revealed-by-iarnrod-eireann-next-stop-moyross/a1299465430.html The Independent reports a public enquiry on a station in Moyross has begun, and an area map has been provided. Irish Rail themselves have a page on their website with more information: https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/iarnrod-eireann-projects-and-investments/new-stations/moyross The most obvious thing to me (it's 3am so I might have missed something) is that it'll be built with one platform on a single-track line, though it says it'll be designed to allow a second to be added if the line gets doubled.

I can see myself in a couple of those photos! A great weekend out, and the weather was perfect for it. Yet the forecast said there'd be thunderstorms...

There is an NTA study from 2016 that generally makes for grim reading about the Irish Rail financials. I'm not sure where it's formally published, but some Wikipedia pages source it in outdated "it's very likely the Ballybrophy line will be closed by 2018 in order to save money" statements. The data's ten years old but I doubt things have gotten much better for the two worst offenders here, no thanks to their rubbish schedules. Link: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/151116_2016_Rail_Review_Report_Complete_Online.pdf (cropped from page 41)

So a single track railway needs places for trains to pass, and those places are usually the intermediate stations. This makes sense. Sometimes in order to better space things out, passing loops are located in closed railway stations or other places a passenger can't get out at. I understand this. What I don't understand are the cases where the passing loop is located in an operational station, yet the loop doesn't have a platform, rendering it useless to passenger service as the station has to be skipped. There's also cases where the loop is located slightly outside of the station, which doesn't prevent a call, but does result in a quick start and stop. To my knowledge, Enfield, Clara and Tipperary have loops but no corresponding platforms, while Carrick-on-Shannon, Wexford, and Magheramorne's loops are located just off of the platform. What benefit is there for this, especially in the former situation?