DoctorPan

Do you have any idea where? Haven't come across such a press release anywhere in the usual and unusual places.

Updated requirements and the information being out dated.

Platform 10 will become part of the new Heuston West station.

https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/316119 And the grapevine has borne fruit. South West has it's Railway Order!

Word on the grapevine is that ABP has granted DART+SouthWest it's Railway Order and should be made public today.

Speaking to Paddy, these aren't a solo project, Alstrom have asked him and provided CAD and the sort to help him produce this, hence why a 3D sample model of a full set appeared before real thing!

Tender award for the project and announcement for the winners is due to be made public shortly.

Winners of the recent Navan Line tender are due to be officially announced in the short term future, two main options to be invesitgated, the old D&M alignment or a diverision to bring it closer to Dunshaughlin. In fairness to the NTA, it's not for lack of interest in building railways. Indeed Marcello the head of rail is very eager to push projects through and get shovels in the ground. Indeed he has butted heads with IÉ over they wanting to run services to suit the infrastructure while he wants IÉ to be looking to put the infrastructure in to support the desired services. The NTA of old was more interested in buses but since the change in personal there's a big change coming from their side of the field. It is the departments of finance and public expenditure that are pumping the breaks on projects and requesting increasing levels of reports to show financial benefits as the OPW debacale has spooked the civil service into being afraid of signing off on infrastructure. Cycle lanes are smaller and nimble projects that don't have to go through the same level of regulatorly financial red tape. It's also should be noted that rail infrastructure investment is new again to the island and the industry has taken time to get to grips with delivering these projects but there's been a lot of background enabling works going on that are starting to come on stream which will speed up other projects.

Mine arrived and paid for, including the BnT van. Very much looking forward to this order.

The talk addressed that. Currently 3% of the network is electrified. They could spend the money retrofitting the existing DART network to 25kV AC or use it to expand the electrification corridor. Makes sense to decarbonise more of the network. They do plan to retrofit 25kV AC along the DART corridor eventually and indeed, I can easily see the next gen of DART units being designed to be dual voltage to allow a phased switch over.

The timing of this report has nothing to do with an election. It's been held up for nearly two years because Stormont had no sitting government.

As someone who works in the industry and indeed in a former life worked for Arup, the writers of the report, this is a change in policy from the Department of Transport, Finance and Public Expenditure. Ryan has pushed hard for a lot of behind the scenes changes in the departments and civil service and this is the result of it. All proposals in this report apparently have a benefits to cost ratio of 1:1 so they believe they will break even at minimum. A second factor that pushes the cost of these down is that it may be cheaper to build these then pay the fines to Europe for the breach of carbon emission limits. Thirdly, the European Investment Bank is involved to make monies available for this and indeed reviewing the plan to see which aspects can be deliveried quickly and most bang for buck. And finally another factor is this is being approached as how the motorway network was built in the 2000s and the investment that got. There's a load of movement and growth within the rail industry, hell Irish Rail and private consultants are constantly hiring engineering staff for rail projects.

Hazelhatch had two options considered and both were rejected for flood risk as well plus requiring removal of housing. There's not many locations within the existing study areas that fit the bill. Interesting times ahead.

A new depot location will have to be found. Considering its less than 24 hours since the announcment and ruling, I'm sure a review for a suitable site will occur. And yes a dedicated depot is required. Maynooth was intended to be the EMU version of Laois Train Care with Fairview becoming a stabling point and Drogheda acting as depot outpost. The question now is where can they find a 2km long site for their requirements.

Navan is currently out to tender for Phases 1 & 2, which does include OHLE design.

Yeah it's a Hornby James chassis and tender as its starting point.

Nicky Cox of Erritt Lodge Works on FB did a model of 461 using a James chassis and tender as a foundation.

https://www.atkinsrealis.com/en/media/trade-releases/2024/2024-01-22#:~:text=AtkinsRéalis will develop station location,the Limerick to Ennis Line. Few projects on the go mentioned there along with the Limerick Double Track project aslo.

Indeed the inspiration behind my batch as a lock down project!

Ratio coaches look close enough for turf coaches considering how battered the prototypes looked.

If members in the Laois/Offaly area are talking about BnM preservation, I would suggest making contact with the Stradbally Woodland Railway as they have a collection of ex BnM rolling stock and it would be better to pool resources then attempting a solo run. Séan Cain is involved there and is quite the expert on BnM.

Currently at Wicklow being towed home by 082

That's not the findings of the hydrolocial engineers that wrote the 2020 RPS as Ballycar Lough and the surrounding loughs contribute to flooding in the region and to solve one, you need to solve the other.

The proposed solution is a full flood relief scheme and drainage design for the region. Rasing the embankment only kicks the can down the road and leaves it open to flooding during 1 in 100 year floods, which is no bueno these days.

Indeed that is the rationale behind how DART+ and Bus Connects programmes are being ran, DART+ is spilt up between West (covering Maynooth and M3 Parkway electrification), South West (Hazelhatch and PPT), Coastal North (Drogheda), Coastal South (Southern line upgrades), BEMU (installation of charging equipment at Drogheda to allow the first batch of the new fleet to start operating in advance of infrastructure), Depot (the new depot at Kilcock), Underground (which will commence once the rest of the DART+ programme is complete) and Fleet, (the 750 new EMU fleet). Bus Connects is spilt between the network changes and corrdior upgrades, of which the corridors are spilit into 11 independenant corridors. What means is that items that would be conterversial (i.e Merrion Gates) won't derail the entire project upgrades and each project helps the others along. The EMUs are coming so the depot needs to be done and the depot needs the corridor electrified so West needs to be done. The last thing politicians want is the uncomfortable sight of brand new trains sitting up unable to be used. The current drive is giving the network upgrades that should have happened over the last 40 years, expansion of electrification, expansion of the commuter services in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, new signalling role outs, northern line quad tracking, closure of level crossings, Ennis line capacity upgrades. These are all upgrades that need to be done before we look at expanding the network as it stands currently, it can't handle what is expected of it now, let alone provide any expansions. I would err against empowering local authorities against transportation. The likes of Maxoil Flynn, Lacey, Galway and Cork City councils are clear examples of talking both sides of their mouths but will come down against any changes to the car status quo. The NTA has been the game changer from an industry POV. It's not prefect but now independent body to the likes of Dublin Bus, Irish Rail and the Councils has been driving change in public transport and slowly dragging Ireland into the 21st century.