Irish Intercity

[theageofthetra]

Was just catching up on Portillo's Irish series. It has been some 6-7 years since I used to travel to Ireland on business and the trains seemed to have become all smart and modern! What did surprise me was that they still have stuck with an off the shelf freight loco, carriages and some kind of DVT. Does this DVT ( which in the shots appeared to not have passenger accomodation) have the Gen set in it for lights aircon etc? I remember well the old trains with a freight loco, generator van and Met Cam stock.

 

[GM078]

The Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Belfast services are 201 class locos and pushpull sets, all other passenger services are railcar operated.

The Dublin-Cork services use 2005 vintage CAF built mkIV sets (no relation to BR mk4), the DVTs on these also contain the generator equipment.

The Dublin-Belfast "Enterprise" services use 1996 built Die Dietrich sets, half of this fleet is owned by NIR. In the case of the Die Dietrich sets the control car doesn't have generator equipment but 1st class seating. Up until very recently power supply was from the loco, which resulted in reliability problems (the Head End Power on the 201s is not suited to a service which stops roughly half an hour). To combat this IÉ have recently adapted some of its former mkIII generator vans for use with the Die Dietrich sets, although this isn't 100% implemented yet. The mkIII vans became redundant after the rest of the mkIII fleet was withdrawn.

The 201s themselves are a custom Irish order dating back to 1994/5 though related to the 59s and 66s (body profile is quite different).

Some info here, wikipedia is also good
http://www.irishrail.ie/index.jsp?p=123&n=209
http://www.irishrail.ie/index.jsp?p=123&n=212 (locomotives)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching_stock_of_Ireland

The older 071 class which you may have seen on passenger duties are now used on freight and pw duties, apart from the odd railtour. All non-pushpull rolling stock is withdrawn, the majority of the mkIIIs are stored awaiting disposal, the mkIIds were cut up in 2007/8, with the RPSI preserving three. The distinctive Cravens were withdrawn in 2006, the RPSI has a rake of these preserved for Dublin based excursions.

 

[theageofthetra]

Thanks for the info. The new trains certainly looked very nice, have track speeds increased as a result of
what looked like considerable investment since I last visited?

 

[IR-Mark4/ICR]

Thanks for the info. The new trains certainly looked very nice, have track speeds increased as a result of
what looked like considerable investment since I last visited?

Yes most of Cork route now 100mph and a considerable amount of Waterford route recently increased from 80 to 100. Most of Galway route now 90-100 up from 80. Tralee, Westport and Limerick benefit from Cork and Galway increases.

Waterford services 1h50m to 2h15 max most 2h10, 15 minutes reduction in journey time for most services.
Cork services 2h30-35m average, 10-15 minutes reduction on journey times.
Galway servies 2h10m-2h-25, 10-15 minutes reduction on journey times.
Limerick servies 2h15m, 10-15 minutes reduction on journey times,

 

[jamesontheroad]

Although as has been discussed at length elsewhere, most of the above improvements have come at the expense of both locomotive haulage and regional lines: Waterford to Rosslare has closed, and the network is largely a radial one in and out of Dublin.

The new railcars (Irish terminology for DMU) are pretty good, but pretty soulless. The IE 22000 is a much a better attempt at a true intercity DMU than anything in the UK today (almost every seat lines up with a window!) although there are no appreciable amenities like a buffet.

Furthermore, while there have been huge improvements on the railways, there have always been huge improvements to the road system, and intercity buses are gradually being deregulated, so it's difficult for the train to compete against really low cost buses from the links of Aircoach (now owned by First Group), Irish Citylink and a host of smaller regional operators.

 

[IR-Mark4/ICR]

Although as has been discussed at length elsewhere, most of the above improvements have come at the expense of both locomotive haulage and regional lines: Waterford to Rosslare has closed, and the network is largely a radial one in and out of Dublin.

The new railcars (Irish terminology for DMU) are pretty good, but pretty soulless. The IE 22000 is a much a better attempt at a true intercity DMU than anything in the UK today (almost every seat lines up with a window!) although there are no appreciable amenities like a buffet.

Furthermore, while there have been huge improvements on the railways, there have always been huge improvements to the road system, and intercity buses are gradually being deregulated, so it's difficult for the train to compete against really low cost buses from the links of Aircoach (now owned by First Group), Irish Citylink and a host of smaller regional operators.

There is a Buffet on some of the ICR, now the peak services have full meal service and while the "so called" first class offering is being upgraded its still noting special.

Roads and coaches have improved but something that people don't know is that Aircoach are deep in the red and citylink are scaling back there Galway-Dublin services with affect from now. GoBE service to Cork is carrying single digit loads, bus operators will not be able to sustain these services long term.