All Island Rail Review has been published – but will it hit the buffers?

Regional and rural interventions rail map from All Island Rail Review

Capacity enhancements and some new lines from the All Island Rail Review

Yes, I’m cynical. You can’t entirely blame me.

There is some great stuff in the All-Island Rail Review ^[1], published on Tuesday, including some blue sky thinking. The summary, with my annotations, is below.

Electrify remainder of Belfast-Dublin line, Belfast-Bangor, Dublin-Cork/Galway/Limerick/Waterford (both companies were already working on plans to abolish diesel traction, but NIR I think also intends to electrify the Larne, Portrush and Derry/Londonderry (hereafter referred to as Derry) lines)
Increase line speeed to 100mph (currently 90mph or less except the Cork line)
Hourly service to Cork (already there), Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford
Through trains Cork-Limerick-Galway with alterations at Limerick Junction (connection to Limerick line is currently only from the bay platform)
Direct trains Belfast-Portrush (happens during the summer, but there are capacity constraints on the branch)
Spur from Foynes line to Shannon Airport
Reopen Lisburn-Antrim with halt at Belfast International Airport [no Circle Line? – Ed] (Local commuter is apparently out of scope, but we’ll come back to that)

The work to reopen the Foynes line and proposal to reopen M3 Parkway-Navan Junction are noted.

New 125mph line Newry-Lisburn-Belfast (presumably using something like the alignment of Knockmore-Banbridge line then a new alignment to Newry, but that was not a fast line – but where do you put a new line from Lisburn to Belfast? Portadown is too constrained to start a new line there.)
New 125mph Drogheda-Clongriffin (pretty much somewhere between the R122 and M1 by the look of it) and four tracks Clongriffin-Connolly (where it counts)
Spur Dublin Airport-Clongriffin (Review specifically wants the direct connection to the mainline network rather than faffing around with MetroLink)
New cross-Dublin tunnel Spencer Dock-Heuston with DART and MetroLink connections (existing Connolly-Islandbridge line bypasses Heuston)
New connection Adamstown (Cork line) to Maynooth (Sligo line) to allow Sligo line trains to access Heuston bypassing the Maynooth local services
New 125mph line Hazelhatch (end of current 4 track section) to Portarlington
Double track Maynooth-Mullingar, Portarlington-Athlone, Mallow-Killarney, Athenry-Galway

New 100mph electrified double line Portadown-Omagh-Derry (diversions needed at Omagh and Strabane)
New single line Derry-Letterkenny (new alignment apparently via St Johnstone)
New stations Derry-Coleraine and spur to Limavady (branch line closed 1955)
Double track and new stations Belfast-Antrim (but not to Ballymena, which was double track until 1990)
New single line Portadown-Armagh-Monaghan-Clones-Cavan-Mullingar (original line joined the Sligo line at Inny Junction, between Multyfarnham and Mostrim/Edgeworthstown)
Reopen:
- Athlone-Mullingar (alas poor Midland greenway)
- Athenry-Tuam-Claremorris
- Waterford-south of Wexford (it’s called Rosslare but they also mention a direct connection such as the one from Felthouse Junction to Killinick Junction, closed in 1913)
A new curve at Limerick Junction for Cork-Waterford trains (should really have been provided in 1967 when the Mallow-Waterford line closed)
Additional capacity Limerick Junction-Waterford

Other things raised include freight charges, which are set (broadly) at cost, but which therefore have little hope of competing with roadfreight. Comparisons are made with New Zealand, which has a similar population but is three times the size, making freight more commercially viable. Catering or its lack is also raised – maybe if catering wasn’t at bar prices…

Little snippets which came up include that 125mph is the highest maximum speed which can be accommodated with conventional lineside signalling, although that overlooks the section of the East Coast Main Line which was equipped with flashing green signals some years ago to allow 140mph running. It also overlooks plans NIR would have had for European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) implementation over time.

The short term plans are not the most ambitious, but apart from the general 100mph speed restriction, which will not be achievable on much of the network without a lot of realignment, they essentially affirm plans that NIR and Iarnród Éireann already had.

The extended wishlist regional and rural developments list makes interesting reading. It isn’t specified which side of the Foyle a new line from Strabane-Derry would run, but if there’s to be a connection to Letterkenny (previously served by the Lough Swilly from Graving Dock and largely following the N13) and by the County Donegal from Strabane via Raphoe) presumably it would run via its original route to Foyle Road.

There are irritations from my own submission to the review. There is no consideration of extending the present line to Midleton to its original terminus in Youghal, which you would have thought was an easy win. There is the lack of ambition in the short term plans. Translink suggestions some years ago of reopening the Cookstown Junction-Magherafelt line are conspicuous by their absence. The poor service Limerick-Ballybrophy isn’t discussed. Commuter links such as Belfast-Newtownards are apparently out of scope so the Comber Greenway is safe.

As for the Circle Line – my thoughts are absolutely no secret ^[2]. I’ve had arguments with the proponents of the Circle Line, which last centred around the lack of capacity to add extra tracks between Lisburn and Bleach Green (summary of response: move York Road depot out of Belfast to make room, no matter the expense of finding a new site and adding extra driving time), but Arup, who will have received a submission on the subject, don’t even mention it. As I’ve said before, a train taking an hour to the Airport can’t compete with a bus taking 40 minutes, and as my video shows, there isn’t an easy path for a railway line into and out of the terminal.

I’m not old enough to be a buffer!

What we do have is political reality.

Supposing we have a functioning Executive, will they be able to prioritise a new railway line Newry-Belfast given the capital infrastructure deficit being built up, let alone reopening the Derry Road?

Should we really believe that the next Irish Government will prioritise this report? Once the Greens are no longer in Government, can we rely on FF, FG and SF to pick up the baton?

I would like to say yes, but my heart and my head both say don’t hold your breath.

They say if you build it [in the right place at the right time – Ed] they will come, and the example is given of the Borders Railway which was massively oversubscribed by passengers from day one, but that little addendum is the key part.

The story is told about the Cross-Harbour bridge that NIR management approached Direct Rule Ministers in the early 1990s with a business case that would have made the line from Yorkgate to Donegall Quay double track rather than single track with considerable benefits for the additional cost, but were essentially told “not a penny more regardless of benefits.” Original plans for future-proofing were cancelled as costs were reduced by making the piers fit only to carry single track. The Belfast-Dublin Enterprise is currently strangled by the National Transport Authority’s insistence on a DART every fifteen minutes to keep the Enterprise as slow as possible.

So you’ll excuse my cynicism, but this is going to need new political direction – and I’m less than convinced that all the ducks will fly into their places in the line.

Andy has a very wide range of interests including Christianity, Lego, transport, music, the Alliance Party, chess and computers. Anything can appear in a post.

Andy tweets at @andyboal

References

^{^} All-Island Rail Review (www.gov.ie)
^{^} absolutely no secret (www.youtube.com)