It is now official – Irish Rail has announced plans for the extension of DART to Kilcock.
The background to this was the DART+WEST plan to extend the DART to Maynooth. When planning this, Irish Rail had originally planned to build a depot between Maynooth and Kilcock albeit closer to the latter than the former (I cynically suggested in a Letter to the Editor of the Liffey Champion that the townland where the depot was to be located under this plan be renamed “OneMileShort” as the depot (and associated overhead electrification) was 1 mile short of Kilcock).
An Bord Pleannala, as the relevant planning authority, approved the extension of DART to Maynooth but not the depot due its location on a flood plain. This effectively put the plan to extend the DART to Maynooth in abeyance as without a depot to store the new rolling stock, no service could operate.
When the ABP decision was announced, I suspected that the outcome would have to be a depot west of Kilcock as any location east of Kilcock/Maynooth would, if such existed, already have been selected by Irish Rail when planning DART+WEST. In addition, the further west you go, in theory, the cheaper the land should get.
The new proposals, which are now out for public consultation, include double tracking the line from Maynooth to the new depot site immediately adjacent to the Musgraves depot. It will also include retaining the existing town station but extending the existing platform towards Maynooth and adding a second platform. This will, however, see the canoe club building on the canal relocated.
Due to the presence of the architecturally significant 5 arch Jacksons Bridge, it is proposed to build a new section of line to the south of the existing railway to allow for electrification (the track here was originally double – spacing for double track is not the issue, which is insufficient clearance for overhead electrification).