Category: Western Suburban

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IH News 2024 Western Suburban

Bring back the Dublin & Blessington tram

Local politics is always a goldmine for crazy suggestions that will never see the light of day. This call, reported on the Kildare Now website is no exception, with a councillor calling for the LUAS to be extended to Blessington, Co. Wicklow.

I would suggest a far better use of State resources would be a 3km extension of the DART+ WEST plan from the depot at One Mile Short to a new station west of Kilcock, near to the Musgraves depot, where this would also serve as a park & ride for car traffic off the M4.

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Western Suburban

DART style service for Cork

Breakingnews.ie reports on the Taoiseach promising a “DART style” service for Cork within a decade.

Leaving aside the semantics of the statement (I suspect that this is akin to Irish Rail’s attempt many decades ago to brand the entire Dublin Area commuter service as DART, notwithstanding that most of it was/is unelectrified), I wonder will the DART be extended to Kilcock in a similar timeframe.

A 3km extension of OHLE from the proposed depot at One Mile Short to a new station adjacent to the Musgrave depot west of Kilcock would fulfil multiple environmental objectives.

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Site Updates Western Suburban

Western Suburban railway services

Irish Rail are currently seeking approval for a Railway Order to extend the DART to Maynooth or, more correctly, to 1 mile short of Kilcock.

For the uninitiated, the depot location included in this proposal is, for all intents and purposes, in Kilcock, being 1 mile short of the present Kilcock station. In fact, part of the plans for the depot include an emergency access onto Connaught Street in Kilcock, yet Irish Rail have been referring to this depot as the “Maynooth Depot” (having said that, in the actual Railway Order material online, the term “Depot” is used and not “Maynooth Depot”).

I have created this category, both to allow for posts about the progress of this project, construction updates (if authorised) and to advocate for service improvements to Kilcock and Enfield.