Phoenix Park Tunnel Photos
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It’s real and it exists…….. but no passengers use it… the direct way from Connolly to Heuston
Absolute madness in this day and age!
See the photos at:
http://groups.msn.com/IrishRailwayNews/themythexposedphoenixpark.msnw?albumlist=2
the platform11 site has good hot under the collar commentary on this:
My cousin is an engineer working for Iarnród Éireann at Heuston Station, they’ve just about completed the refurbishment of Heuston, relaying track etc, and are about to move down to Connolly …. anyway i got talking to him about the tunnel …
he says that apart from freight, it is used by passenger trains on private hire by big business etc. however, this is rare enough …
then I asked him why the bloody hell its not used to transport passengers from heuston to connolly …
According to him, capacity at Connolly is the problem…
It just cant take the increased passenger numbers, not enough platforms etc.
He is just about to be shifted down to Connolly with a large group of engineers to start work on remodelling the station, increasing the number of platforms and relaying track, he says that when the work is complete, a shuttle service between the two stations, via the tunnel, will commence, by 2005 approx …. has anyone else heard anything like this ?
how long is the tunnel in miles though? it seems like nobody cares about the poor tunnel, ah! i remember seeing it in a film years ago. i’d be afraid to enter it though on foot. it looks so dark with no light at the end, ha ha. if it does offer a really quick link to and from two main stations it should be used to help calm busy periods right now. i’d use it as a link if it were open to public use. it looks like a great way to start the metro system off???
Is the Connolly re-furbishing only limited to Connolly or will it extent to the Spencer dock area as well?
I was looking at the rail network on street maps the other day and one thing struck me.
How about a new tunnel under the Liffey from Spencer Dock to the Grand Canal basin area and eventually re-joining the main-line around the new Grand Canal station?
A very large scale project indeed, but imagine the implications, More platforms, more lines, more stations, re-route freight and non-stop mainline away from the loop line, etc., etc..
It may be impossible…..but one can only dream!!
In that case who not just put the DART undergorund from the Tolka to just beyond Pearse Street. Reopen the Phoenix tunnel and use the freed-up platforms at Connolly. Perhaps expand into the Docklands if more space is needed. Dismantle the Loop Line…. hurray! The sale of land currently used by rail lines would part fund the project.
Connolly DART is a disgrace anyway…. that long walk from Platform to exit is a joke. It would be much better develop an underground interchange for DART, LUAS and bus under Connolly and Busaras.
Originally posted by naz78
how long is the tunnel in miles though?757 yards.
Is the Connolly re-furbishing only limited to Connolly or will it extent to the Spencer dock area as well?
just limited to Connolly & facilitating the luas to pass through it, afaik.
To do all of the underground schemes above would be a logistical nightmare – you are talking about closing the line from Lansdowne Road to beyond Clontarf road for months. All nice aspirations but it aint going to happen I’m afraid. As Platform 11 says why not make better use of Platform 1 at Connolly – I know the last train to Drogheda goes from there on a Sunday night, so why not use it during the week for a shuttle to Heuston?
Better get that signalling sorted out first I suppose
One of the lowest frequencies mainlines in Europe with a station that would be handling at least twice as many arrivals as departures as is currently done if it was in any other European country. It a shambolic situation of bad management, unions that want more money for changing rosters and operating a timetable based on the Victorian rosters of the Great Northern Railway which is still used to this day for locomotive crew change over. On platforms three and four at Connolly the Rosslare trains (which should not cross the river) sits on the platform at rush hour for 40 minutes because this is how it has always been done and nobody has thought of changing it. When questioned about this Joe Magher of Irish Rail replied “we have first class timetable peopleâ€. The park tunnel as a limited shuttle route could start in the morning if the will was there. The capacity issue is red herring. Platform11 have finally nailed this crowd for what they are.
Fine Gael are again holding a Public meeting on the Phoenix Park rain link, this time concerning the feasibility of the Spencer Dock station in releation to the Phoenix Park rail link. Platform 11 will be there along with Denis Naughten.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday 23rd July at 8pm in the Oasis Centre [off Seville Place], Dublin 1.
I wonder will they have any CIE representation… surely the CIE Board must include some FG appointees?
Originally posted by StephenC
I wonder will they have any CIE representation… surely the CIE Board must include some FG appointees?Including the three CEOs of Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann, management and staff actually have a majority on the CIE BOard, hence nothing gets done.
Fine Gael caused the problems with the rail network by their policy decision in the mid 1980s that there would be no more investment in railways. They should be reminded of this (I might just attend to stir the pot!).
BTW, I have never voted for Fianna Fail in my life.
I don’t know where I came across this as it was while ago when I did but as far as I understand it, the tunnel is to narrow for modern day rolling stock and that is one of the principal reasons for not using it. Widening a tunnel is as expensive as build ing a new on apparently.
However I’m sure its not beyond CIE to design around this problem. Some narrower or shorter carriages might work. Even reduce it to one track and timetable the shuttles so they don’t pass in the tunnel.
Where does the tunnel emerge at Connolly at the moment?
Another ludicrous feature of Connolly is how you have to get off the Enterprise service at the far end of the station, walk the whole way down its massive platform, then all the way back up the other side to get the DART, also resulting in terrible congestion in the mornings.
I’m surprised the Victorians never built a footbridge or underpass, God knows all the work THEY undertook is the only saving grace of our network 160 years later.
Good point, Connolly is one rambling, filthy, poorly maintained junkyard. I mean if anyone there (namely management) took any pride in the Irish railways they would make an effort to bring this transport hub into tip-top shape.
Instead visitors view weeds, litter and a general defeated and broken down air about the place. It’s not too late lads, a railway station is always worth salvaging. Who is in charge of CIE for goodness sake, they just let the whole rail infrastruture fall apart.It’s very obviously a group of people who don’t give a fiddlers about cleaning and properly maintaining a station or do they ever travel on the DART and see the state of the platforms that weren’t erected so long ago and see all the rubbish on the line, under the platforms, on the platforms and indeed up the walls.
Blue – as far as I understand it, the tunnel is to narrow for modern day rolling stock and that is one of the principal reasons for not using it.
don’t think so blue, as i said a few posts back a cousin of mine is an engineer with IR working on the heuston refurbishment … he told me that the tunnel is wide enough to take modern day rolling stock and is at times used by privately hired trains as well as freight.
Originally posted by blue
I don’t know where I came across this as it was while ago when I did but as far as I understand it, the tunnel is to narrow for modern day rolling stock and that is one of the principal reasons for not using it. Widening a tunnel is as expensive as build ing a new on apparently.CIE inspired lies. The tunnel was built for Irish made coaches, which, with a wider gauge than the European gauge means that as modern stock on Irish Rail is actually built to the same width as European stock and then placed on wider bogies, modern day carriages are actually narrower than those that the tunnel was built for.
http://www.unison.ie/breakingnews/index.php3?ca=39&si=39417
TDs to visit disused Dublin rail track
07:58 Wednesday July 23rd 2003Members of the Oireachtas transport committee are due to visit the disused rail track under the Phoenix Park in Dublin today. The track connects Heuston and Connolly stations. The Oireachtas transport committee is examining the possibility of developing the line in an effort to encourage more commuters to use rail services.
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