Richards
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IE ‘s current rail fleet ranges from the MK 2 carrages which orginate from between 1966 and the mid 70’s. These can been seen on the Dublin Sligo and to a lesser extent on the Dublin – Galway services. These carrages will probebly be phased out within the next 2 years.
The rolling stock which is predomantly used out of Heuston to services in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford & Westport are MK 3 Carrages (British Rail designed). These were built between 1980 and 1980 and are still very much in use. These will be kept and will either be used on the Dublin – Sligo line or will be used as spares or for running special services (such as bank holidays or All Ireland Finals etc). These are currently the fastest of the IE rolling stock and (track permitting) allowed for use of 100 mph.
The biggest change of the IE Intercity timetable will be the introduction of clock face train services. Dublin Cork will get an hourly servi ce, while Galway, Limerick & Waterford will get a 2 hourly service. (See IE web site for more). IE are moving more to rail cars or push pull sets. This will enable a quicker turnaround at each station where the service termanates. In a nutshell, IE by 2009 will have replaced 90% of their intercity carrages and will have a relatively new fleet. I only hope the irish public will treat the new carrages with respect.
The Enterprise services on the Dublin Belfast line operate the same carrages that exist on the Euro Star service. However they have not aged well (just plain dirty and grotty) considering they are younger that the Euro Star rolling stock.
All in all, it is good that rail transportation in Ireland is finally getting the investment it requires.
With relation to the “Old” DART carrages. They are around since 1983 and have a build life span of 40 years. I might also add that all the “Old” DART carrages are going to Germany to get completely rebuilt and refitted. The orginal seating plan will remain however. – I pefer the old DARTS they just seem more comfortable and have more seats.
I think when rail rolling stock costs in excess of 2 million euro per carrage, I would hope that they would be around for a while.
Given an option between a car (including the cost of running one) and a bicycle, I am sure that a Chinese student would go for the car option!
Great Photos. That whole area around St Stephens Green West has completely changed over the last 20 odd years or so. In the attempt to “Clean Up” the area I have not seen more boring corporate architecture in Dublin. Give us some well designed Social Urban living space and try to increase the local population.
Does this fit in with the idea of Aer Lingus being a budget airline? Airlines need to focus on the idea of flying people around efficiently not building nice head offices.
In fairness to DCC, the reason the traffic lights are so ‘Pedestrian Frendly’ is due to the fact that this facilates traffic from St Stephens Green thru to Merrion Row. Since the Luas arrived all this thru traffic must make its way down Dawson st, turn right on to Molesworth St and turn right again on to Kildare st. The traffic lights facilate the larger volumes of traffic on Molesworth st wishing to turn right on to Kildare st.
I would imagine that some kind of kerb or bollard would be required to seperate cyclelanes and general traffic.
Because Dublin City Centre is one big complex of one-way streets all controled by Traffic Lights it is almost imposable to put in place comphrensive 2-way cycle lanes. This would require an expensive rethink on how traffic flows thru Dublin.
I am not so sure that the so called cycle frendly Owen Keegan would be prepared to accept such radical change since the cost could be quite large and every lobby group such as ibec, truckers, Dublin Bus etc are all asking for better traffic flows, no tolling, bus lane usage etc.
I do think the idea of a kind of cycle czar would be a good idea for Dublin. – A good first step
Black spots for cyclists in Dublin
South Quays
North Quays
D’Olier / College Street / Westmoreland Street Axis
North Strand Road (esp at Canal Bridge)
Cycle Land from Finglas (going towards town – v steep downhill shared with footpath)
O Connell Street
Wexford Street (v narrow with parked cars)
Stephens Green East (parked cars always reversing trying to get out)
And thats just for starters!The capital gains as Leeside loses 50pc of its pubs (from todays Indo)
THE long-running rivalry between Dublin and Cork took a new twist yesterday when it emerged that the capital is taking pubs from the southern city.
Dublin’s booming hotel, pub and off-licence sector has been achieved by a haemhorraging of drink licences out of other areas, particularly in Cork.
The law whereby one pub licence must be “extinguished” before another pub or hotel bar can be opened has led to a situation where the number of pubs in Cork city has dropped by over 50pc in the past 20 years.
Cork city currently has an estimated 250 pubs – down from around 400 in the mid-1980s. The decline in pub numbers is even more stark in Cork county, where an estimated 1,000 pubs now remain – down from between 1,800 and 2,000 pubs just 20 years ago.
Rural parts of Waterford, Tipperary and Limerick have also been affected as Dublin’s pub boom continues.
Con Dennehy, former chief of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland in Cork, said that while pub numbers have declined in all parts of Ireland, Leeside has been particularly badly hit.
“It really has been the end of an era here in Cork. Parts of the city that would historically have had a dozen or so pubs now have possibly one or two left. Some areas have none at all.”
The closure of pubs – and the transfer of their licences to hotels, off-licences and pubs in Dublin – has been particularly acute over the past decade.
“I suppose it was a simple question of economics – Dublin was offering great money for licences and it was increasingly difficult for small family pubs to maintain profitable operations in Cork city centre,” Mr Dennehy said.
The Dennehy family pub, established on Cork’s Coal Quay in 1956, once competed alongside 12 other premises, but by the mid-1990s, Coal Quay was left with just Dennehy’s, though two new premises have since opened.
Some parts of the city now have no pubs. The famous Lavitt’s Quay district, adjacent to Cork Opera House and various restaurants, once boasted five successful premises. Now it has just one.
Even on famous “drinking” streets, such as Shandon Street and Barrack Street, pressure on pub numbers has inexorably led to the closure of premises.
“I’d say that the number of pubs in the city has declined by between 30pc and 50pc over the past two decades, and the simple fact is that most of those licenses have gone to so-called “superpubs” in Dublin or off-licenses,” Mr Dennehy said.
Yet, while Cork’s pub numbers have plummeted, the total square footage of licensed premises has actually increased as the small, family-owned pubs have been replaced with large modern pubs.
Ralph Riegel
I am sick of the OBC Network idea. Loads of money has been spend over the last few years on the design and engineering of QBCs. Meanwhile no extra buses have been provided on may of the new QBCs’.
Take for example, the Rathfarnham Extension QBC was built in 2004 at the cost of 500,000 euro. This consisted of a set of traffic lights at the junction of the Yellow House Pub and a bus lane that runs of aprox 0.5 km. What’s more, the bus lane is located on the part of Ballyboden road where there are never any traffic jams. Only when the road approaches Rathfarnham is there a build up of traffic – hence no bus lane. Added to this is the bus lane is only operational between 07:00hrs and 09:30 hrs. The only bus which uses this Road is the 15c. Looking at the bus time table, only 3 buses are scheduled to run on this route during this time. Madness. Oh by the way, the traffic lights delay general traffic all day.
There is more of this QBC madness happing at various spots throughout Dublin (including Pearse St). The Nangor Road (better known as the South Clondalkin QBC) is another mad over engineered traffic light streak of misery. Double the number of traffic lights, get rid of any free flowing round-a-bouts and put in a half continuous bus lane, ensuring that any time gained by any bus is lost while trying to merge back into the general stream of traffic. And this wonderful piece of infrastructure has been 2 years in the making. When finished, bus journeys will certainly be a little faster, but car journeys will be hell.
Dublin Bus as of yet are unable to provide any additional buses at present for this route.
The OBC’s are held up as a major success by Eoin Keegan and the boys in DCC. Yes, the 46 A bus route was an outstanding success. The reason for this was the frequency and why was it frequent. It goes through some of the most affluent parts of Dublin. Certainly other QBC’s don’t to seem to be of the standard of the 46A route. The Rathfarnham QBC still crawls along.
My point is that lots of money is being thrown an QBCs yet very little return is being provided. The cost is additional travel times / stress / for car users yet there would appear to be very marginal gain to bus users. Would this money be better spent?Its mad.
DCC plan (sorry are in process of) reducing the number of traffic lanes on Pearse Street from 3 to 2. As there is allready a bus lane, it is proposed to place a cycle track instead.Connolly Station which received a major re-vamp some 6 years ago looks the worst for ware. The tiles are in terreble nick and are also dirty. All the walls are dirty and painted in that “Battleship Grey” paint. The render is also very basic and unimaginative. In any other country, a major city centre train station which had a restoration / upgrade six years ago would still be gleeming. Comeone IE, Clean the place
Like it or not, I think it is better to widen the N7 (Naas Road) and upgrade junctions as planned. The cost of providing a new 4 or 6 lane highway close to Dublin would be huge and undesireable from an enviromental aspect. The new planned motorways to Limerick, Cork and Waterford will all merge on the N7/M7 and eventually end at Newlands Cross. Are there any plans to place a flyover at this junction?
The Naas Road (N7) is being upgraded to 3 lanes either direction from Rathcoole to Naas and all juctions being replaced with flyovers, graded juctions and the removal of traffic lights. However, when finished, it will not be classed as a motorway because there is no alternative road or non motorway serving the route. As some one who drives on this road the odd time, this change should be welcomed as the Naas Road has been dangerous for many years.
