Its been 70mph through Ballybrophy as long as the records I have, at least going back to 1994, all the track and points have been replaced so we are left with either a signaling restriction or some form of restricted clearance issue. I have the signaling diagrams buried somewhere which could reveal the true reason.
The revised Limerick Junction costs 400,000 euro less a year to operate in signalperson costs alone. It was life expired and required replacement on safety grounds. There were several incidents there in the past due the track condition and large parts of the station were signed out of use on safety grounds. The design specification is for 80mph the same as the mid 1980's.
The safety regime has tightened up significantly which means restrictions are heavily enforced, and cascade restrictions are in place on all major speed
restictions.
The hourly Dublin Cork service combined with the fact all trains now run at 100 mph when in the past it was less than half really eats the track which means there is now a large backlog of works needed.
2:35 with 3 stops should be the target in the short term, that should be delieverable by end of 2011 once the current phase of works Kildare - Hazelhatch, Lisduff and Portlaoise are completed. There are major inconsistencies in the times taken for a journey with some trains making similar numbers of stops being up to 15 minutes slower than the fastest.
Its fairly easy add a platform at Limerick Junction but the best solution is more direct trains to Limerick which would reduce the number of stops at Limerick Junc
The best time non stop possible would be 2:05 allowing 5 minutes recovery which would fit with Irish Rail's proposed 2:20 with limited stops. This is the fastest proposed 100 mph running time and faster than that previously suggested.
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