Berneyarms - what is the compromise ? The timetable is shaped entirely around the requirements of a ten minute interval DART which despite the clever crafting of the timetable will probably prove impractical to deliver. A simple double track railway can support a frequent service of fast trains, a frequent service of slow trains or a modest frequency of fast and slow trains. I can see no overwhelming case for a high frequency DART service delivered at the cost of a further incremental degrading of Intercity and longer distance commuter services.
On the northern line DART carries less than 60% of passengers proceeding beyond East Wall Junction yet under this timetable will account for close to 80% of train movements. This percentage of traffic attributable to DART drops off rapidly so that by Raheny the proportion carried by DART is less than that on other services. The obvious pattern of service would appear to be a Belfast express followed immediately by an express suburban service to Malahide and beyond followed by a DART. This pattern could be repeated every 15 minutes with or without the Belfast and or fast commuter service.
The main issue with DART is the gratuitous over crowding of peak trains despite lines of idle rolling stock in Fairview. While there is an increase in frequency of southside peak services, the number of peak DART services on the northern line is unchanged although they are a bit better balanced.
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