Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson
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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Mark,
You are correct about Ballybrophy, speed limit was actually 60mph until about 1986 then raised to 70mph (not 80 mph as I thought) following installation of CWR on hardwood sleepers. In my book it is extremely disappointing that despite a hugely expensive and comprehensive relay in the last few years, the line limit remains a very conservative 70 mph.
As regards Dublin/Cork timings, the fastest services offered in the 1990s were actually scheduled to complete the journey in 2hrs-17 mins. For years the non-stop journey time between Dublin and Thurles was 69 minutes - this was achieved with no less reliabity than the current 78 minutes.
Taking 1993 as an example the 0730 to Cork made 4 stops - Portlaoise, Thurles, Limerick Junction and Mallow and arrived in Cork at 1005. The present 0700 makes the same stops but is not scheduled to arrive in Cork until 0950.
In 1993 there wa no 100mph running, the speed limit through the Curragh was 70 mph, the speed limit through Portarlington was 60 mph, there was an 80 mph speed limit at Coolowley, Grange and Emly level crossings. In addition the maximum speed between Killarney Junction and Cork was
65mph. These timings were achieved with 071 class locomotives hauling up to nine Mk3 coaches versus today's more powerful 201 class locomotives hauling/pushing a maximum of 8 Mk3 coaches.
Also we have been here before. The 1993 Operation program for Transport promised the following journey times to be achieved by the bracketed dates. The best scheduled times shown are the fastest achieved in one or both directions on the routes concerned since 1971.
Dublin/Belfast 1hr-35 mins (1996), best scheduled 1hr-45 mins in 1999/2000
Dublin/Cork 2hr-15 mins (1996), best scheduled 2hr-17 mins in 1999/2000
Dublin/Limerick 1hr-50 mins (1996), best scheduled 1hr-58 mins in 1998/1999
Dublin/Tralee 3hr-15 mins (1999), best achieved 3hr-35 mins in 1988/89
Dublin/Waterford 1hr-50 mins (1998), best achieved 2hr-00 mins (Current)
Dublin/Westport 3hr-10 mins (1999), best achieved 3hr-17 mins in 2004/5
Dublin/Galway 2hr-15 mins (1999), best achieved 2hr-15 mins (Current)
Incidentally the much maligned Nenagh line hosted a service from Limerick in 1988/89 at 0810 arriving in Heuston at 1035 serving Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan, Roscrea, Ballybrophy and Portlaoise. Running time from Portlaoise was 45 minutes for this service - fastest today is 51 minutes on a massively upgraded infrastructure with 100 mph maximum speed over a significant portion of the line, 80 mph through Portarlington and the Curragh, new signalling, improved fencing and virtually no accommodation crossings.
I would be more impressed if Irish Rail leveraged investment already made and smartened up it operations, removed gratuitous timetable conflicts, replaced unnecessary self serving timetable padding with modest recovery times, reduced station dwell times and took advantage of the high performance (rapid acceleration and braking) of its current Intercity fleets. Further investment might then be appropriate based on proven performance rather than yet more potenially hollow promises.