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Unread 13-09-2012, 17:47   #36
James Howard
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Sligo Line
Posts: 1,115
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The Sligo line has no problems with 6-car sets as they lengthened all the platforms when doing the re-signalling about 5 years ago.

They reliably use 6 car 22Ks for the 0545 & 0700 up-trains and for the 1705 and 1905 down-trains. Very occasionally, the 0545 is made up of 2x3 cars but it is usually a 6 car unit. They use 3-car sets for the 0705 and 0905 down trains which probably gets them back in action for the 1100 and 1300 up trains. Beyond that I don't know.

For the last couple of days, the 1700 up-train (and presumably the 1305 down-train) has been a 22k but I only say it out of the corner of my eye as we blew through Killucan so I didn't notice how many cars. I'll try to keep an eye out this evening.

The big problem on the Sligo line is the very low traffic past Longford which makes 6 cars highly uneconomic. There would be a lot of merit in the idea of using more 3 car trains and doubling up on the frequency to Longford, but there really aren't enough crossing points between Maynooth and Mullingar to support this. Still an 8-car 29k has to be even less economic than a 6-car 22k particular when it is doing the 17:00 from Sligo with about 50 passengers.
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