Thomas J Stamp: The place that's most central to the Heuston/Intercity network is Heuston itself, or Heuston/Inchicore. Most trainsets either end their day there, or visit on a turn-around, which facilitates swapping with a newly-serviced set. Portlaoise is much less efficient as a location. If, say you want to get a 22k to Limerick after servicing, you have to either run it empty directly from Portlaoise or run it (quite probably empty) into Heuston to form a Limerick service, and then there is the reverse move with the set it has replaced.
Another bad Celtic Tiger legacy.
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