Stations 95 | Status Operational Services 6 | |
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Locale Greater Dublin AreaCork | ||
Commuter is a brand of suburban rail services operated by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland, serving the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. This brand is distinct from the longer distance InterCity brand, and Dublin's higher frequency DART brand. Most Commuter services share track with Intercity services. During the first decade of the new millennium, Iarnród Éireann has put a significant amount of effort into upgrading its network, with new tracks, signalling, station upgrades and trains. Commuter services are operated by diesel multiple unit train sets.
Contents
Arrow
The brand was introduced in 1994 as 'Arrow', the first specific branding for diesel suburban services, with the launch of the Arrow brand on the newly opened Kildare line. This brand was applied to stations on the line, as well as the 2600 Class railcars. It was also applied to the 2700 Class and 2800 Class railcars upon their introduction (however in the case of the latter, it was removed shortly after their introduction into service and replaced with the National Development Plan logo). Thus the Arrow brand became the first major branding for suburban railway services in Dublin (officially, its use remained limited to the Kildare line, but Arrow branded or liveried trains were used on most suburban services).
Commuter
In 2003, the Arrow brand was renamed 'Commuter', upon the introduction of the 29000 Class railcars and has since been extended to the entire suburban railcar fleet. It is also used in some signage and advertising, giving the diesel commuter networks a consistent look for the first time. The Dublin railway system is now called "DART/Commuter" in line with the new brand, with the former Arrow brand having been completely phased out by 2007.
Rolling stock
In March 2007, IÉ placed an order for five additional 6-car 22000 Class DMU sets, totalling €79 million, to be added to its initial order of 150 cars. These additional trains will be used on the outer Dublin suburban network to destinations including Portlaoise, Carlow and Athlone. A further order for an additional 51 cars, formed into 17 three-car units and totalling €140 million, was made in March 2009, for use to other suburban destinations, including Dundalk, Kildare, Longford and Navan.
In July 2007, IÉ announced that it was in the process of placing orders for a further 400 carriages. The bulk of these (up to 250 cars) were intended as EMUs for the expansion of the DART services following completion of the DART Underground. This project was cancelled in 2009.
The remainder, totalling up to 150 cars, consisted of DMU sets for the expansion of Commuter services in Cork and Limerick, as well as the long-distance Commuter sets for services in Leinster. These sets were introduced into revenue service from 2009 until April 2012, when the final deliveries took place.
Broadstone Station
In June 2007, Irish Rail announced plans to reopen the old Dublin Broadstone station to serve as a new terminal station. It was planned to use this as the terminus for the planned line to Navan and, with certain realignment of the lines to the west of Dublin, as an alternate terminus for other services from Maynooth and the reopened Athlone-Mullingar line, relieving the congestion into Connolly and Heuston stations. Under IÉ's plans, Broadstone was to be reopened by 2010. However, the Railway Procurement Agency also intended to use the lands at Broadstone for part of its Luas project. On 5 February 2008 Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Transport, indicated his preference for the Luas project over the re-opening of Broadstone for heavy rail. To compensate for the loss of this potential terminus, which IÉ maintained was needed to reduce the congestion on Connolly and Heuston, the Government has stated it will allow a new application for planning permission to keep Docklands open permanently. Broadstone Station, along with the former alignment to Liffey Junction, is to be used by the Luas Cross City which is expected to be completed in late 2017.
Rebranding
In 2010 the 2600 Class and 2700 and 2750 Classes began to be re-liveried from Commuter to a grey and green colour scheme with no reference to the Commuter brand. Instead an irishrail.ie logo referencing the then booking website was displayed on the side of the trains. In 2012 the 2800 Class was re-branded leaving only the 29000 Class in the Commuter livery. Since March 2013 the new bilingual logo has been introduced across the company's rolling stock, including the Commuter service. This is designed to eliminate customer confusion between the two names Iarnród Éireann and Irish Rail and create a more unified image.
Services
Leinster: Main article Dublin Suburban Rail
There are four commuter lines serving Dublin along with DART.
Other services operate between Mallow and Tralee, and Manulla Junction and Ballina. In addition, some InterCity services operate using Commuter branded DMUs - these include the Dublin-Sligo, Dublin-Rosslare Europort and Limerick-Rosslare Europort services.
Munster: Main Article Cork Suburban Rail
There are three suburban rail lines servicing the Greater Cork area, which comprise the Cork suburban network.
Main article Limerick Suburban Rail
The Limerick commuter rail network consists of three suburban rail lines which comprise the Limerick suburban network.
Connacht: Main article Galway Suburban Rail
The Galway commuter rail network consists of one suburban rail line which comprises the Galway suburban network.
Rolling stock
Commuter services are operated primarily using DMU "railcars,” with four separate classes operating on most routes:
All of the DMU types can operate either independently, or can be attached to another set of their own class or of another class to form trains of up to ten cars.
In addition to the DMUs, locomotive-hauled coaches supplemented services. The introduction of the 22000 Class units on InterCity services allowed the 2800 Class and 29000 Class units to be cascaded to Commuter services, which allowed the locomotive hauled stock to be fully phased out by 2009.
Eventually, since all 63 22000 Class railcars were delivered in 2012, they operate all InterCity and some Commuter services in Dublin, excluding the Dublin-Cork route and the Dublin-Belfast route.
Future
Irish Rail will be undertaking a major expansion of its Commuter services from 2020.
Infrastructure
Under this plan, several commuter lines will be refurbished and re-opened - plans include:
Feasibility studies have also been made into the possibility of creating airport links to several airports; a link to Ireland West Airport Knock is a long term aim of the Western Rail Corridor project while a feasibility study into a link to Shannon Airport from Limerick was commissioned by Iarnród Éireann in 2006.
Other proposals
There have been calls by outside groups for other railway refurbishments to enhance commuter services: