IE 22000 Class

History

In 2005, the Irish Government announced the €34 billion Transport 21 proposal for significant improvements to transport infrastructure, with major emphasis on the railway network. As part of this, large-scale replacement of rolling stock was planned, then made up entirely of locomotive-hauled coaching stock, the most based on the British Rail Mark 2 and British Rail Mark 3. IÉ ordered 120 replacement vehicles: in a major departure, the new trains would be 3 and 6 car DMUs rather than locomotive-hauled carriages. This order was extended to 150 vehicles in 2005, to 183 vehicles in 2007 and to 234 vehicles in December 2008.

Deliveries

Supplied by Mitsui of Japan for initially approximately €400 million, the fleet was built by a partnership between Rotem of South Korea and Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan, who supplied the bogies. The first sets were delivered in March 2007, while the final sets were delivered in April 2012.

In March 2007, a €79 million order was placed for a further 33 vehicles to be used primarily on the outer Dublin commuter network. This was added to with an additional 51 Commuter vehicles in December 2008. As of 2015, there are 63 sets: 28 3-car sets, 25 4-car sets and 10 5-car sets, in three different layouts.

Two of the 3-car sets, 22010 and 22011, were delivered in July 2007 with corrosion damage received in transit from South Korea. IÉ did not accept delivery and stored the sets until October 2008 when they were returned to Rotem for repair, with a revised delivery date of early 2009. It was later determined that it was uneconomic to repair them, so two additional units added to the latest order at no additional cost to IÉ.

Operations

The 22000 class was primarily ordered for InterCity routes except the Dublin-Belfast services operated by Enterprise and the Dublin-Cork service, for which IÉ purchased 67 locomotive-hauled coaches in 2006, but they have also been used on off-peak Dublin-Cork services since November 2009. 22000 units have now replaced coaching stock on services from Dublin to Galway, Westport, Limerick, Waterford and Tralee, and 2800 Class and 29000 Class DMUs to Sligo and Rosslare Europort.

The expansion of the Dublin commuter belt has led to IÉ needing for dedicated long distance Commuter trains, and so purchasing additional units for use on services to destinations such as Portlaoise, Carlow, Athlone, Dundalk, Kildare, Longford and Mallow (in the Cork commuter belt).

Plans by Enterprise to improve its services included the potential of purchasing DMUs to replace its locomotive-hauled coaching stock. Among the options under consideration was the purchase of further 22000 Class units.

NI Railways was offered a variant of the 22000 Class to meet its "New Trains Two" requirement, before ultimately choosing a design similar to its existing Class 3000 unit. The train was sometimes seen on the Dublin to Belfast railway line, on out-of-service transfer to Drogheda train service depot.

Unit types

As delivered, the first 30 units were of three cars, for use on InterCity routes, as were ten of the 15 6-car units. The remaining five 6-car sets and the 17 3-car sets ordered in 2008 were configured for long-distance Commuter services from Dublin. Combinations of two 3-car sets, three 3-car sets, two 4-car sets, a 3-car set + a 4-car set and two 5-car sets are possible. In case of emergency, they can operate in formations of up to 18 cars.

In 2013, IÉ announced plans to reform the 22000 class units from 3 and 6-car sets into 3 and 4-car units, to obtain better flexibility from them in regards to passenger numbers per train. However, it soon became apparent that replacing 6-car units with 4-car ones would lead to overcrowding, which caused IÉ to subsequently alter the proposal into sets of 3, 4 and 5-car lengths.

Features

InterCity services

Commuter services