We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT Eamon Ryan has toured a life-size sample prototype of a new DART+ carriage located at Inchicore Works where it will be inspected by customer focus groups who will offer final suggestions on the design.
In total, 185 new carriages have been ordered to date, with delivery commencing in 2024 and entering service from 2025.
Up to 750 carriages will be ordered over the next decade under a framework contract with manufacturer Alstom, who also supplied Dublin’s Luas fleet.
They are being constructed at the company’s factory near Katowice in Poland.
The new trains will be comprised of five carriages which will be slightly shorter than the current DART’s four carriages, but both trains will be the same total length.
Several features have been added to the new fleet after input from focus groups, including dedicated family and bike areas and large, high-resolution onboard displays providing real-time updates, including information from other public transport systems.
New trains will also have more comfortable individual seating, reflecting longer distances which the DART+ fleet will operate.
Other key features include low-height doorway thresholds equipped with an automatic retractable step and improved dedicated wheelchair spaces.
Iarnród Éireann have shared drone footage of the inside of a carriage.
Speaking at the fleet preview in Inchicore, Minister Ryan said:
“It is great to see this preview of the new DART+ carriages today, which customers have helped design and which will be available in the coming years.”
“The DART+ Programme will transform our commuter system, vastly increasing the number of passengers who will have access to a quality and reliable rail network. This new fleet will facilitate DART trips to and from Drogheda from 2025 and then beyond that to the West and South West.”
“With dedicated wheelchair, family and bicycle areas, the new fleet will ensure accessiblity to a wide variety of passengers at different times of the day and week, providing comfort and independence for all users.”
Funded under the National Development Plan 2021 to 2030 by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority, the DART+ Programme will more than double the commuter capacity and treble the electrification of the Greater Dublin Area rail network.
A planning application for Dart+ West to expand out to Maynooth was lodged last July, while an application for Dart+ South West, which would see the DART travel as far as Celbridge, was lodged last week.
The number of people living within 1km of a DART station will increase from about 250,000 at present to 600,000 in future.
Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann, Jim Meade said:
“Thanks to input from our customers and drivers, and the work of the Iarnród Éireann and Alstom teams, we can now experience what the future of DART+ transport will be like. The sample carriage we see on display is modern, comfortable and customer centred and we look forward to having these carriages in use on our network serving new and existing communities for generations to come.”
In addition to the fleet, Alstom will provide a range of supports, including a Technical Support and Spares Supply agreement for the first 15 years of the fleet’s operation, and provision of three train simulators to support driver training.
A 10-carriage train, made up of two 5-carriage train sets joined, will be the longest train size operable by the new fleet on current infrastructure, and will have capacity for at least 1,100 customers.
Sixty-five new battery-electric carriages will be deployed first on Drogheda to Dublin Northern Commuter services from 2025.
New electric carriages will be also deployed on existing Malahide/Howth to Bray/Greystones DART services, allowing all services to be operated at maximum length.
The further 90 battery-electric carriages ordered in December 2022 will facilitate the overall DART+ network, with potential to use them on other parts of the rail network.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I live in a very dense area no where near close to a dart or luas, roads are so congested already and apartment blocks are shooting up at a rate of noughts. I’m all for accommodation but seriously more commitment to putting infrastructure in place at time of building these new apartments must become the norm. Trying to get planning and space for these projects AFTERWARDS causes chaos and quadruples the time and cost it takes to get them in.
@Lydia McLoughlin: Public Transport isn’t really an Irish thing
@Johannes Baader: no but it’s becoming increasingly Irish to be wagged the finger at for not using the lack of it.
Fantastic standing room. In fact your almost guaranteed you will be standing
@Tom Collins: Fun Fact: the dart uses a non-standard gauge of 1,600mm between tracks. 0.7% of the worlds trains use this gauge meaning our carriages have to be specially built and basically we can’t sell them on to anyone. Clever eh!
@zephyrum: Haha, reminds me of the high speed trains for slow tracks we bought. The squandering of money on big contracts in this country is criminal
Didn’t know that! You learn something new every day.
@zephyrum: ye i mean what were they thinking in 1892 when the decision was made that Ireland’s standard gauge should be 1,600mm and then built all the railways that way. I blame the greens. It’s Éamonn Ryan’s fault. The way rolling stock is used in this country no one would want them anyway. They are still running original DART sets and they are literally 40yrs old. Probably couldn’t give them away. Have to say that about CIE, they get their money out of their machines.
Well the track guage is something we inherited from the Industrial revolution, not much we can do about that. And we never had high speed rail trains here, no idea where you got that idea.
@Shaner Mac: Well I think what is being pointed out is that somewhere between the industrial revolution and now there might just of been a rethink as there obviously was across the developed world
@Shaner Mac: Industrial Revolution? UK uses Standard Gauge as does most of Europe. There’ll be no rail tunnel to EU anytime soon from Ireland ;)
@Tom Collins: That would’ve meant ripping up and converting all of the existing trackage and scrapping all the existing rolling stock, massively distruptive and expensive. And for very little gain. Luas s and the future metro will be standard guage.
@Shaner Mac: No, it would have meant moving one rail track a couple of inches closer to the other to become Standard Gauge. Therein allowing us to buy cheaper trains and carriages from most all of the main manufacturers in the world. Apart from the savings on trains and carriages and standards, MRO savings into the future would be immense and much cheaper to extend our railway system.
@zephyrum: Think outside the carriage..they’d make good temporary accommodation or hip coffee shacks.
@zephyrum: Fun Fact: 99% of your comments are rvbbish. There is no such thing as building carriages that will only run on Irish rail lines or Irish carriages that won’t run on UK or continental lines.
Irish Rail for years ran MK2, MK3, Craven etc. BR designed carriages that ran on both British and Irish lines. The Dublin/Belfast Enterprise carriages are the same cars as used on the Eurostar UK/France route.
CAF 3000 cars used in Northern Ireland and often come over the border also used in New Zealand, which has an even narrower gauge than standard gauge. The old Gatwick Express was sent over to Northern Ireland for its last few years and often did the Belfast/Dublin route. The list goes on. These car bodies are all the same no matter what country they are used in.
The only difference is the wheel sets/bogies. A train operator orders bogies/wheel sets to suit their gauge. Bogies can be changed out in a matter of hours.
So our gauge has no relevance on the price Ireland pays for its trains.
There is no such thing as an “off the shelf train” anywhere in the world either. Manufacturers generally start with a standard body shell and work from there according to the customers needs.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Yeah he’s speaking nonsense. Just having a pot shot at something without having any real understanding of it.
@zephyrum: Historical legacy dating back to 1850!
@Tom Collins: What high speed trains did we buy?
As a regular Dart user I already see issues with that design. During rush hour times most often it’s standing room only. Darts tend to brake and move off quickly, so for people standing all around there is nothing to hold onto unless all cramp around the few handrails a available and more often than not, this is not possible and makes for a nervous ride standing on a moving train with no handrail. Not enough in that fly through. Also the seats are not wide enough. Particularly in wintertime with everyone wearing heavy coats and bringing bags to work, that seating needs to be wider else couch-like as they had before. Not to mention man- spreading!
Serious lack of seats. There’s like16 seats per carriage.
Also, seeing as DART is probably the closest we have to a citywide metro for the foreseeable, why not make extra space instead of group seats in pairs if 4, and have them sideways? Y’know, like most rapid transit systems of this type.
Clear as the light of day, that the planners, and people with final sign off of the project will clearly not be using it.
@Darren Anthony Corr: have to say don’t understand why they persist with that layout at all. I suppose they are relying on people sharing leg space rather than having them in rows facing the same direction even. But surely long benches along the sides would provide more overall sitting and standing space.
Why are stations staff free zones ??
Ridiculously few seats, sure why not just eliminate them altogether.
Also, what will happen to the current DART carriages?
Shame to waste them.
Seeing as Cork is apparently getting an electrified transit system, perhaps they could refurbed and refitted, given a new livery to represent Cork and be put to use there?
@Darren Anthony Corr: 40yr old machinery. Doubt our cork cousins would be happy with such old Jackeen cast offs and I wouldn’t blame them.
@Darren Anthony Corr: surely they can be refurbished and used as mobile homes for the refugee emergency!
@Darren Anthony Corr: These carriages are for DART+, not the present DART. DART+ is the electrification of the commuter lines currently operating with Diesel.
Can’t wait to take a 3 1/2 hour car trip 5 hour bus trip from Donegal to try it out
Great drone flying.
Why can’t they change the seat layout and have them link in NYC and London and u would have a lot more seats and floor space?
Why can’t they change the seat layout and have them link in NYC and London and u would have a lot more seats and floor space?
Will they come pre loaded with chewing gum on the seats and graffiti?
Why can’t they change the seat layout and have them link in NYC and London and u would have a lot more seats and floor space?
Why can’t they change the seat layout and have them link in NYC and London and u would have a lot more seats and floor space?
Why can’t they change the seat layout and have them link in NYC and London and u would have a lot more seats and floor space?
I thought I was on the luas there for a second
Looks like my granpa’s….!
have your say