Commuter (Irish Rail)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Commuter is the brand name given to the suburban rail services operated by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland. These services operate in and around the suburban rail networks of major cities like Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, in contrast to the majority of services which are classed as InterCity. In recent years, Iarnród Éireann have put a significant amount of effort into upgrading there network with new tracks, signalling, station upgrades and trains. The majority of Commuter services are operated by DMU train sets. An exception to this is the Dublin Area Rapid Transit service - this shares the line with several other services, but is the only major electrified heavy rail service in Ireland.

The majority of Commuter services operate on the Dublin suburban network. This has four major routes:

• Northern - this route operates from Dublin to Dundalk, with its central terminus at Dublin Pearse station. The route is shared as far as Malahide with the DART service. The route lies on the Dublin-Belfast railway line.
• South Eastern - this route operates from Dublin to Gorey, with its terminus at Dublin Connolly station, and is shared with DART as far as Greystones. This route is shared with trains to Rosslare.
• Western - this route has two branches in the city centre; one starts at the new Docklands railway station while the other starts from Dublin Pearse. The two converge at Broombridge, with the line going as far as Longford. A new service pattern has seen the introduction of services from Docklands to Clonsilla on this line.
• South Western - this route operates from Dublin to Kildare, with its central terminus at Dublin Heuston station.

Further Commuter services are operated around Cork, northwards to Mallow and south to Cobh on the Cork suburban network. Other services are operated 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.

Iarnrod Eireann is currently undertaking a major expansion of its commuter services as part of the Transport 21 iniative. Under this plan, several commuter lines will be refurbished and re-opened - plans include:

• Reinstating a rail service to Navan which will connect with the Western Commuter Line into Dublin
• Expanding the Cork suburban network with new stations between Cork and Mallow, and a branch to Midleton
• Reopening the Western Rail Corridor between Limerick and Sligo in stages, starting with the section between Ennis and Athenry

IE has purchased a total of 51 sets of Class 22000 DMUs for use on its InterCity routes, which will allow it to transfer its Commuter branded DMUs to these expanded services.

[edit] See Also

• Dublin Area Rapid Transit
• Dublin Suburban Rail
• Cork Suburban Rail

v • d • e Rail transport in Ireland
Enterprise1 - Iarnród Éireann - Northern Ireland Railways
Services: Commuter - Dublin Area Rapid Transit - InterCity
1 Operated jointly by Iarnród Éireann and Northern Ireland Railways