Railways in Ireland – Map Showing the Proposals of the All-Island Rail Review

by jqmesblake

27 comments
  1. Should definitely open the black lines again, more and better connections around the country.

  2. Map shows all Irish gauge lines ever built as well as their current/proposed state. Makes no distinction between freight and passenger lines.

    [Link to interactive map](https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Railways_on_the_Island_of_Ireland/QcwWxHCpCt)

    [Source of map data](https://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php)

    [All-Island Rail Review (under consultation)](https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/4d4f2-all-island-strategic-rail-review-public-consultation-for-strategic-environment-assessment/)

    ​

    Edit:

    * The Limerick-Cork direct line is missing.
    * The proposed extension to Letterkenny is missing
    * Proposed new lines around Dublin are missing

    ​

    Let me know if you spot anything else

  3. They really are determined to make sure Donegal has no train.

  4. Some really weird gaps in the closed lines that don’t make sense to me IMO. Like the small gap preventing Waterford to Cork

  5. The line going north of Navan to Kingscourt has been out of use for a good 60 years now. It’s a single line track and is currently being converted into a walkway. The Navan to Drogheda line is also single track, and is freight only, going from Tara Mines to Dublin Port via Drogheda. They can’t even build a Dublin to Navan train line, so any ideas of a glorious all Island rail network is complete pie in the sky thinking.

  6. Arup’s report doesn’t acknowledge that the Mullingar-Athlone line is now a greenway. “Proposed Reopening” is not straightforward whatsoever.

  7. I’d use a train for Dublin Galway travel if I could buy my seat in advance and be guaranteed it would be there. I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more.

  8. Mullingar to Athlone line, my heart yearns for you every time I’m in Mullingar station and look through the spooky ghost platform gate 😔

    Seriously though, that one line would link up such a lovely chunk of the network.

  9. Pipe dream. The money for this doesn’t exist. Or rather the money does exist but the political will to keep shit within budget doesn’t exist. We’re thirty years waiting on Metro North, I’m 29 so this shit won’t happen in my life.

  10. Poor Donegal, I guess there’s too many hills and small mountains for railways

  11. The entire rail review process needs to think bigger. The idea seems to be to reduce travel times between Dublin and everywhere else on the Island, while integrating with the DART+ expanded light rail system in Dublin. This means Dublin will continue to be the bottleneck.

    A better option would be to introduce a true HSR system from Belfast to Cork, with stops at Newry, Dundalk, Navan, Wexford, Waterford, etc., and a line extension from Cork to Galway, with a junction at Limerick, where a Limerick-Dublin line meets up with it.

    This should be a proper HSR, 300kmph, so that we add about 20 new commuter towns, enabling people to build property in any of those towns at lower cost than in Dublin, and making it possible for foreign companies to set up shop in Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Waterford, Athlone, Navan, etc. instead of just blindly picking Dublin.

    Imagine working for Google in Dublin, but being able to take the train to Waterford and be home in an hour. Why buy a 400k house in Dublin when you could buy the same house for 200k in Waterford?

    We need big thinking, not incrementalism. Our policy should be to become green, energy independent, lower electricity costs, lower housing costs, all with a single sweeping policy.

    ​

    Worst part is we have the money to do it, but we don’t have people who can explain it.

  12. The madness of needing to go through Dublin to get from Galway to Sligo, and from Wexford to Waterford

  13. It’s a shame the line from Tralee to Limerick wasn’t included in the review. It’d complete the “Atlantic Spine” and would be fairly useful considering the amount of students moving between MTU/Limerick/Galway.

  14. The closed lines being on there is confusing. Makes it look quite expansive.

    Donegal, Cavan, Leitrim and Fermanagh getting majorly fucked over in this BTW

  15. Donegal and Cork get fucked over

    Donegal gets nothing and Cork only has direct intercity to Dublin

  16. Light green is all you need to look at there. One. After a decade of Eamon Ryan. I wouldn’t mind, I voted Green first time around.

  17. Ireland would need a good high speed rail network since we can’t build high

  18. We need every lane possible and more to be added to be quite frank

  19. Light green line is the one to pay attention to, always lots of plans in Ireland

Leave a Reply