Electrified DART+ plan moves a step closer

Iarnród Éireann’s plan to introduce battery and electric-operated trains for the greater Dublin region in place of its current diesel train stock is edging a step closer.

In September, the first two trains will be shipped to Ireland and will undergo testing before becoming operational in late 2025 on an expanded DART+ line from Dublin to Drogheda.

The new trains are currently being manufactured by French firm Alstom at its factory in Katowice in southern Poland.

In total, Iarnród Éireann has ordered 37 new trains for the greater Dublin area, which will serve its DART+ expansion on lines to Maynooth, Drogheda and Hazelhatch over the next few years.

Each train will carry 550 passengers and include spaces for wheelchairs, families and bicycles.

The trains at the production depot in Katowice are powered by lithium batteries which travel up to 80km before needing to be recharged.

“I think this battery technology has really good potential for other parts of the country such as Cork, Galway, Limerick to provide decarbonised electric trains where we would not be able to have one. We’d be replacing a diesel train with this sort of technology without having to install all the electric wires at the same time,” Peter Smyth, Chief Engineer with Iarnrod Éireann, told RTÉ News.

Senior engineers and project managers from Iarnród Éireann travelled to Katowice to inspect the new units and meet with designers and engineers from Alstom.

“We’re nearly at four years in the design process from the start of the concept and the beginning of the tender,” said Mr Smyth.

Iarnród Éireann puts the full cost of the DART+ project at €2.6bn, which covers the purchase of new trains, new depots and the longer-term goal of electrifying the network around the capital.

The national rail operator has also signed a framework agreement for an order of up to 750 battery and electric carriages from Alstom for commuter and inter-city services across Ireland.

The current total passenger fleet across DART, commuter and inter-city is 629 carriages.

However there is no date set for the production or delivery of those trains.

The lengthy process of Dublin’s long-awaited metro service offers a reminder that delivery timescales for public transport projects can get bogged down.

The purchase of new battery and electric trains is part of the Government’s National Development Plan for 2040.

Currently only 3% of Ireland’s rail is electrified, which is the lowest in the European Union.

In Belgium, for example, 86% of rail lines are electrified according to the European Commission.

More than 70% of lines are electrified in Sweden and Italy, and Poland has slightly more than 60%.

Over the next few years, Iarnród Éireann intends to fully electrify the expanded DART+ service to Maynooth, followed by the Drogheda and Hazelhatch lines.

So far, the Department of Transport has not set a date for the widescale electrification of all train lines in the country, though it is working on an all-island strategic plan to electrify much of the network.

The case for phasing out diesel trains for battery and electric-operated ones is hard to argue against.

Electric and battery-operated trains emit between 20% and 35% fewer emissions than diesel trains. They are also cheaper to run and generally faster.

I took a high-speed electric-operated Pendalino train from Warsaw to Katowice this morning.

What used to be on average a four-hour journey between the two cities a decade ago, now takes two and a half hours.

The new DART+ trains will have a top speed of 145km/h instead of the current 100km/h, though higher speeds will only be used farther from Dublin city where the distance between stations is longer.

“The signalling system that controls these trains is the European ETCS system which has the ability for trains to be operating closer together, at greater frequency and potentially greater speeds,” said Mr Smyth.