The reason trains in Dublin are ALWAYS DELAYED | Connolly Station explained

Summary

The video by creator anoniaino delves into the reasons behind frequent train delays at Dublin's Connolly Station. As the busiest railway junction in Ireland, featuring multiple complex junctions, the station often faces congestion issues. Train operations, including the DART, commuter, and intercity trains, frequently intersect and conflict due to the lack of grade separation. Proposed solutions like adding grade separations or additional platforms are challenged by the station's constrained urban environment. Efforts such as the DART Plus scheme aim to enhance operations but may not fully resolve existing issues. Delays are thus attributed to inherent infrastructural constraints and operational complexities.

Highlights

• Connolly Station is the busiest in Ireland, causing frequent delays. 🚉
• Complex and intersecting junctions create bottlenecks for trains. 🔄
• Trains cross paths at grade level, increasing the chance of delays. ⏰
• DART Plus aims to streamline services but won't solve all issues. 🛠️
• Urban constraints hinder major infrastructure upgrades. 🏙️

Key Takeaways

• Connolly Station is the busiest train station in Ireland and a major hub for delays. 🚉
• Complex junctions near the station are a major cause of train service interruptions. 🚦
• Efforts to streamline train services, like the DART Plus scheme, are ongoing but face challenges. ⚙️
• Proposals for grade separation and additional platforms are stalled due to urban constraints. 🏗️
• The video highlights the need for advocacy to push for infrastructural improvements. 📣

Overview

Dublin's Connolly Station is the focal point of this intriguing video, where the creator anoniaino uncovers why so many trains get delayed. Being Ireland's busiest railway station, Connolly juggles a bustling mix of DART, commuter, and intercity trains. But, it's the intricate web of junctions in its vicinity that often throws the wrench in smooth scheduling, leading to those pesky delays. 🚉

The video artfully illustrates the lack of grade separation causing trains to be at loggerheads with each other, competing for the same track. The cluttered layout involves multiple crossings at the same level, inevitably leading to delays. While proposals have been tabled for grade separation or adding more platforms, the restricted space around Connolly makes these solutions difficult to achieve. This urban squeeze leaves little room for expansion. 🔄

Despite the hurdles, initiatives like the DART Plus scheme are set to improve train operations in Dublin. Though not a silver bullet for all the infrastructural quagmire, these efforts do promise better times ahead for rail commuters. As viewers, we're prompted to advocate for these necessary upgrades, because understanding the problem is the first step towards finding a solution. 📣

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Overview The chapter introduces the scenario of travel delays on Irish trains, specifically due to technical issues, by starting with a slightly anecdotal approach. This sets a relatable context for readers, explaining the potential reasons behind such delays, and takes place at Cony station.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Complex Junctions and Delays The chapter explores the complexities of various railway junctions leading to Connolly Station, Dublin's busiest railway station, which services the DART commuter network, Intercity trains, and connects to the Luas Red Line. The chapter outlines the northern approach to Connolly Station, detailing the sequence of East Wall Junction, Church Road Junction, Newcomen Bridge Junction, North Strand Road Junction, O’Malley Road Junction, and the particularly challenging Amiens Street Junction.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Junction Diagram and Train Operations The chapter discusses a complex railway junction in Ireland, particularly affecting trains in Dublin. The junction's intricacy often leads to train delays, especially around Connolly station. The speaker references a method used by someone named Tet for explaining similar railway junctions in Melbourne, suggesting it as a useful resource for understanding the situation.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Platform Details and Conflicts The chapter titled 'Platform Details and Conflicts' provides an overview of a railway junction, illustrating the running lines and entrance to sidings and maintenance facilities. The diagram presented is not oriented northward; however, the narrator clarifies the direction of north. It is also noted that in Ireland, trains operate on the left, and electrified tracks, which are marked in green, are primarily used by the dart.
• 04:00 - 06:00: Train Routes at Connolly Station Connolly Station features seven train platforms: four terminus platforms and three through platforms. The through platforms connect to the Loop Line, an elevated rail through Dublin's city center, which interestingly isn't a loop despite its name. For more on Dublin's railway history, a referenced video can provide details. The chapter begins to address issues related to delays at the junction, hinting at complexities in train scheduling and operations.
• 06:00 - 07:30: Potential Solutions The chapter discusses the infrastructure challenges related to railway lines, focusing on points where tracks cross at the same level, causing potential congestion and safety issues. It highlights the presence of two lines to the docks that are grade separated, using under-bridges to cross the Belfast Mainline. Additionally, it mentions problematic intersections at Amun Street and UST Road Junctions. Furthermore, there is a humorous mix-up where the Enterprise is mistakenly referred to as a spaceship, but is clarified to be an international train service.
• 07:30 - 09:00: Conclusion and Future Outlook The chapter discusses the train schedule and platform arrangements in Dublin, Ireland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, as of October 2024. It notes that trains run hourly and consistently arrive at platform two, barring any disruptions. The text highlights an issue where departing trains block access to terminating platforms and platform 5. The summary implies the situation is not ideal and seems to hint at potential issues with cross-layer intercity trains.

The reason trains in Dublin are ALWAYS DELAYED | Connolly Station explained Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 H I wonder how long it was since I oh all right well uh let's do a video so have you ever been on a train in Ireland that was delayed service to Mal has been can due to a technical problem on the train well you were probably wondering what why well allow me to explain this is Cony station it's on
• 00:30 - 01:00 Street in Dublin it's the busiest railway station in the country and the dart the Dublin commuter Network and interet trains all stop here it also has a connection to the ls Red Line This is the northern approach to Conelly station it consists of East wall Junction Church Road Junction New common Bridge Junction North Strand Road Junction osy Road Junction and worst of all amen Street Junction
• 01:00 - 01:30 if you're on a delayed train anywhere in Ireland especially in Dublin this set of Junctions is likely to blame it's a very complex Junction and hard to understand but there are a few things you can keep in mind while using Conelly station so that you know what's going on the way I'll explain it is inspired by tet uh who's explained rail Junctions in Melbourne in the same way uh so go check him out if you haven't already right so
• 01:30 - 02:00 off we go here's the Junction in question these are the running lines and here are the entrances to sidings and maintenance facilities I must apologize that the diagram is not North facing uh but North is in that direction also in Ireland trains run on the left electrified track is shown here in green now the only trains to actually make use of this are those of the dart
• 02:00 - 02:30 but more on those later Conelly station has seven platforms as you can see four terminous platforms and three through platforms the through platforms lead onto the loop line an elevated line through the city center despite being called The Loop line it isn't actually a loop if you want to find out more about the history of Railways in Dublin and how they developed well then you can check out this video here but why does this Junction cause so many delays well first
• 02:30 - 03:00 of all it's not grade separated all of the tracks cross on the level except for the two lines into the docks which you can see here these lines cross the Belfast Mainline by means of two under bridges there are also some very bad conflicting moves across Amun Street and UST Road Junctions such as the Enterprise is a spaceship wait no the Enterprise is an internet interational train service between
• 03:00 - 03:30 Dublin in Ireland and Belfast in Northern Ireland as of October 2024 it runs hourly when arriving it always runs into platform two aside from IND disruption or anything else unusual as it leaves again it blocks access to all the terminating platforms as well as platform 5 which is not ideal but it gets [Music] worse the cross layer inter city train
• 03:30 - 04:00 which arrives from the south calls it platform six unless it's through running with a commuter service more on those later before then crossing the entire station throat to reach the siding where it reverses and sometimes gets washed when leaving for Ros airport again the process repeats and it departs from platform five which is wider than the other through platforms the SLO inter city train is the worst of all because it's never over six cars long they like to put it in Platform One this means
• 04:00 - 04:30 that it has to cross the whole Junction blocking absolutely everything what's worse when leaving Conelly there aren't enough crossovers so it has to run on the right hand side briefly as these movements are happening you will inevitably get darts and commuter trains waiting on lines approaching the junction speaking of which what Roots do they take [Music]
• 04:30 - 05:00 in the southbound Direction the dart runs through from clarf Road taking any number of routes to platform five or six depending on what inter city and commuter trains are doing then continues on towards toar Street going northbound it calls a platform six or seven again depending on the commuter train movements at the time
• 05:00 - 05:30 commuter trains on the Northern line either terminate at Cony normally at platform 3 or four or run through to pierce station via platform five or six and the loop line Northbound they almost always run from platform 7 commuter trains on the Western and Southwestern lines do the same terminating at Connelly or running through to Pier station or Grand Canal dock they mostly run through the station as it is more disruptive for them to access the
• 05:30 - 06:00 terminating platforms so that's all of the routs but you may be asking now how do we fix this Junction we're hardly going to leave it as it is well there have been proposals to either grade separate the junction with some flyovers or to add a forth through platform to streamline operations onto the loop line unfortunately neither of these are going to happen anytime soon because the area around conal station and the junction is quite constrained there are a lot of buildings quite close
• 06:00 - 06:30 to the railway the dart plus scheme is going to extend electrification and the dart Network to take over pretty much all of the Dublin commuter Network and this will streamline operations at Conelly station hopefully reducing delays further in the future a dart tunnel may be built as was previously planned and this would re-root darts coming from the north to completely bypass Connelly and the junction the new dart services which would be coming from the West would then
• 06:30 - 07:00 be able to go straight through into platforms 6 and seven and onto the loop line unfortunately there's not much talk of this project at the moment and it's likely to be many years before it gets implemented D plus while it is grade won't properly address the issues of the junction and it will remain largely at grade it's important to advocate for this d t to fix the junction and so you could write to your local counsel or
• 07:00 - 07:30 talk to DOA and ask them to raise the issue so now you know what to blame when you're on a delayed train in double and now you can hopefully tell where trains are going across amen Street Junction as you wait for a said delayed train so thanks very much for watching if you made it to the end uh I know it's been a very long time since I last made a video that might change no who am I kidding I'll see you in 6 months or whenever else I remember that I have a YouTube yoube Channel