Transport minister Eamon Ryan has announced the purchase by Iarnród Éireann of 90 new battery-electric rail carriages for use on the DART line to begin service in 2026.
The order is to be placed with Alstom SA, the French rolling stock manufacturer.
This is intended to aid the expansion of Ireland’s rail network, particularly in the Greater Dublin Area and the east of the country.
It is part of the DART+ programme, which aims to expand services to Drogheda in the north, the Maynooth/M3 Parkway in the west, and Celbridge/Hazelhatch to the south-west.
This expansion is being undertaken with the ambition of increasing the number of people living within 1km of a Dart station from circa 250,000 to 600,000.
In Association with
The order consists of 18 five-carriage Battery Electric Multiple Units (BEMUs), funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority at a cost to the taxpayer of c.€179m.
This is in addition to December 2021 purchase of 95 new electric and battery-electric DART carriages which will enter into service in 2025.
The carriages can operate in electric-only mode using overhead electric wires or, through the use of batteries, in battery-electric operation in other parts of the rail network.
Minister Ryan stated: “This comes on top of the 41 InterCity carriages currently arriving into Ireland. We are doing this because the scale of change we need to make is beyond compare – to provide better, more frequent and more accessible transport choices to many more people and to meet our emissions targets.”
Anne Graham, CEO of the NTA, noted that the draft GDA Transport Strategy 2022-2042 calls for the Public Service Obligation bus and commuter rail fleet in the Dublin Metropolitan Area to be 100% electric and zero-emission by 2035.
The wider DART+ Programme consists of five projects to expand the network by the end of the decade. It covers
+ DART+ Fleet: A project to replace and expand passenger capacity with a push for environmentally-sustainable carriages.
+ DART+ West: Electrification of the Maynooth line with the construction of a depot near Maynooth and works to take place on the stations at Connolly and the Docklands. A Railway Order application was submitted this July and An Bord Pleanála is to schedule a hearing on this development.
+ DART+ South West: Electrification of the Kildare Line (including the Phoenix Park tunnel) as far as Hazelhatch/Celbridge and four tracking between Park West and Heuston. This plan has completed its second public consultation and is to submit a Railway Order application in early 2023.
+ DART+ Coastal North: Electrification as far as Drogheda. It has completed its first public consultation and is to begin its second in early 2023.
+ DART+ Coastal South: Removal of level crossings on the existing line from Connolly to Swords and other changes, although an emerging preferred option is being developed with public consultation to begin on this in early 2023.
