Rail transport in Ireland

Rail transport in Ireland is conducted on 2259 kilometers of broad gauge of 1,600 mm, of which 1919 km in the 26 southern counties of the Republic of Ireland and 340 km in the northern six counties of Northern Ireland ( 2005).

History

The history of the railway began in Ireland in 1834, only nine years after the world's first railway was ever opened on the British neighboring island. The largest expansion of the route network reached 1920 with 5600 miles. In the beginning, different gauges in use: 1435mm ( standard gauge ) between Dublin and Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire ), 1575 mm in the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, 1880 mm at the Ulster Railway. By a law of 1846, a broad gauge of 1600 mm was established for Ireland and existing lines to another track were rebuilt it. Since it is a stand-alone operation, it has since remained at this track, which was later known as general Irish broad gauge.

As in 1922, the Irish Free State separated from the United Kingdom, today's Northern Ireland but remained there, cut the new international border, a number of railway lines. In the Irish Free State in 1925 the various railway companies were merged to form the Great Southern Railways. This was in 1945 merged with the Dublin United Transport Company to present Córas Iompair Eireann ( CIE).

Excluded was the Great Northern Railway, the numerous routes for operation, which crossed the intra Irish border. Border controls and the different behavior of the two States in World War II ( the Republic of Ireland was officially neutral ) hurt this railway company. It was nationalized after a long decline in 1953 and initially managed as common property of the Republic and Northern Ireland as Kondominalbahn. But that was not politically correct. In May 1958, the company was dissolved and therefore between the Córas Iompair Eireann ( CIE) on the one hand and the Ulster Transport Authority split, with all kinds of vehicles were distributed strictly equal. The Ulster Transport Authority then lay quietly most cross- border routes, which eventually forced CIÉ also abandon their now ending at the border line parts. This and the closure of branch lines has the power by more than half today against its greatest extent.

In the north of the railway now runs the Northern Ireland Railways, in the south the Iarnród Éireann. Both companies are subsidiaries of state transport company, their mission bus and other road transport companies are among TransLink in the north and CIÉ in the republic. The railways in Northern Ireland was not affected by the rail privatization in Britain.

Rail network

497 km of the 1919 km in the Republic are double track, 140 km to the north of 340 km. In the Republic of Ireland, 52 km long stretches of suburban railways are capital Dublin (DART = Dublin Area Rapid Transit) electrified, in Northern Ireland is only driven by diesel vehicles.

From the once dense network especially star-shaped emanating from Dublin main lines are left, including the connection with Belfast and the local network.

Traffic performance

In 2005, 7.4 million passengers were transported to the north, with 236 million passenger-kilometers were made. In the south there were 37.7 million passengers with 1.781 billion passenger-kilometers.

Dublin and Belfast are connected by a fast train line, which is operated under the brand name Enterprise jointly by the railway companies of the Republic and the North. Border controls do not take place. Mondays to Saturdays driving eight train pairs, five Sundays. The scheduled journey time is approximately two hours.

In freight transport, 2004 by Iarnród Éireann still 2.3 million tons were transported by 399 tonne-kilometers. In 2005 there were only 1.5 million tonnes or 303 tonnes kilometers.

Tram

After 1951, the tram in Dublin had been adjusted since 2004 operates the Luas tram in Dublin. Luas with its two lines operated by Veolia Transport. It runs on standard gauge of 1435 mm and is supplied with 750 volts DC. This track is unusual for Ireland, but for trams in other countries, such as Germany, the usual.

Subway

In Dublin, a subway is planned, which will go under the brand name Metro. Two lines, Metro North and Metro West should occur in public-private partnership. As the tram will run on standard gauge and use the same power system so that vehicles of all four transport lines could operate on each other's lines, the Metro.

Peat railways

In addition to the public rail network operates Bord na Móna ( German Torfagentur ) is a narrow gauge network (3 feet = 914 mm) of 1365 km in length, with the degraded peat is transported. 850 km of which are permanently relocated track, the rest will be determined according to needs and dismantled. Around 5 million tonnes of milled peat are transported every year.

Monorail

From 1888 to 1924, the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway wrong in County Kerry. These were the first commercially operated monorail in the world. It was operated by the Lartigue system. 2003, a replica of this railway was opened on a 1000 -meter course in Listowel.

Expansion plans

The Irish Government has put forward " Transport 21 " a plan for the expansion of the transport system on the island, which provides for the revival of rail transport.

CIÉ planning a development of rail transport, including through the revival of the approximately 58-kilometer railway line from Ennis to Athenry. It was reopened on 30 March 2010 and allows for the first time after 34 years of direct rail services between Limerick and Galway. In another phase of the reconstruction of the leading further north route is planned.

In the north, some routes have been re-laid.