Rail Transport in Ireland - Ireland Cross-Border Routes - H

Rail Transport in Ireland - H

Ireland Cross-Border Routes

• Belfast-Dublin and Dublin-Belfast

Ireland Stations Served On This Line Are:

• Belfast Lanyon Place
• Lisburn
• Portadown
• Newry
• Dundalk Clarke
• Drogheda MacBride
• Dublin Connolly

This cross border service, named Enterprise, is jointly owned and run by Northern Ireland Railways and IÉ. Despite having some of the most modern InterCity rolling stock on the island, it has been dogged by numerous problems. An historical problem on this route has been disruption to services caused by security alerts (devices on the line, hoax devices, threats and warnings). These continue to the present day.

The punctuality on this service remains poor for other reasons. The InterCity route, despite being mostly high quality continuous welded rail, is shared with suburban services outside both Belfast and Dublin.

A further problem was due to the locomotive and rolling stock arrangements. Unlike most other locomotive-hauled rolling stock in Ireland, generator vans were not part of the train - even the DVTs did not supply power. Thus the General Motors-built locomotives had to supply head-end power for lighting and heating throughout the train.

Although many types of locomotive are well designed for this purpose, these particular locomotives had struggled under the extra strain. The wear on the locomotives and time out of service were unusually high. On at least two occasions locomotives had burst into flames while shuttling along the route. To avoid further damage, four Mark 3 Generator Vans entered service in September 2012.

The collapse of the Malahide Viaduct in late 2009 temporarily stopped all Enterprise services from Dublin to Belfast for 3 months. The viaduct was repaired and the line re-opened in November 2009.

Rail Transport in Ireland Operation

Ireland Major Operators: Iarnród Éireann & NIR
Ireland Ridership: 50 million (Republic of Ireland, 2019)
15 million (Northern Ireland, 2017)
Ireland System Length:
Ireland Total: 2,733 km (1,698 mi)
Ireland Electrified: 53 km (33 mi)
Ireland Freight Only: 362 km (225 mi)
Ireland Track Gauge:
Ireland Main: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Ireland Electrification:
1500 V DC   DART in Dublin
Ireland No. Stations: 147