Dublin transport plan to fund rail investment

[DavidB-AU]

REOPENING of Dublin's Phoenix Park tunnel for passenger services and the construction of a cross-city light rail line have been included in the Irish National Transport Authority's Integrated Implementation Plan for greater Dublin, which was launched on April 3.
 

http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/dublin-transport-plan-to-fund-rail-investment.html

[Lmsr1922]

The Phoenix Park tunnel was never closed, it has been used by goods trains since the last passenger trains passed through it in the early 70's. The only passenger trains to use it regularly were connections from the mail steamers at Dun Laoighre which I think ceased in the 60's if not earlier.Up to the mid 70's Hueston Station closed on Sundays and the handfull of Sunday trains ran from Connolly through the tunnell to the south. This practise stopped in the mid 70's when the trains to the west were transferred to Hueston and that station opened on Sundays. Since then freight trains only have used the connection.

[Colin_McLeod]

Agreed. Also workings to and from Inchore works for servicing/repairs and a number of RPSI trains and other specials.

[John M]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the up and down Cork & Galway Day Mails ran to and from Dunlaoire Pier until the pier connection was severed as part of the Dublin suburban electrification scheme in the late 70s-early 80s. 

 

There was still considerable cross-channel foot passenger traffic on the Holyhead-Dunlaoire route and the replacement of the pier trains with double decker buses was controversial. Both from the point of view of the passenger and CIE Dublin City Services management and staff who were struggling to keep enough buses in service to operate regular rush-hours services

 

IE briefly revived the boat connection with a short lived Dunlaoire-Heuston service using hired NIR 80 Class railcars in the late 80s, the service may have served more as a Bray-Inchacore stock transfer for the railcars used on the Greystones Shuttle than a serious attempt to revive the boat connection.

 

The Connolly-Cork Night mails would have been the last regular scheduled operation through the Tunnel up to the ending of Mail Train operation in the rarly 1990s.