Why doesn't Dublin-Belfast trainline take in Dublin Airport

[renewal]

For the last few years I just can't be my head around why the Dublin-Belfast railway line doesn't take in Dublin Airport and why it hasn't for the last fifty years or however long the Dublin Airport has been there. I understand that the railline passes within two/three miles of the airport.

I know that there is a metro proposed which I'm sure will do a great job but having the Dublin-Belfast line take in Dublin Airport seem more logical to me as there would be more a hub then, allow passengers get to more destinations on arriving by air into Dublin. Presumably it is rather difficult to reroute it now with all the housing estates, etc being built in the meantime.

I feel also it would bring more passengers to Dublin Airport from the North and be a competitor to the, nicely named, George Best Airport.

Is it that Connolly station is just too small and doesn't have room for expansion or the Dublin Airport Authority just want force people to arrive by car and thereby make money from their carpark or when the push comes to shove people from the north are not really that welcome?

[locke]

Is it that Connolly station is just too small and doesn't have room for expansion or the Dublin Airport Authority just want force people to arrive by car and thereby make money from their carpark or when the push comes to shove people from the north are not really that welcome?

Historically, it's because of no capacity at Connolly. However, once the tunnel is built from Docklands to Heuston, that will be gone. In conjunction with this, Irish Rail wanted to build a spur from Portmarnock to the airport, which would have cost a lot less and would have connected Heuston to the airport direct (reconnecting to the Dublin-Belfast line was not an immediate option). This proposal was stopped because it could have undermined the proposed Metro, even though, it would have made Dublin Airport only one change of train away from almost any other station in the country.

[porter]

Strange indeed.

And why is it that jounrney times on Irish Rail are not radically different to when we used steam engines?

We had the excuse in the past that the rails themselves were not up to it but they've spend literally hundreds of millions of euro upgrading the rails yet there are no plans for high-speed trains. A distinct lack of ambition methinks.

It's about 250 KM between Dublin and Cork and it takes about 2 and 3/4 hours. Pathetic.

[Gimpanzee]

eh? What sort of a daft question is that? The Dublin/Belfast rail line was built in the 19th century before the first aeroplane ever flew. That means that really only one of two things could happen -

1 when building the airport they should have built it beside the rail line (daft suggestion)
2 they should have uprooted god know how much of the rail line and moved it a few miles west (even dafter suggestion)


Is it that Connolly station is just too small and doesn't have room for expansion or the Dublin Airport Authority just want force people to arrive by car and thereby make money from their carpark or when the push comes to shove people from the north are not really that welcome?

this is ridiculous. Have you ever heard of a thing called the Dublin Metro?

[JCSkinner]

Have you ever heard of a thing called the Dublin Metro?

No. Could you show me where it is on a map?

[Gimpanzee]

Have you ever heard of a thing called the Dublin Metro?

No. Could you show me where it is on a map?

That's precisely my point. If building the metro is proving to be this difficult, imagine what moving the Dublin Belfast mainline rail a few miles west would be like. The OP wants a line from Dublin city centre (basically the metro line) to the airport then an ADDITIONAL bit of new railway from the airport to say Malahide or Skerries to rejoin the existing Belfast line.

[alonso]

nordies are so unwelcome that the first motorway built in the Republic was the M1 and the first route to be completed was the M1.

[JCSkinner]

Gimp, the thing is the metro isn't being built. It hasn't started. The train line exists. A branch line ought to have been considered, surely? It would be completed much more quickly than the metro ever will.

[locke]

Gimp, the thing is the metro isn't being built. It hasn't started. The train line exists. A branch line ought to have been considered, surely? It would be completed much more quickly than the metro ever will.

A spur from Portmarnock would have required no tunneling and been much shorter. It could have been in place more quickly.

[Gimpanzee]

A spur? I'm sure it has been considered. Apart from anything else I can't see how that would go down well with folks trying to get from Belfast to Dublin, adding about another 30 minutes to their journey - having to hang a right at malahide to pick up/ drop off people at the airport before even think about how a train turns 180 degrees around at the airport to head back out to Malaide or wherever again (yes there are ways but it is just an example of how nothing is simple - if it was it would aready be done).

BTW - a spur is serious possibility for the Galway Limerick line to connect Shannon Airport in.