Intercity Rolling Stock - 67 Intercity Carriages and 234 Intercity Railcars

In 2002, Iarnród Éireann ordered 67 Intercity locomotive hauled carriages for use on the flagship Cork-Dublin Intercity route to upgrade the standard of services on that line while simultaneously providing scope to expand the capacity on the route. 24 of the carriages received EU assistance under the ESIOP.

In 2005 Iarnród Éireann extended a previous order from 120 to 150 new high specification railcars to facilitate the expansion and extension of improvements in Intercity rail services on all of the InterCity routes other than Cork or Belfast i.e. Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Tralee, Ennis, Westport and Ballina routes. This extended order will see the removal from service of all older rolling stock and the provision of improved service frequencies on a phased basis on all intercity routes.

Deployment of the new rolling stock will mean that Iarnród Éireann is able to fully exploit recent years’ investment in fixed infrastructure (track & signalling) under the NDP. Significant service improvements will be evident in terms, not just of improved frequencies but also in terms of journey time savings, comfort and reliability. It will also facilitate the redeployment of existing rolling stock on Sligo intercity route to serve the highest growing demand areas on the Dublin commuter network.

On 2 March 2007 the Minister for Transport approved an application by Iarnród Éireann for the acquisition of a further 33 Intercity railcars, to be funded by the Exchequer under Transport21 at a cost of €78.6m, for delivery into service by 2008/9. The railcars will be deployed on the outer Dublin commuter/regional rail market serving the fast-growing towns of Portlaoise, Carlow and Athlone.

In December 2008 an order for 51 new Intercity railcars was placed with Mitsui-Rotem. The railcars will be delivered and in service by 2012 and will operate on Dublin outer commuter routes.

Phase 1 - completed 2007 (67 new Intercity carriages)

Phase 2 - completed 2009 (177 Intercity railcars)

Phase 3 - for completion 2012 (51 Intercity railcars)

67 new InterCity locomotive-hauled carriages, at a capital cost of €117m (over €17 million coming from the European Commission), were introduced on the Dublin/Cork route from May 2006, with all trains in service by January 2007. The delivery of the carriages, combined with a project to overhaul the locomotives, facilitated the introduction in January 2007 of hourly timetabling in both directions.

There are now 177 new Intercity railcars in service on the Sligo, Westport, Galway, Limerick, Kerry, Waterford, Gorey, Portlaoise, Athlone and Carlow lines. 6 ICRs, which were damaged in transit to Ireland from Korea, were returned and it has been decided that their replacements will form part of the subsequent order of 51 ICRs.  This project was part-funded under Transport 21 and the EU Regional Development Fund.

In December 2008 an order for 51 new Intercity railcars was placed with Mitsui-Rotem. The railcars will be delivered and in service by 2012 and will operate on Dublin outer commuter routes.