LAST year Irish Rail (IÉ) set a new traffic record of 55 million passenger-journeys, rising steadily from 50.7 million and 45.5 million in the previous two years. If those figures sound impressive, they are only set to grow as many more passengers are expected to choose rail as Ireland’s population grows in line with its burgeoning economy.
By 2050 passenger-journeys are expected to grow four-fold, to over 200 million each year, which presents IÉ with something of a challenge: how to accommodate such an increase in passenger traffic? Part of the answer to this question lies in the significant investment in commuter services in the Dublin area, currently being delivered by the Dart+ project, and improvements to cross-border Dublin - Belfast services, including a new Stadler fleet of eight trains, due to enter service in 2031-32.
The remainder of the answer lies in improving domestic inter-city services, an ambition clearly outlined in recent strategic rail development studies, including the All-Island Strategic Rail Review, published in 2024, and the Rail Project Prioritisation Strategy, published in December.
To understand what interventions will be required on the inter-city network, how much they will cost and how long they will take to deliver, and building on work already undertaken internally, IÉ submitted a funding application to the European Union’s (EU) Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for a €5.5m development programme in summer 2023, with half of the cost met by the Department of Transport through Ireland’s National Development Plan 2021-2030.
With funding approved for what is now known as the Connect programme, IÉ appointed Mott MacDonald as programme lead in early 2025 (see panel below).
Since then, progress has been rapid, with Mott MacDonald conducting studies under a total of nine work packages, the outcomes of which will be presented to IÉ over the summer, with the programme expected to conclude in September.
Mott MacDonald is developing a comprehensive implementation strategy and decarbonisation roadmap, supported by detailed technical studies and stakeholder engagement. This will help define the infrastructure, service and policy interventions needed to deliver a high-capacity, low-carbon inter-city network.
Connect covers three broad strands: reducing carbon emissions, modernising infrastructure, and delivering faster, more frequent and more sustainable services for passengers. The programme is also looking in depth at two key inter-city corridors: the 266km Dublin - Cork main line and the 34km line that leaves the main line at Limerick Junction for Limerick. Both of these are at the northern extremity of the European Union’s (EU) TEN-T North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean corridor.
Carbon emissions
In the first strand, reduction of carbon emissions aligns with the Irish government’s target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and also support Ireland’s Climate Action Plan and the EU Green Deal by aiming to achieve significant modal shift from the private car to rail.
Key to this will be the full-scale electrification of all of Ireland’s inter-city lines. At present just 3% of the Irish network, approximately 53km of Dart commuter lines around Dublin, is electrified at 1.5kV dc. A programme of 25kV ac electrification, likely to start with the Dublin - Cork main line, would potentially be undertaken at the same time as track doubling projects.
Unlike neighbouring Britain, which has recently adopted discontinuous electrification for some of its electrification projects to reduce infrastructure costs, using bi-mode trains to bridge non-electrified sections, IÉ does not favour this approach. “We have a strong leaning towards full line electrification at the moment,” says Michael Power, head of transformation at IÉ.
Electrification will require a new fleet. Rolling stock strategy is not part of the Connect programme, and procurement is being managed as a separate project by IÉ, interfacing with Connect as necessary. The operator is hoping that as a stop-gap the introduction of new Alstom EMUs and BEMUs on the Dart network will release DMUs currently operating commuter services for use on inter-city services from the end of 2027 onwards. Power expects a tender for a framework contract to supply the new fleet to be launched within the next 12 months, with the first trains operational in the early 2030s, depending on progress with the electrification programme work.
Infrastructure modernisation
With the exception of the Dublin - Cork main line, many domestic lines are currently single track with passing loops, so the Connect programme is considering track doubling to provide the capacity to run more trains. Ideally, says Power, this would be carried out at the same time as electrification to reduce the impact on the operational railway.
Connect is also considering how realignment of the formation, particularly easing some of the sharper curves on the network, could help raise line speeds and so contribute to greater capacity.
“Something that is crucial to bear in mind is that much of the work will take place on an existing railway,” Power says. “How we will plan for disruptive works is important and influences the potential sequencing of interventions, as well as the nature of the interventions themselves. Those are the sort of assessments that are taking place at the moment.”
Increased frequency
Some rail networks opt to run more trains to improve services, while others choose to increase line speeds. Connect is looking to do both, with line speeds potentially increasing to 200km/h. Power believes this is probably the maximum service speed that will be achieved. While new high-speed lines have been considered, neither the government nor IÉ currently intend to develop this further.
Early findings from the Connect programme pull together all of the key three strands outlined above and suggest that journey times on key inter-city routes could be reduced by up to 30 minutes through targeted infrastructure upgrades, an increase in maximum line speeds to 200km/h, and the introduction of a new electric fleet.
Power says further findings could be released later this year. “We’re encouraged by what appears to be possible within our existing property portfolio, particularly relating to reducing journey times and carrying out electrification works. From a land acquisition and planning perspective, being able to utilise our own property certainly makes things a little easier.”
For the Dublin - Cork main line, IÉ is expecting a recommended pathway for delivering a 20% reduction in journey times without the need for land acquisition, equating to an end-to-end journey time of around 1h 50min, down from the current 2h 35min. This will be followed by recommendations for the steps required to achieve a 1h 30min journey time, a 30% reduction on current timings.
Overall, the trajectory is clear: significant investment needs to be made in Ireland’s inter-city network between now and 2050. However, once the Connect programme concludes, the next steps, including implementing the programme’s findings, are uncertain. This is partly because some interventions will be contingent on other factors. Line realignments, for example, might be scheduled at the same time as track doubling. “It also depends on whether we go ahead on an improvement-by-improvement basis, or take a whole-programme approach. And that will partly depend on what funding options are available,” Power says.
“We’re encouraged by what appears to be possible within our existing property portfolio.”
Michael Power, head of transformation at IÉ
IÉ has not published its estimate of how much will need to be spent on developing the inter-city network, but Power acknowledges that the cost of the new electric fleet alone, expected to be the largest rolling stock order ever placed in Ireland, is “likely to run into billions.” The first phase of improvements to the Dublin - Cork main line, including new rolling stock, is estimated to cost over €1bn.
One of the outputs from Connect will be a strategy for how IÉ will fund all the interventions identified by the programme. “That will further develop our understanding of what funding sources are out there to complement funds from the national exchequer,” Power says.
The objectives of the Connect programme are likely to take some time to deliver, with the first significant journey time improvements on the Dublin - Cork main line, with the new electric fleet, expected in 2033-34.
For now, IÉ is considering all of the options that Connect has presented so far. “We would hope to be in a position to be able to continue on to the next stage of planning once Connect comes to a close, later on this year,” Power says.
Mott MacDonald leads Connect programme
“ALTHOUGH Connect’s results are divided among a number of work packages, essentially there are two main components,” says Connect programme lead, Andreas Biesinger, who is technical director, engineering management, at Mott MacDonald.
“The first one is looking at the existing network across Ireland, and that’s what we spent most of 2025 on; assessing existing infrastructure, working out what it could potentially provide in terms of additional capacity. So now we have a really good understanding of what the system can and can’t do. The next step was to identify where interventions are required in order to deal with bottlenecks, speed restrictions and other issues. And where we are now is preparing a project implementation plan on the Dublin - Cork/ Limerick lines.”
Unlike other programmes which are based on a single final report, Connect is structured differently, with one or more final reports on each of the nine work packages, all of which are likely to be cross-linked to the results of other packages.
The assessment of the existing network was extremely thorough. “We examined every inter-city corridor and identified the issues at the moment on all elements of the infrastructure, such as the type of rail, the age of the sleepers, the condition of bridges and other structures, and flood risks,” Biesinger says “We also considered current speed restrictions of less than 160km/h and the stability of embankments.” The latter is an important factor in Ireland where a considerable part of the network has been constructed over peat bogs.
“One of the things we were pleasantly surprised by was the discovery of just how much spare capacity there is in the network’s infrastructure - it is not as maxed out as it is in Britain or some other countries,” says Gemma McCarthy, regional director at Mott MacDonald.
However, upgrading a network that is single-track in many places has thrown up its own challenges, such as determining the optimum location of passing loops.
“At present timetabling has been based on regional operations and existing passing loops reflect that,” says McCarthy. “But when you start to overlay inter-city and inter-regional services on top of the local timetable, it might be that some passing loops are no longer in the right place if you look at it from a broader perspective, so Connect is taking points like that into consideration.”
“We examined every inter-city corridor and identified the issues at the moment on all elements of the infrastructure.”
Andreas Biesinger, technical director, engineering management, at Mott MacDonald.
Biesinger points out that IÉ already has a comprehensive programme of infrastructure projects underway, notably Dublin’s Dart+ and the Cork Area Commuter Rail (CACR) programme. Both projects are being factored into Connect to ensure optimum coordination and to identify areas that have not been addressed so far. “In Cork, we are working with the CACR team so that together we can develop integrated solutions that could result in immediate benefits once project works are complete,” he says.
One of the largest infrastructure challenges is at Limerick Junction, where IÉ is currently working on platform improvements. “It’s a very awkward layout at the moment, which makes it difficult to operate some services, as they are required to do a double reverse movement,” says Biesinger. “As part of the Connect programme, we have been looking at solutions that work not just for existing IÉ services, but which can accommodate future services such as direct trains from Cork to Waterford.”
