Dart+ West works to close Clonsilla–M3 Parkway rail link for weekend

Dart+ West track works near Hansfield are set to close the railway between Clonsilla and M3 Parkway on Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, interrupting journeys on the Dublin-area route while crews lower track beneath two bridges for future electrification. Bus transfers are planned for affected passengers.

Which Clonsilla–M3 Parkway services are affected?

There will be no trains between Clonsilla and M3 Parkway on either day, TheJournal.ie reported. Replacement buses will serve Clonsilla, Hansfield, Dunboyne and M3 Parkway on a revised schedule. Passengers should use that schedule to plan journeys through the closed section.

Why the track is being lowered near Hansfield

Crews will remove the existing track formation and excavate beneath two bridges between Hansfield and M3 Parkway. Lowering the rails will create room for overhead power lines to be installed later without raising the road bridges above the railway, TheJournal.ie reported. This weekend’s work prepares the route for electrification; it does not itself bring electric Dart services to M3 Parkway.

Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien marked the start of the enabling works at Dunboyne station. He described Dart+ West as the first major infrastructure element of the wider Dart+ programme to enter construction, saying it would add rail capacity, a depot and electrification to support more frequent services, according to the two reports.

When could Dart services reach Kilcock and M3 Parkway?

Dart+ West is planned to bring Dart-style services to Kilcock and M3 Parkway. Its proposed infrastructure includes 40km of electrification and signalling changes on the route towards the city centre, intended to allow more trains to run. The Irish Times reported that O’Brien plans to bring the Dart+ West and Dart Southwest business cases to Government shortly so the projects can move towards tender.

Asked when passengers might see Dart services reach Kilcock and M3 Parkway, O’Brien gave a section-dependent buildout estimate of six, eight or 10 years, The Irish Times reported. A timetable for the individual sections has yet to be set out in the forthcoming Cabinet memo.

Irish Rail says the wider Dart+ programme aims to double peak rail capacity across the Greater Dublin Area, from 26,000 to 52,000 passenger journeys per direction per hour. It also plans to expand the Dart network from 50km to 150km, extending services towards Drogheda and Hazelhatch as well as the western destinations. Those programme-wide aims explain the scale of the expansion beyond this weekend’s closure.