Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Where are Irish Rail's Spanish coaches?

Where are Irish Rail's Spanish built Mark Four trains?

They came into service a number of years ago and were orignially planned for the Dublin Cork service.

Within two or three years the coaches were gradually taken out of service so that a bogey problem could be corrected.

They were the work horse of Irish Rail's premier service. But now they are seldom seen on the rails and most of them have been replaced by the Korea built ICRs.

It is now rumoured that Irish Rail's decision to haul the trains with older GM locos does not suit the design.

The trains were originally designed to have a built-in driving cab plus power unit at each end. Irish Rail does not operate the train as was per the original design.

In the meantime, where are the trains?

2 comments:

richard said...

According to Irish Rail (http://www.irishrail.ie/index.jsp?p=123&n=209) they are still in use, exclusively on the Dublin-Cork service.

Michael Commane said...

That's good spin. Pay a visit to Inchicore and look around and see the coaches. Travel between Dublin and Cork and most likely your train will be an ICR and not a Spanish built train.

Ask a driver, check it out wiht the Department of Transport.

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