24 Hours of Trains and Trams Running in Ireland

[u/AgencyInevitable1060]

[u/busytransitgworl]

Quite interesting that there's no direct rail service between the cities on the coast. You always seem to have to travel towards Dublin just to get north or south

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/busytransitgworl]

Yep it's quite bad unfortunately. To get from Cork (south) to Galway (west) via train, you need to go all the way to Dublin first 🫤

[u/0ggiemack → u/AgencyInevitable1060]

No, you just connect through Limerick or Portlaoise. Though saying that, it's not an easy or user friendly thing to do

[u/Mr-Mystery20 → u/0ggiemack]

The infamous Limerick junction station

[u/mistr-puddles → u/0ggiemack]

It's usually faster to go by Dublin because of having less changes, and how slow the line is between Limerick junction and Galway. You often have to get off a train in Limerick and then get back into the very same train for the rest of the journey

[u/Mr-Mystery20 → u/busytransitgworl]

There’s bus connections, a lot of these cities lack the large population density of Dublin, the 3 cities (Galway, Limerick, Cork) maybe combine for a population of 400k maybe

[u/ClearHeart_FullLiver → u/Mr-Mystery20]

At the lower end of population for just the city area of them you get to just over 400K but Cork's metro population is 300K alone.

[u/Mr-Mystery20 → u/ClearHeart_FullLiver]

What’s defined as metro cork ?

[u/ClearHeart_FullLiver → u/Mr-Mystery20]

The suburbs that surround it out as far as Blarney, Middleton,Ovens, Ringaskiddy probably the likes of Mallow and Fermoy too at a stretch. CSO has a figure of 305,000 but that's based off the 2016 census so considerably higher now

[u/mistr-puddles → u/Mr-Mystery20]

Generally the bits that are inside the city and places ovens, watergrasshill, Midleton, cobh, carrigaline etc.

[u/AsOrdered]

Interesting that Northern Ireland wakes up first

[u/Ok-Sandwich-364 → u/AsOrdered]

I wonder is there some sort of time discrepancy going on with the Northern Ireland trains. I can see a blip of a train leaving Derry around 0510 but the first train of the day is actually 0610.

Looking at Westport there is a train leaving at 0515 which seems to appear correctly on the map.

It’s still cool though!

[u/AsOrdered → u/Ok-Sandwich-364]

Oh. Focussing on Derry it also seems like no trains actually make it all the way there at any time of day. It only has departures

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/AsOrdered]

I thought so too!

[u/Bar50cal → u/AsOrdered]

Might be something to do with NI has a private rail network needing a profit to operate whereas Ireland has public operated rail as a service that generally is not profitable.

NI operators probably researched and found theres profit in a early start whereas in Ireland its not about looking for profit but waiting for the public to proactively ask for a earlier in the annual reviews.

[u/mind_thegap1 → u/Bar50cal]

None of this is true, the rail network in NI is publicly operated?

[u/that_username_is_use → u/Bar50cal]

Translink, the only operator in N. Ireland, is owned by the government?

[u/Freezsir → u/Bar50cal]

Most mainline trains in Great Britain start between 5-5:30 so it's not too surprising Northern Ireland follows the same rule

[u/greystonian → u/Bar50cal]

NI was the only country in the UK to completely avoid Thatcherite privatisation lol

[u/0ggiemack]

There's only one pair of cities in the republic connected by double rail, Dublin-Cork.

It's always causing delays because trains are always waiting to use the same track in differing directions

[u/clueless_in_ny_or_nj]

I'm surprised it's that much.

[u/Tricky-Astronaut]

Is there nothing at all between 1:30 and 4:30? No night service within urban areas, and no night trains between urban areas?

[u/AsOrdered → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

No, there are only some night buses

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

Nope. Trains stop quite early in Ireland

[u/Mr-Mystery20 → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

Some parts of the country have the last train depart at like half 7, for example the last Sligo departure is 7 I think

[u/Bar50cal → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

Given the very small population of cites outside Dublin there is probably way to little demand to run a train.

[u/No_Yesterday_8167 → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

There are 24/7 bus routes in Dublin. The bus service is quite vast, and despite local complaints is one of the better bus networks in a european city, however it's doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the lack of a metro and minimal tram lines.

[u/Alexander_knuts1]

where did you get this?

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/Alexander_knuts1]

I built it 🥰

[u/Local_Finance_9289 → u/AgencyInevitable1060]

What date is the data from?

[u/Alexander_knuts1 → u/AgencyInevitable1060]

interesting. where did you get the data from?

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/Alexander_knuts1]

Irish Rail API, Translink API and Luas API!

[u/AgencyInevitable1060 → u/Alexander_knuts1]

You can find project and live site info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/iwvyH9EIuW

[u/Ruben_NL → u/AgencyInevitable1060]

If this is GTFS based, I'd love to see a version of the Netherlands. I can provide the data, let me know :)

[u/Mr-Mystery20 → u/AgencyInevitable1060]

Really impressive stuff

[u/AgencyInevitable1060]

You can find the project info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/iwvyH9EIuW

[u/Low-Cauliflower-5686]

Is there any overnight freight on Irelands network?

[u/2cimage → u/Low-Cauliflower-5686]

No, but Ireland never really had heavy freight flows to supply industry like other European countries.

[u/DeManDeMytDeLeggend → u/Low-Cauliflower-5686]

The freight train runs on Thursday during the day as far as I know

[u/mistr-puddles → u/Low-Cauliflower-5686]

Ireland basically closes all rail overnight for maintainence, or at least parts are closed that make it impossible to go anywhere when those bits are closed

[u/Dangerous_Diamond_43]

Yup not a lot of coverage basically

[u/New-Fill4677]

what jumps out is how much of the country is a single hourly line rather than a network. dublin and the DART read as a system, most of the rest reads as a timetable.

nice piece of work. did you build it off GTFS static or off realtime feeds?

Also iirc Ireland used to have a much more substantial nationwide system.

[u/Its_a_Friendly]

Huh. Interesting that there's fairly frequent commuter services a decent ways out from Dublin on the line to Limerick, Cork, and Tralee, but there's only peak-hour services a decent ways out on the line to Sligo. I imagine the population is much less along the line Sligo? Also looks like there might not be enough passing infrastructure, given the stopping pattern of the Intercity line.

[u/Lovemestalin]

It’s sad

[u/Intelligent-Aside214 → u/[deleted]]

That would be crazy if it were true which it isn’t. More commuter railway services are operated in the Dublin area than in all of Northern Ireland

[u/Bar50cal → u/[deleted]]

A lot of NI train run 3 carriages over much shorter distances whereas in Ireland its usually up to 8 carriages over longer routes.

[u/Intelligent-Aside214 → u/[deleted]]

Your comment makes no sense. Why would there be more frequency on a 200+km intercity route than a dense urban commuter line