Irish Rail has dismissed suggestions that new carriages bought for the Dart service are too big to fit through the tunnels on Bray Head in Co Wicklow.
A rumour that the carriages would leave insufficient headroom to comply with safety regulations appears to have started after a delay in them entering service and the start of works on overhead lines in the tunnels.
It has spread on social media and entered public conversation, particularly in Greystones and Bray, which lie at the southern end of the line either side of Bray Head.
Existing services must run through three tunnels bored through the hill in the 1850s. Services bound for Wicklow and Rosslare follow the same route and face delays at times as only a single track goes through Bray Head.
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An Irish Rail spokeswoman said there was no truth in the suggestion the new trains did not fit. “This is false. The trains are fully designed and built to operate on our existing network,” she said.
“There is no conflict in specification or size on any of the lines the new fleet will operate on, and the new Darts have been tested across numerous lines over the past 18 months with no such issue arising.”
She said some small modifications were being made to overhead line equipment in the tunnels on Bray Head.
“These arise from new standards for overhead line equipment which have been implemented and are minor works that will be completed as part of our planned programme of works,” she said.
“There are no excavations or lowering of track required or being undertaken.”
Irish Rail has ordered 750 carriages from the French company Alstom under its Dart+ project, which will greatly increase the number of Dart services.
The first batch of carriages has arrived and tested on trial runs, but plans to put them into service on the Dublin-Drogheda line been delayed.
Initially scheduled to begin operating late last year, the date was pushed out to late this year and then again to the second quarter of next year. This has had a knock-on effect on the roll-out across the rest of the Dart network.
Late last year, Irish Rail said the delay was due to a change in the battery packs manufactured by a supplier to Alstom, which meant a new round of testing and certification was needed.
When complete, Dart+ will see the Dart line grow from 50km to 150km, expanding the existing line along the Dublin coast and adding new lines to serve west and southwest Dublin.
