Ireland’s busiest rail line is to undergo a major expansion to alleviate chronic congestion under plans to be announced on Friday.
Irish Rail will double the track between Dublin Connolly and Malahide from a two-track line to four tracks in a project conservatively estimated to cost more than €1 billion.
The precise route for the FourNorth project will be determined after a public consultation due to take place later this year.
It means 10 railway stations will have to be extensively remodelled, while some gardens and other privately owned land, and potentially properties, long the 14km line are expected to be needed for construction.
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Irish Rail said it would contact any landowners who would be affected when more detailed designs are ready later this year.
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The project will need extensive planning and preparation and it is expected construction will continue into the early 2030s.
FourNorth is intended to accommodate a faster Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service, improved northern line commuter services, expanded Dart services and more smoothly running freight trains.
The limited capacity on the existing line became clear when the decision to make the Belfast-Dublin service hourly caused chaos with logjams and delays two years ago.
Although those issues were largely resolved, the line is still heavily congested and prone to difficulties if precision scheduling slips.
Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine urged the public to get involved in the consultation process.
“FourNorth is about more than new tracks. It is about building a resilient, high-capacity rail corridor that supports everyday journeys, strengthens regional connections and helps deliver a sustainable transport future for Ireland – making space today for the needs of tomorrow,” she said.
A suggestion of four-tracking the line was included in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review published in 2024. It put the estimated cost at €700 million to €1 billion at 2021 prices for the separate Dublin-Clongriffin section, which is about two-thirds of the line currently proposed.
Irish Rail said a clearer picture of costs would emerge as designs were firmed up.
The Department of Transport and the EU’s Connecting Europe programme are funding the early stages of preparation, but financing for the full project has not yet been tied down.
“Future specific funding streams will be confirmed through the preliminary business case, with information shared publicly as this work progresses,” Irish Rail said.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said FourNorth was needed as track capacity was a “major constraint on frequency and capacity upgrades” on the line.
He also said improvements would be made on the line before FourNorth to ease congestion in the shorter term.
“Passing loops and turnback facilities are to be delivered at Mosney, Skerries, Malahide and Clongriffin in the next few years,” he said.
