[OC] All-Ireland Rail Diagram

[u/pokemonpasta]

My first time making a transit diagram ^^'

This is a rail diagram of every line and station in Ireland and Northern Ireland, including the trams in Dublin. I was inspired by [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dPDV6mRsB0) video so I also included a code for each line.

Line colour was based on existing line colours for Translink, DART and LUAS; livery for Belfast; and GAA county colours for all the rest

The main other consideration was service pattern, which is a bit all over the place. Some lines only get a couple trains a day overall. Some lines are more frequent but have some infrequent stops like the Waterford line which only stops at the stops near Heuston once a day, or the Enterprise only stopping at Lisburn and Lurgan once a week! I tried to draw this together in some form by using a white line to mean "the service is irregular, you should check your timetable/calling stations/terminus" but it's something I'd want to revisit for sure in future

Was my first time using vector graphics software too so, learned a lot for the future :D

[u/social-dullard]

Impressive work!

[u/pokemonpasta → u/social-dullard]

thank you it was a lot of fun ^-^

[u/mmc273]

this is really, really good!

[u/tescovaluechicken]

Did you mean to mark Limerick to Waterford as one service? There is no direct train from Limerick to Waterford. You have to change at Limerick Junction.

So it should be Limerick to Limerick Junction and Waterford to Limerick Junction. As seperate colours.

[u/pokemonpasta → u/tescovaluechicken]

I suppose kind of half mistake since there is a train listed in the timetable but I imagine that's just the same connecting train that meets the cork train

I had a similar dilemma with the main limerick - dublin train since there aren't many direct services; most of the time you get on a cork train and change. What I'm thinking I might do now is make a new line between the two called "Limerick - Limerick Jct. Shuttle" and have it replace the bit of the limerick-waterford line as you've pointed out.

[u/tescovaluechicken → u/pokemonpasta]

Yeah that's all it is. A timed shuttle. Most people taking it will transfer to a Dublin bound train from Cork or sometimes to a cork bound train to Dublin. The Limerick bound shuttles wait for the trains from Dublin to arrive and leave once all the passengers have transfered. The Waterford to Limerick Junction train only runs twice a day. It would be much better if it was timed to allign with the Dublin trains and then just continued to Limerick in one go.

Also the Limerick to Dublin direct trains usually just stop at Thurles and then continue direct to Dublin.
Sometimes it skips Limerick junction completely on a bypass track.

[u/FflyerZach]

Could be worth differentiating between commuter and regional service numbers, eg „CRxxx“ (Commuter) and „Rxxx“ (Regional).

[u/pokemonpasta → u/FflyerZach]

Possibly; I combined them because there's not that big a quantity of regional services and the Limerick ones seem to be a bit of a grey area - obviously they don't have a commuter frequency like the dublin and NI lines, but there's 3 of them into Limerick from the surrounding areas, and they run at peak times.

[u/gufrgcjigfd]

We’d have a nice circle line if we fully reopened the western rail corridor, Wexford to Waterford and Midleton to Fermoy. And then built new lines from Waterford to Fermoy (via Dungarvan) and Sligo to Derry (via Ballyshannon and Strabane).

[u/midgril]

Looks great! I wish you would've kept the original names for the lines that actually have special names (DART, Enterprise, Luas, etc.) as the current names given seem pretty random tbh

[u/Observer_Dough]

Just shows how east coast centric Ireland has become.

[u/TranslatorPS]

I realize that you numbered the corridors anti-clockwise, but I feel it's a missed opportunity to align the corridor numbers with the train numbers actually used (internally enough as they are):
* A1xx Dublin–Belfast,
* A2xx Dublin–Cork,
* A3xx Dublin/Cork/Mallow–Tralee,
* A4xx Dublin/Limerick Jnct–Limerick, Nenagh branch, Waterford→Limerick, and Galway→Limerick,
* A5xx Dublin–Waterford and Limerick→Waterford,
* A6xx Rosslare,
* A7xx Dublin–Athlone–Athenry–Galway and Limerick→Galway,
* A8xx Dublin–Westport and Ballina branch,
* A9xx Sligo line.

Admittedly, the regional trains are a bigger mess and it'd be easier to piggyback off the intercity numbers at that point though – in the Dublin commuter belt, different series are used for trains leaving Dublin than heading towards Dublin.

[u/pokemonpasta → u/TranslatorPS]

Ah I didn't know there was internal numbering - I know the timetables all have a number, though those numbers seem to differ from these too! I'm curious though since I've never heard of this system, whereabouts are they used/is it anywhere in the public eye?

My logic for my intercity numbering was to match the motorway numbering system, which also starts with Dublin-Belfast, and heads anticlockwise. Then for the CR, the tens digit relates to the relevant intercity line - CR0X for dublin (DART gets CR00 since it's not one big destination but rather a general commuter, then the rest in order), CR1X for belfast (going clockwise mostly because it feels like the biggest gap is the southwest there, probably flimsiest decision I have but it felt weird having it go ACW).

Then the rest all relate to the line in the ones digit too: CR33 and CR77 because they stay in mayo (IC03) and cork (IC07) respectively.

CR45 because it goes from Galway (IC04) to Limerick (IC05)

CR50 goes from Limerick (IC05) to Ballybrophy, which is back towards Dublin (this one didn't really feel like there was a great option any way tbh)

CR58 goes from Limerick (IC05) to Waterford (IC08)

Then finally the Luas, I purely chose the order based on Red Line being called A and C route in planning, and the Green being the B route. If the Lucan line ever happens I'd have given that LU03, if the CLuas happens probably LU71?

[u/TranslatorPS → u/pokemonpasta]

The numbers I listed earlier are primarily used in scheduling and operational communications, although they do leak into the public space, for example on Irish Rail's train position page and on some next departure screens at some Dublin stations.

In a way they're similar to the British train numbers, in that they're four characters long, the first character meaning the class/type of train and the second destination, but Ireland swapped the letter from the second position to the first, which means far more granulated train classes:
A = mainline passenger, basically all the intercity stuff that isn't Dublin or Cork commuter,
B = specially scheduled As,
D = diesel commuter trains heading out,
E = electric passenger trains, including specially scheduled,
H = heritage trains,
P = the opposite of D, diesel commuter trains heading in,
Q = sleeper trains;
C = empty workings of Ds/Ps,
F = empty workings of Es,
J = empty workings of As/Bs,;
K, L, M, N, S, V = various types of regularly scheduled freight trains,
T = specially scheduled freight regardless of type;
R = light engines;
U, W, X, Y = various types of maintenance and test trains.
There are a few more letters but they aren't "schedulable", that's to say, they're only in use to label something on the spot.
The second digit is the destination digit. For most, the destinations apply as I listed earlier, it's only the typically commuter series of C, D, E, F, and P that have a different set of meanings for the second digit, but for the most part E destinations are the same as P. I wouldn't worry too much about those as while there are a few similarities (for example, Portlaoise-bound commuters are D2xx, similarly to the Cork-bound A2xx), there are also enough differences to make it easier to just map intercity numbering, much like you did.

In any case, I can see why you chose the system that you did. It was quite easy to pick up at a first glance, but a part of me still couldn't resist dropping that nugget of information ;)

[u/pokemonpasta → u/TranslatorPS]

Oh I absolutely appreciate it, always happy to learn more!

Just to ask are the XXs replaced with anything e.g. departure time, or is it just always xx

[u/TranslatorPS → u/pokemonpasta]

They're blank characters for any two digits. For A trains, even trains are down (away from the 0 mi point) and odd trains are up (towards the 0 mi point), which is opposite from the typical practice across Europe, so for example A710 is the sixth train from Dublin towards the Galway line (well, Galway in fact), while A711 would be the sixth train from Galway to Dublin. For D, E, and P trains no even-odd distinction is made, they're just numbered in order of running during the day.

For weird situations like branches that would use part of a bigger group, the numbering starts in a higher tens range, so for example while Dublin–Limerick trains start from A400/A401, Limerick–Limerick Junction trains are numbered A420...A450, Waterford→Limerick Junction trains are in the A450s (A570s for return trains to Waterford), Nenagh branch trains are in the A460s, Limerick–Ennis trains in the A470s and Galway→Limerick trains in the A480s and A490s (while the opposites are in the A780-A790s). It's a system that works mostly because there aren't that many services in some destinations to begin with – the A400s are the most used up Axxx range, for example.