They are 7 coaches long + generator van + locomotive.
You can say that again, Google Maps led me the complete wrong way to a half abandoned car park with someone being arrested in it!
Is that what the weird flat building in front is?
I mean, capacity will increase a lot when they double the frequency to hourly, so there may be little case for extending it more than the extra space enabled by going to trimode MU
City Telephone Exchange
Isn’t every town scarred by an awful Post Office Telephones building? They really did build some awful stuff that won’t go away.
Yes most 'telephone exchanges' are more than half empty these days; even if BT need to retain a point of presence to the network at that location, they could probably do it with a smaller footprint.
224m long for 4-8 from what I've seen. Which does seem short for UK intercity lengths but I guess there were space constraints.
From the network statement. 1-4 are Bays, 5-7 through.
It looks like going beyond CY55 would block platform 3, and I imagine they'd want a choice of two platforms to terminate the Enterprise so they have somewhere to put it if the intended platform is unavailable. On that basis 224m is the maximum viable length for Enterprise. NI domestic services are unlikely ever to be any longer than that so it essentially sets the platform length for Grand Central.
I suppose Enterprise could have an Inter-city MU that would use the full length for passenger accommodation?
A future fleet almost certainly would, considering that all recent Intercity stock orders for Irish Rail has been MUs and apart from Enterprise I think only Dublin-Cork is still loco-hauled.
I’m assuming that ‘rewiring’/redirecting them is monumentally expensive, as I can think of at least one other hideous exchane that is in a prime redevelopment site right next to a station.
It would be similar magnitude to moving a signalling centre I imagine
Probably not quite that bad as less safety-critical stuff, but still an obstacle.
Drogheda can’t cope with longer trains either.
They have gone out to tender for replacing the De Dietrich stock with bi-mode units.
But worse because you can’t just shut down the phone system (especially now with the internet!) for a week or two whilst you do it.
If you rip out telephone exchanges all the businesses lose the ability to process payments. The links between the banks data centres will go in fibre through telephone exchanges. No 999 service. Much of the mobile phone traffic will get aggregated in telephone exchanges so you'll lose mobile coverage. Air traffic control is gone, immigration machines at ports and airports are gone.
I assumed it must be. Are there also strict restrictions preventing building on top of them? Ie squashing down the stuff without moving the hole in the ground the connections arrive in, then building flats offices above.
BBC News article
Since when is Great Britain the “mainland” when discussing the island of Ireland?
