This year, the annual technical tour organised by the IMechE’s Railway Division started in Belfast on Saturday 2 May. This eight-day tour visited sites of interest in Ireland before taking a ferry from Cork to Britanny to see three quite different light rail systems in Northwest France.
Malcolm Dobell and I were on the tour which had around 40 participants of whom about half were young engineers. For them, it was particularly valuable to see how other countries engineer their railways as well as having the opportunity for informal chats with senior engineers.
Belfast
The first visit was to the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s museum and workshop at Whitehead to see the historic locomotives and coaches restored by the Society’s volunteers. From there a hydrogen-powered bus took the group to the new Belfast Grand Central transport interchange with 26 bus stands and eight rail platforms. This was constructed at a cost of £340 million and opened in 2024.
From Grand Central a local train took us to Adelaide Depot which is a multi-modal training and engineering hub for Northern Ireland’s public transport operator Translink. Its facilities include a bus and rail training centre, train driving and rail signalling simulators, and a rail vehicle maintenance shed built in 2011. The depot does all the maintenance on Translink’s CAF built diesel multiple units (DMUs). These are 23 x 3-car Class 3000 DMUs, introduced in 2004, and 13 x 3-car plus 7 x 6-car Class 4000 DMUs which were introduced in 2011.
The next day we took the loco-hauled Enterprise service from Belfast to Dublin which included a rail replacement bus service. On the tour we learnt that eight 10-car Stadler tri-mode units (diesel, 1.5kVDC, and battery) have been ordered to operate the Enterprise service. The intention is that, once this line has been electrified at 25kV AC, the diesel power cars on these units will be replaced by 25kV power cars. On arrival in Dublin the tour visited Ireland’s National Transport Museum at Howth.
Dublin, Foynes, and Cork
On Monday a tram-replacement bus took the group to Irish Rail’s (Iarnród Éireann – IE) Inchicore workshops. Here, IE Chief Mechanical Engineer Peter Smyth gave the group presentations on IE’s future plans and the maintenance of its rail fleet. He explained that IE is a single company split into two parts: railway undertaking and infrastructure manager. He considered that this works well due to Ireland’s small scale and the need for tight integration.
IE’s rolling stock fleet consists of around 650 passenger vehicles and 52 diesel locomotives. The fleet is maintained at Inchicore and seven satellite depots. The Inchicore workshop was established in 1846 and is one of the few remaining in house heavy engineering rail works in Europe. The group saw its impressive facilities which include workshops for the overhaul of locomotives, including engine rebuilds, bogies, and wheelsets. They also saw the new DART+ Battery Electric Multiple Units (BEMU) as Inchicore forms the individual cars and bogies into articulated sets. The works also manages the testing and commissioning of these units.
On Tuesday, two trains and a coach took the group from Dublin to the port of Foynes on the River Shannon. Here the tour learnt about the port’s recent expansion and its plans for a deep-water port and logistics park. The port is soon to benefit from a new motorway and reinstated 42km rail line built at a cost of €151.5 million and which is planned to be commissioned by the end of the year. The presentation about this new line was given in the lecture theatre of the Foynes Flying Boat Museum which, in the late 1930s, claimed to be the world’s busiest passenger airport, albeit with only one flight a week.
After spending the night in Cork, on Wednesday the group took a trip on the city’s commuter railway to see a recent 10km redoubling project and a new through platform at Cork’s main station. These projects will eventually facilitate the introduction of the high frequency service required by the Cork Area Commuter Rail (CACR) scheme.
In a presentation it was explained that, with the city’s population expected to grow by 60% by 2040, CACR is needed to shift commuters from private cars to public transport and unlock housing and industrial developments. Cork’s current rail commuter service operates on a 63km rail network with 10 stations and has a 30-minute frequency. CACR will provide a 10-minute frequency with an additional eight stations. As explained elsewhere in this issue, it was originally considered that this service could be provided by BEMUs. However, a detailed study of the power required to operate such an intense commuter service showed that CACR requires full 25kV AC electrification.
Presentations given to the tour at Cork and Inchicore described aspects of the All Ireland Rail Strategy which is fully described in Issue 219 (Mar-Apr 2026).
To France
The tour left Cork on an overnight ferry to Roscoff in Brittany from where a bus and TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) took us to Rennes whose metropolitan area has a population of 500,000. This city has two metro lines A and B which opened in 2002 and 2022. Both are fully automated with platform screen doors and use the Siemens VAL system which has rubber-tyred-trains running on steel strip (line A) or concrete (line B). Line A is guided by horizontal rubber wheels on vertical rails either side of the guideway. These rails double as conductor rails. In contrast, line B is guided by rubber faced steel wheels on a central steel rail with separate conductor rails either side of the guide rail.
The tour was given a presentation on the 13km Line B which has 15 stations. This is operated by 25 two-car trainsets with provision to add a third car later. As the trains are driverless, service frequency can easily be changed to match variations in demand. Line B’s construction cost was €1.38 billion against its initial estimate of €1.20 billion.
On Friday we took a train to Angers for the last hotel stay of our tour. The central section of Angers tram system has trams with no overhead wires or batteries. As was explained to the group, Angers trams use APS which is an Alimentation Par le Sol (ground level power supply) system. This has a central third rail system divided into eight metre segments which are only energised when the tram is above them. These segments are controlled by local power boxes, separated by three metre neutral joints.
While in Angers, Louise Shaw, head of new fleet procurement and delivery at Transport Scotland, gave a presentation on Scotland’s fleet transition strategy. She noted how this builds on Scotland’s rolling programme of electrification which has been delivered 30% cheaper than electrification south of the border.
ScotRail currently has 11 different fleet types and needs far fewer, more standardised fleet types which are broadly inter-city, suburban, and rural/scenic. Lousie advised that following a detailed study Transport Scotland judged that electrification has the lowest whole life cost due to its greater energy efficiency, higher reliability, lower recurring capital cost, simpler depot, and fleet operations.
Electrification has also been shown to grow both passenger and freight traffic. She advised that although Battery EMUs are a useful transitional investment they have a lower energy efficiency, high battery replacement cost, and require complex state of charge management.
The last day of the tour on Saturday 8 May saw the group taking a TGV train to Nantes to learn more about the city’s trams. The city has a 44km tram network of three tram lines with two more lines being built. It also has two tram-train systems. The tour visited the maintenance depot and control centre at Dalby as well as the new 12,000 m² facility at Babinière built at a cost of €143 million.
And so, in eight days, the group had 12 visits and presentations, 13 train journeys totalling 992 km, an overnight ferry, five different hotels, 11 bus or coach trips, five tram rides, and three metro rides. It was a fascinating and varied tour from which much was learnt about railway engineering outside the UK. In part, this was from discussions between those on the tour.
Great opportunity
This feature only provides an overview of the tour. Future issues of Rail Engineer will include further articles detailing particular aspects of the tour.
Members of the IMechE’s Railway Division, and in particular Andrew Skinner and Professor Felix Schmid, are to be commended for organising this technical tour which was an excellent development opportunity for young engineers. Rail Engineer wonders where the 2027 annual technical tour will visit.
The Railway technical tour was sponsored by Beacon Rail, Porterbrook, Angel Trains, and the Manchester Railway Consultancy.
Image credit: Andrew Skinner