IÉ 22000 Class

The 22000 Class "InterCity Railcar" is a diesel multiple unit in service with Iarnród Éireann in Ireland.

IÉ ordered 120 replacement vehicles: in a major departure, the new trains would be 3 and 6 car DMUs rather than locomotive-hauled carriages.

Two of the 3-car sets, 22010 and 22011, were delivered in July 2007 with corrosion damage received in transit from South Korea.

[6] Plans by Enterprise to improve its services included the potential of purchasing DMUs to replace its locomotive-hauled coaching stock.

However, it soon became apparent that replacing 6-car units with 4-car ones would lead to overcrowding, which caused IÉ to subsequently alter the proposal into sets of 3, 4 and 5-car lengths.

In 2008 the class were modified to shut down the engines after a period of inactivity if the drivers cab key was off,[9] and in 2018 it was announced one three car unit was to trial a ZF transmission to replace the original Voith and it was hoped this might yield 19% fuel savings in some conditions.

[14] An additional nine cars are to be fitted with a diesel-battery hybrid MTU/Rolls-Royce power pack as a trial,[15] with route-dependent fuel savings of up to 33% [16] In 2018, it was announced that Iarnród Éireann were seeking to procure a further 41 new 22000 Class vehicles, encompassing three additional units plus a number of intermediate trailers intended to lengthen some of the existing fleet.

[17] An order for 41 intermediate ("type B") cars, which would release additional units by reconfiguration of existing pairs, was confirmed in October 2019.

22013 in Wexford on a Rosslare Europort to Dublin Connolly service in 2012.
22022 passes through Hazelhatch and Celbridge railway station on a Cork to Dublin service in 2008
A 22000 at Limerick station in 2008
22020 stands at Dublin Connolly forming a service to Sligo