DART, when it opened, was the start of some hope of modernisation. Not only was this the actual execution of electrfying the main part of Dublin suburban services (which prior to that were operated by 6100-class push-pull conversions of 2600-class DMUs, hauled by the old Metrovick 201-class engines), but also hope for future electrification (even mainline, with Dublin-Cork as the first candidate).

But no...after all, how long did it take to get Malahide and Greystones done? and instead of DART being the beginning of a wider expansion of electrified suburban rail around the city (imagine DART on the Harcourt Street Line, running through to the Broadstone Line underground onto a new line via Finglas, Ballymun and the Airport bound for Swords, for example? or electric suburban trains to Dundalk, Kildare and Maynooth, whether EMU or locomotive-hauled? plus restoration of other suburban lines in electrified form, e.g. Naas?), we instead got stuck with Luas, a separate light rail system that used low platforms, was off-gauge from the general railway network, and runs on the street in one of the most congested city centres in the world (with buses on O'Connell Street smashing into them)...and another incompatible system is on the way (the "Meitreo Átha Cliath", equally incompatible with both DART and Luas).