In 2013, IÉ announced plans to reform the 22000 class units from 3 and 6-car sets into 3 and 4-car units, to obtain better flexibility from them in regards to passenger numbers per train. 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. The 20 cars taken off the original 6-car sets 22031–45 and inserted in the original 3-car sets 22011–30 got additional numbers 22811–30 but also kept the original number 22531–540,641,741,642,742,643,743,644,744,645,745. Fuel economy There have been attempts to improve the fuel economy of the 22000 Class. In 2008 the class were modified to shut down the engines after a period of inactivity if the drivers cab key was off, 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. An additional nine cars are to be fitted with a diesel-battery hybrid MTU/Rolls-Royce power pack as a trial, with route-dependent fuel savings of up to 33% Future 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. The ultimate aim is to return the fleet to a mix of three and six-car sets. An order for 41 intermediate ("type B") cars, which would release additional units by reconfiguration of existing pairs, was confirmed in October 2019. Fleet details Features Engine: MTU 6H 1800 R83, 12.8 L, 6 cylinder, 483 bhp gross, traction per car. Transmission: Voith T 312 R Top speed: 160 km/h (100 mph) Body: high quality stainless steel with some corrosion-resistant carbon steel components Automatic PA and information display systems (Supplier: SA Viewcom) Fully air-conditioned (Supplier: Toshiba) Saloon, external view of doors and front-facing CCTV camera and recording system (Supplier: Verint) Catering facilities (some trains have buffet bars) Individual base seating Fire safety to BS 6853 Cat 1B, automatic fire extinguishing system for engines & fuel tanks All sets have Irish standard CAWS signaling systems and train radio. 3-car sets 22001–22006, as well as 5-car sets 22036–22039 have TPWS/AWS for operation on Northern Ireland Railways. Routes InterCity services Dublin Heuston / Athlone to Galway