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nospamjl · 06-11-2003 11:50am #1

Brace yourselves, what a suprise - no darts on the southside at all over the holiday season!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1106/DART.html

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has reacted angrily to news that the DART line between Connolly Station and Greystones will be closed from Christmas Day until 4 January.

A spokesman accused Iarnród Éireann of a lack of consultation about the closure, which he says will affect the January sales in the city.

The company says the closure is needed to allow improvements to be carried out.

The line is already shut down at weekends for the same reason.

http://www.irishrail.ie/dart/home/

November There will be no weekend DART or Commuter services south of Pearse. Normal Service will operate Monday to Friday.

1st Dec - 23rd Dec.
Normal DART and Commuter services, including WEEKENDS.

Christmas Eve
Last DART will leave the city centre at approx 21:00.

Christmas Day & St. Stephen's Day
No Services

27th Dec - 4th Jan.
All train services between Connolly and Greystones will be cancelled for these 9 days. Normal service will operate between Malahide, Howth & Connolly.

10th Jan - 31st Jan.
There will be no weekend DART or Commuter services south of Pearse. Normal Service will operate Monday to Friday.

Sleipnir · 06-11-2003 11:55am

Heard it on the radio this morning. What a bunch of morons they really are.

davej · 06-11-2003 12:48pm

This seems to me to be the sacrifice we pay for having the DARTs run on weekends during December...

davej

MrPudding · 06-11-2003 2:39pm

You consider 6 weeks notice to be last minute? Exactly how much notice would you like? Would you prefer that they leave the system as is? What exactly would you like them to do, do you want it upgraded or not?

dmeehan · 06-11-2003 3:39pm

this was anounced previously by bertie ahern in the dail...
it is a swap for having darts running the 3 weekends before xmas

nospamjl · 06-11-2003 4:24pm

> You consider 6 weeks notice to be last minute?

Would you suggest that IE have only decided to close the half the network over 11 days just this week? Is that how close they plan this?

Considering that they must have known about this for some time but have probably decided to wait until the heat about the 18 month weekend closures were settled. 6 weeks notice to business and users is not very long indeed when considering the January sales are one of the important times of the year.

They *had* issued a report saying they would be be makeing up for some time over the "quiet" Christmas period between Christmas and New Year. Show me where they said it would be a *complete* shutdown of 50% of the line for 11 days of half of the service!

As to what I expect them to do is I would expect them to show some consideration to their customers, e.g.

* Explain why they only announced details of the closure of 50% of the line with less than a weeks notice

* Explain why they can't upgrade these station by station so that increasing parts of the line are opened up instead of 50% of the line being closed until late 2005!

* Explain why they decided to do this with the city in chaos with Luas, port tunnel, and a bus service which is degradeing rapidly?

* Fair enough the upgrade for wheelchair users is long overdue but what passengers want is not longer trains but more *frequent* trains. Look back at what the DART promised at the beginning - this is not the service that was promised.

* Explain why they are probably going to do the same thing all over again in 2 years time as if you read between the lines they are implying of having to do this all again to upgrade the power system to allow for more train instead of doing it at the same time?

jl

You consider 6 weeks notice to be last minute? Exactly how much notice would you like? Would you prefer that they leave the system as is? What exactly would you like them to do, do you want it upgraded or not?

loyatemu · 06-11-2003 4:44pm

* Explain why they decided to do this with the city in chaos with Luas, port tunnel, and a bus service which is degradeing rapidly?

the luas and port tunnel are in different parts of the city and probably aren't affecting southside dart users that much

they are probably going to do the same thing all over again in 2 years time

no - they are upgrading the power supply at the same time

but otherwise I agree - they are running to stand still and really need to prioritise upgrading the signalling to allow for more frequent trains.

nospamjl · 06-11-2003 4:56pm

From what I can see the only power upgrade I can see is:

--
Power supply upgrades to enable 8-carriage services to operate; replacement of overhead lines across network
--

This does not mean that it will run *more* trains but longer ones. This service should be running every 5 minutes.

I would not completely agree with your point about the LUAS and Port Tunnel not affecting Southside travel. This is all going to be done agin in 9 months time and believe me we will still have the Port Tunnel and the LUAS will drag on.

I recall reading how the SRA have said the lines will be finished by Christmas (which year

) but they haven't told the public the choas with electric lines, station building, etc.

What we need is a co-ordinated plan, integrated ticketing which were all in reports decades ago but which the Governement and IR/Dublin Bus have ignored completely.

jl

nospamjl · 06-11-2003 5:04pm

Here is the little footnote that IR don't want you to think about:

--
A second phase of the DART Upgrade is planned which will involve resignalling the city centre to increase the maximum number of DART and commuter services through the central area from the current 12 trains per hour in each direction to 16tph in each direction
--

The 18+ month closure is only stage 1 of the mismanagement they want to inflict.

What's the bets in OCTOBER 2005 (the earliest they'll finish this "upgrade") they will say "oh we told you we were going to close the city center network for XX months" where XX is any old number they make up.

Basic upshot is that there is probably a good chance you won't be able to travel from one side of the city to another at weekends until about 2006/7..

meanwhile we are still awaiting a proper announced plan not to mention integrated ticketing...

jl

Victor · 06-11-2003 6:38pm

nospamjl, tone it down big time or you won't be here for long.

By the way I'd like to know who you work for.

Go Figure! · 07-11-2003 11:03am

Originally posted by Victor
nospamjl, tone it down big time or you won't be here for long.

By the way I'd like to know who you work for.

Knowing the way this country works nospamjl will probably turn out to be right. He didn't use any bad language and you can't silence someone for expressing an opinion surely! Our public transport system belongs to us the citizens of the country and its time we stood up for it!

Victor · 07-11-2003 5:01pm

All I want is for him to contribute meaningful opinion, not rant* from what looks like a script.

* /me skulks away quietly

nospamjl · 07-11-2003 6:41pm

Helllo Victor,

I will try to keep the tone down in future if it helps. On the other hand I see far more annoyed letters in the broadsheet newspapers.

Incidentally, the opinions are personal purely my own and I do not and have never worked for any company connected in transport either public or private. No script was involved.

added: I don't and have never worked for a newspaper or tv company or the like.

I did suggest some means by which the city should improve it's transport situation (integrated ticketing, co-ordinated planning and a staggered dart shutdown) so it wasn't all criticism but suggetions too.

jl

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