Visit Connolly Station for Culture Night

Victor · 10-09-2014 1:50am #1

http://www.irishrail.ie/culturenight

Take a tour of Connolly Station Building in association with Culture Night
19 August 2014

Be in with a chance to win tickets to some fantastic shows - Enter Below

Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail is proud to support Culture Night, which will take place on 19th September from 5pm-11pm. Over 900 cultural institutions across Ireland will open their doors for FREE events with something to suit every age and interest from live music to interactive tours.

An incredible blend of cultural events will take place as museums, galleries, cathedrals, studios, observatories, libraries, parks, government buildings and theatres in each corner of the country create an inimitable celebratory night-time atmosphere . It’s the largest participatory cultural event in Ireland, where each county showcases the very best of its cultural venues, talents and creativity.

Competition Time

Thanks to our friends in Culture Night, we have a pair of tickets to be won to the following 3 fantastic shows;

Friendly Fire @ The New Theatre
Australian Chamber Orchestra @ The National Concert Hall
Defender of the Faith @ The Hawk's Well Theatre

Enter now

Competition closes Friday 19th September @ 13:00hrs.

Connolly Station Building Tour

Discover the Amiens St Terminus, designed by William Dean Butler in the Italianate style. Don’t miss out on special tours of the building at 6pm and 7pm on Friday 19th September. There is limited availability on each tour so please register your interest by clicking on 'Apply Now' below and selecting what time tour suits you best.

Apply now

Why not take the family on a day out by rail with our fantastic family fares. All family tickets are valid for a return journey for 1 or 2 adults and up to 4 children between 5 and 15yrs old. Children under 5yrs travel free on Intercity services. Children under 3yrs travel free on Dart.

The full national programme is available on www.culturenight.ie

encryptix · 12-09-2014 6:48pm

The page in the link just takes name and time?

Losty Dublin · 12-09-2014 7:28pm

encryptix wrote: »

The page in the link just takes name and time?

They will e mail successful applicants closer to the day.

13-09-2014 6:55pm

I wasn't even asked for an e-mail address?

encryptix · 13-09-2014 6:56pm

Karsini wrote: »

I wasn't even asked for an e-mail address?

I put my name & Email in the name field

Losty Dublin · 13-09-2014 6:57pm

Karsini wrote: »

I wasn't even asked for an e-mail address?

Odd. I was.

Maybe they don't like you

13-09-2014 6:59pm

Hehe :pac:

This is all I get.

Losty Dublin · 14-09-2014 3:07pm

Karsini wrote: »

Hehe :pac:

This is all I get.

That's all you deserve :pac:

dregin · 19-09-2014 9:05am

Anyone know what the plan is for later? I put my name down for the 18:00 tour, but there's no information on where to meet on the site.

dregin · 19-09-2014 9:45am

Ok, it starts from the information booth at 18:00 and 19:00.

Rashers72 · 19-09-2014 11:18pm

Might of been a bit chaotic at the start. Complete signal failure at Howth Junction at 5pm. All Northbound DARTS and suburban trains, and Belfast trains suspended till 6.30pm when they resumed. Lots of services 88 minutes late. Also a complete breakdown in communication to passengers on trains, on platforms and via displays. Worst was Connolly.
Also seemed to be delays in Heuston at the same time.

n97 mini · 20-09-2014 11:49am

Anyone at this? Any good?

n97 mini · 21-09-2014 7:26pm

n97 mini wrote: »

Anyone at this? Any good?

Anyone?

flyingsnail · 22-09-2014 12:12pm

n97 mini wrote: »

Anyone?

Must have been so good that they never left :P

devnull · 22-09-2014 2:15pm

Rashers72 wrote: »

Might of been a bit chaotic at the start. Complete signal failure at Howth Junction at 5pm. All Northbound DARTS and suburban trains, and Belfast trains suspended till 6.30pm when they resumed. Lots of services 88 minutes late. Also a complete breakdown in communication to passengers on trains, on platforms and via displays. Worst was Connolly.
Also seemed to be delays in Heuston at the same time.

There were issues after 7.00pm as well - I got the impression that they did not want to make announcements whilst tours were going on to save face.

The displays were not being updated, trains were going off to Malahide from Connolly and people were getting on, since the displays were saying that services were suspended between Howth Junction and Howth only, no announcements, ending with hundreds of people getting trains to Malahide and getting held at Kilbarack and Raheny for anywhere from 30-45 minutes being told the line was closed only when reaching those stations.

Indeed the Malahide line was closed for a good while before people even got on at Connolly despite the screens stating it was running but until people got to Kilbarack etc, nobody knew a thing apart from the fact the Howth branch was closed. most of the passengers would have just got a bus form Amiens Stree thad we known.

LXFlyer · 22-09-2014 4:13pm

Rashers72 wrote: »

Might of been a bit chaotic at the start. Complete signal failure at Howth Junction at 5pm. All Northbound DARTS and suburban trains, and Belfast trains suspended till 6.30pm when they resumed. Lots of services 88 minutes late. Also a complete breakdown in communication to passengers on trains, on platforms and via displays. Worst was Connolly.
Also seemed to be delays in Heuston at the same time.

devnull wrote: »

There were issues after 7.00pm as well - I got the impression that they did not want to make announcements whilst tours were going on to save face.

The displays were not being updated, trains were going off to Malahide from Connolly and people were getting on, since the displays were saying that services were suspended between Howth Junction and Howth only, no announcements, ending with hundreds of people getting trains to Malahide and getting held at Kilbarack and Raheny for anywhere from 30-45 minutes being told the line was closed only when reaching those stations.

Indeed the Malahide line was closed for a good while before people even got on at Connolly despite the screens stating it was running but until people got to Kilbarack etc, nobody knew a thing apart from the fact the Howth branch was closed. most of the passengers would have just got a bus form Amiens Stree thad we known.

What has any of this got to do with Culture Night?

I spotted this tweet which is on topic:
https://twitter.com/IrishAero/status/513031361138282496

dregin · 22-09-2014 5:07pm

Was at the 1800 tour.

The guide was very informative, but extremely hard to hear when we were out on the platform.

Inside the main building was great to see and once we could hear him, it was good to get a bit of the history behind the place.

Apparently the tours are usually for groups of maybe 10 architects maximum, so they weren't really prepared when 50+ people showed up.

Would definitely recommend it, if they run one again, providing they sort out some sort of PA system for the guide!

devnull · 22-09-2014 5:25pm

lxflyer wrote: »

What has any of this got to do with Culture Night?

I spotted this tweet which is on topic:
https://twitter.com/IrishAero/status/513031361138282496

The fact that tours were happening co-incised with an absolute meltdown of communication between passengers and staff is somewhat of a co-incidence, that is all.

Do we know how the tours were staffed and if it was staffed by overtime and extra work or if it involved station staff being redeployed? Because the staffing simply wasn't adequate on Friday night.

Do you think it is acceptable at any time for Irish Rail to not make announcements about disruption? Regardless if there is a tour going on or not?

LXFlyer · 22-09-2014 5:30pm

devnull wrote: »

The fact that tours were happening co-incised with an absolute meltdown of communication between passengers and staff is somewhat of a co-incidence, that is all.

Do we know how the tours were staffed and if it was staffed by overtime and extra work or if it involved station staff being redeployed? Because the staffing simply wasn't adequate on Friday night.

Do you think it is acceptable at any time for Irish Rail to not make announcements about disruption? Regardless if there is a tour going on or not?

I would seriously doubt that platform/operations staff were giving the tour.

The issue of disruption is frankly a completely different topic.

devnull · 22-09-2014 5:38pm

The fact that announcements were not made at the same time a tour was going on is going to raise eyebrows. Rightly or wrongly people will always speculate, come up with conspiracy theories etc and sometimes think that there may be a connection there, others will take it at face value, each to their own opinion.

But the fact is in any industry up and down the country, all over the world, companies try and save face by not making any remarks or announcements that could seem negative at times of VIP visitors for example to prevent them from being shown in a bad light, this may or may not have happened here, but as I said it is a co-incidence.

I'm not saying it is related, but either way the level of service shown was completely unacceptable and whatever the facts, it happened around the same time tours were taking place so people are going to draw their own conclusions from that, whether they are right or wrong to, I don't know if that was causing the situation or not, I just simply know it was unacceptable.

dregin · 22-09-2014 5:47pm

lxflyer wrote: »

I would seriously doubt that platform/operations staff were giving the tour.

The issue of disruption is frankly a completely different topic.

The tour guide was a retired driver (I think, couldn't hear clear, but definitely a retired employee).

He was aided by a couple of staff who seemed to be PR-related and one other who acted as an usher, keeping people behind the yellow line and what not.

devnull · 22-09-2014 5:55pm

It's great that Irish Rail could find someone to tell people to keep behind the yellow line on the tour, but they couldn't find anyone to make announcements to the paying public during disruption.

Interesting that PR people were there, which indicates they would like to portray a positive image of the company, which is to be expected in such situations with any tourist events or tours etc.

For what it's worth the picture of the building look nice and like a palace upstairs, but if management are staying in a palace with the staircases shining like that, whilst the staff are being asked to take pay cuts, I start to understand the divide between the staff and the management a little more.

dregin · 22-09-2014 6:02pm

I don't see any pics of the utterly massive television in the board room. It has to be at least 100" and seemed to be very new!

22-09-2014 6:07pm

devnull wrote: »

It's great that Irish Rail could find someone to tell people to keep behind the yellow line on the tour, but they couldn't find anyone to make announcements to the paying public during disruption.

Is this the "keep behind the yellow line and mind the gap when boarding or alighting trains" announcement? If so, it's pre-recorded.

devnull · 22-09-2014 6:09pm

That announcement was actually re-recorded about a week back with a gentleman actually taking a huge intake of breath before saying it and a huge breathe out after it up and down the stations, but since Thursday that's been removed too.

I know the announcement you are talking about, but i was refering to the fact that the above poster said there was ushers to give such messages.

Grandeeod · 22-09-2014 10:41pm

dregin wrote: »

I don't see any pics of the utterly massive television in the board room. It has to be at least 100" and seemed to be very new!

Even in the mid 90s, it had a "big as you can get" tube TV and "top of the range" VHS player. I wouldn't hold it against them, as its fairly essential equipment to have in a board room.

n97 mini · 23-09-2014 4:12pm

devnull wrote: »

For what it's worth the picture of the building look nice and like a palace upstairs, but if management are staying in a palace with the staircases shining like that, whilst the staff are being asked to take pay cuts, I start to understand the divide between the staff and the management a little more.

The "palace" was built a long time ago, and is part of our architectural heritage. The only alternative to using it is not to use it.

The_Wanderer · 27-09-2014 11:43am

It's a lovely building, but I wouldn't call it a palace. Judging by some of the comments on here maybe they should all move to a hut?

Visit Connolly Station for Culture Night

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