Irish Rail 2016 timetable consultation: A DART every 10 minute and more

The changes to the Dublin-Belfast timetable should make the Enterprise service more attractive for commuters, especially cross-border commuters (e.g. Dundalk-Belfast or Newry-Dublin). Those travelling into Dublin will be able to arrive at 0841 (current equivalent 0904) and depart at 1710 (current equivalent 1650), which will be more closely aligned with the traditional 0900 to 1700 working day. For those travelling into Belfast a 0925 arrival, although still a bit on the late side, will be a lot better than the current 0945 arrival. The peak evening departure will still be at 1805, so this will suit anyone who can work from say 0945 to 1745.

Hungerford wrote: »

I think that I've spotted possibly the most useless sequence of DART movements possible within the morning timetable.

There are two services departing from Howth within five minutes of each other.

This might look a bit odd but with the new timetable of one Dart from Howth/Malahide every 20 minutes this train might well be the only train that isn't jam packed every morning for passengers getting on after Howth Junction.

I sometimes get a Dart at Kilbarrack from Howth that arrives 11 minutes after the previous Howth train. There's room on it. That train will be gone next year.

With every 10 minute Dart from Howth Junction onwards now being in reality a 20 minute Dart from it's first stop it means every train will be packed. And the minister says there will be increased capacity with the new timetable? He hasn't got a clue.

of course in dublin 15 at peak hours we're back to buses taken 1.5 hours-2 hours to get out to hartstown/clonsilla/ongar, traffic in dublin city has to be worse than during the last boom.

in the meantime, during peak hours, we have erractic patterns of trains on maynooth line (10 minutes upto 30 minutes) and short trains (including intercity railcars) still being used on the maynooth line.

its still hourly off peak and we still cant get a train later than 9pm on a sunday.

its a complete and utter farce!

I'm just looking at this from my own (selfish) point of view, I use Kilbarrack daily.

In the morning it looks like all the Darts will be crowded from Howth Junction onwards when at the moment some aren't. In the evening every second train will be full with 20 minutes worth of commuters either going to Howth or Malahide. If they are still 4 carriages long it will chaos.

I've no doubt Malahide users are happy with Darts every 20 minutes, so will Southsiders. With a train every 10 minutes to Bray if one is too short or packed just get the next one. This isn't an option with the line split for Northsiders.

Paying even more next year in fares I was hoping the new timetable would alleviate crushes, not add to them.

thomasj wrote: »

short trains (including intercity railcars) still being used on the maynooth line.

agree, but don't expect anything to change in terms of stock. from what i can see IE seem to find it operationally convenient to use regional/intercity stock on local services even though they cannot cope with those services, while robbing your suburban stock for long distance services which don't actually justify the capacity that such suburban stock offers.

Oiriallach wrote: »

The changes to the Dublin-Belfast timetable should make the Enterprise service more attractive for commuters, especially cross-border commuters (e.g. Dundalk-Belfast or Newry-Dublin).

I would argue the opposite. There is a huge issue with the new Belfast morning departure time (06:15 am). It will depart before any of the current local connecting services get to Belfast Central or Portadown.

This means that passengers on the Larne, Bangor and Portadown local lines will be unable to use the service. And there is a surprising amount of such traffic - when connections to that first train have been broken in the past, Translink have had to reschedule local services to reinstate them.

The problem this time is that I cannot see Translink pushing back the start times of their local services by half an hour to accommodate the earlier departure.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/train-drivers-may-not-be-able-to-operate-earlier-and-more-frequent-services-unions-34234658.html

Well it was inevitable that this was gonna happen. The unions are basically questioning weather this is even achivable. Dunno if it can be done I did hear a while back that the extra drivers they were supposed to have gotten have ended up replacing existing drivers leaving.

Nothing in this for Portmarnock either - trains to city centre between 7 & 8am go from 6 down to 3 and the 6 are packed as it is. Halved coming home too which will be a nightmare. Sent feedback to their link and urge everyone affected to do the same. Ridiculous proposal.

Wichita Lineman wrote: »

I commute to Dublin from Mullingar every day and I can see nothing but problems added to an already unsatisfactory journeys in and out. They are expecting us to leave earlier in the morning and then later in the evening as if our day wasn't long enough. The proposed 18.15 will run only 6 minutes behind a Maynooth train stopping at all stations. There isn't a hope that it wont delay our train every single day.

your a connolly long distance user, so you don't matter it seems. dart must get priority for everything not at some cost, but at all costs. granted dart is an important service but when it slows everything else down to a crawl, we have a problem. i honestly cannot see why they don't try letting non stopping services ahead of darts on a trial basis and see can it work. if not so be it but for god sake try something different for once

Aside from passengers connecting (or trying to!) with ferries the village of Rosslare Harbour has its own resident population of approx. 1,000 some of whom use the rail service. There are also outlying rural areas and villages which the Harbour (and Strand) would serve as a railhead for with people being met/dropped to the station plus the option of parking at either station (the Strand is still free but a fee applies at the Europort station car park).


There is no longer any bus from Rosslare Harbour or Strand to Dublin so the train offers the only direct connection from Rosslare Harbour and Strand to the city as well as to towns along the route like Gorey and Arklow.


For travelling to France going via Dublin is not an option for foot passengers as the vessel doesn’t carry them.


It’s not a total disaster though as the 16.37 from Dublin connects into the evening sailings out of Rosslare (have used it myself & have seen other ferry passengers alight from it). But this train doesn’t run on Saturdays or Sundays… The 07.20 train from Rosslare offers a connection out of the overnight crossings from Wales. In the Summer the ferry from France berths around 11/11.30 and I’ve seen passengers in double digits off this ferry waiting at Europort platform for the 12.55 train.


It’s common for the buses between Rosslare and Waterford including the 370 route that replaced the train to carry a few ferry passengers.


A plus of going via Rosslare is that all the ferries have a train connection at Fishguard and the whole timetable from Rosslare through to Cardiff and London Paddington is designed to integrate and connect so the amount of waiting around is minimal whereas going out of Dublin at night one is left hanging around Holyhead from just after midnight till 04.25, a tiring prospect and not a very realistic option.


When Stena Line introduced the Superfast ferry out of Dublin earlier this year the connecting bus operated by Mortons from Westmoreland Street had an extra departure each way added connecting out of the midday (forget exact time) arrival from Holyhead and leaving Westmoreland Street at 14.00 to connect into the 15.10 sailing to Holyhead (previously these had no dedicated bus connection). A bus connection from the 23.45 arrival seems a good idea especially at weekends as it would reach the city in time to feed into the last Luas and night buses (both to city suburbs and a number of longer-distance coaches).


But of course it could and should be much better. Between Dublin and Rosslare the maximum number of sailings (arrivals & departures) on a given day is only in the twenties and passengers wishing to connect with each of them should be able to do so with ease.

At Midnight, getting public transport to serve the port is waaay down the list of night time services Dublin needs.

How many foot passengers were there on that sailing?
What percentage would use PT to travel on?

Carawaystick wrote: »

At Midnight, getting public transport to serve the port is waaay down the list of night time services Dublin needs.

How many foot passengers were there on that sailing?

Around 20. Which would be more than the midnight departure on a lot of Nitelinks.

It's probably a chicken and egg situation too. More people would travel if there were reliable connections, and there'd be more reliable connections if more people travelled.