DART Grievances

senordingdong

Are there any other frequent Dart users here that are unhappy with the service?

I have to get a Dart and a Luas every day and to be honest, the difference in service quality is quite disturbing.
This morning I arrived to the Dart station and there wasn't a Dart due for fifteen minutes...in the middle of rush hour.
I would have found this bearable only for the Dart that eventually arrived, (over crowded) moved at a snails pace (probably because of the same traffic that has made them less frequent) and made a long unscheduled stop just before getting to Connolly station...which seems to be the norm thesedays but it still pissed me off something fierce. And so a twenty minute journey becomes a half hour endurance test.

I then get to Stephens Green and hop on a Luas which runs every THREE minutes during rush hour, and flies me (and loads of others) out to Sandyford in about fifteen or twenty minutes.

I think the service Iarnrod Eireann are providing is appauling. And the best solution they could think up was making bigger Darts...the problem with Dart isn't it's capacity, it's it's frequency. What use is an eight carriage Dart when you have to wait up to twenty minutes for it in rush hour, to get on an overcrowded Dart that moves at a snails pace.

I'm tired of making plans based on a timetable that they provide then still end up being behind schedule.

senordingdong

Oh...and another thing, on the way home this evening, on a Malahide bound Dart, we were informed at Clontarf, that the Dart would be going non-stop to Howth Junction.
This especially made me irate since we had all waited on that Dart the usual ridiculous length of time that Iarnrod Eireann think is acceptable, half of us are then kicked off (a train that was marked incorrectly), leaving the Dart half empty...we then waited for another Dart which when arrived, was full, ofcourse, yet we all had to squeeze on.
Again...I find this appauling but have a feeling Iarnrod Eireann couldn't fix it even if they were competant.
There really is no point in complaining is there?

paulm17781

I couldn't agree with you more. There are numerous reasons the DART is so bad, capacity, level crossings, Greystones but none of these make any difference to the annoyed commuter.

If the interconnector ever gets built it may go some way to improving this but that is at least 9 years away. One thing that could help would be changing Bray - Greystones back to a shuttle service. Sadly I can't imagine there will much improvement in the near future.

Victor

The bridge at the Customs House was struck again today, would you prefer to have been derailed?

MarkoP11

I have noticed a massive improvement in punctuality and comfort over the last 3 years that said after Greytones opened things couldn't have got worse, OK it probably has something to do with the fact the CEO of IE lives in Killiney. Southside there is no problem 8 services an hour in the rush hour is no problem as there is at most one outer suburban train an hour to deal with. The fundamental problem is the massive growth in towns beyond Dublin, Skerries, Donabate, Balbriggan etc, they managed to hijack slots in the late 1990's as there weren't enough DART coaches to use them. The Maynooth line came from nowhere to having a catchment area the size of the southside DART line.

Given current resources the system is moving as many people as it can but not in the most efficient way, there is a need for at least another 50 coaches just to saturate Connolly as it stands, you will never hear Irish Rail say that.

Luas in capacity terms is a very small player at the moment it can just about carry 9,000 per hour, that will increase to 11,000 roughly in the next 2 years, rail capacity is 30,000 an hour and that should hit 40,000 in the next 3 years, then 60,000+ ultimately. Luas frequency on the Green line is one every 4.5 minutes (though the change from 5 to 4.5 minutes has not been made publicly known) thats the limit they can achieve currently, it is not timetabled to run at a 3 minute frequency, Red line is similar

There is no point writing to complain to IE as the letter back is rather insulting if you are lucky to get one, the current ploy is not to write back till the issue you raised has been dealt with which in most cases mean you won't get a letter.

The 17:40 Bray Malahide is timetabled in run non stop Clontarf Rd Howth Junction, its published in the timetable, shown online and in the online pdf timetable (http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2006/Gorey-Howth-Dundalk-DART%20M-S.pdf page 18) and is displayed on the platform displays.

I see it every evening, sorry but you have no come back on IE on this one this has been ongoing for quite a while and is clearly shown in the timetable. This is done so the train can be cleared from Malahide in time to allow further Drogheda trains, there is a Drogheda train in front which does not call at Howth Junction, Portmarnock and Malahide as such it is good use of track space to allow the DART to run non stop, the DART behind is 4 minutes in rear.

The biggest mistake made was the vote grabbing exercise by Michael Lowry as Minister for Transport, DART to Greystones led to a collapse in the system and a better service could have been provided for a fraction of the cost with a diesel shuttle service. Of course if Greystones got DART Malahide had to as well, again done on the cheap the desperately needed third turnback platform didn't go in.

It may come as a surprise but the biggest restriction is Malahide station not Connolly, its going to cost €40 million to provide the turnback now. The optimum timetable would have a DART every 20 minutes to Malahide, every 20 minutes to Howth but you would have a 15 minute gap between DARTs to accommodate a pair of Drogheda services, thats the best way I'm afraid to say IE will never take the plunge and ditch the current timetable in favour of something more radical

The number one cause of delays are third party issues such as bridge strikes, general train reliability it above average and twice what in achieved in the UK which is interesting. I'm currently on the hunt to get the performance measure brought down from 10 to 5 minutes, certain Irish Rail managers will grudgingly admit that what it should be but won't do anything.

If you want to blame someone blame
1) Michael Lowry who started the mess
2) Everyone who lives north of Malahide
3) IE for not ditching the timetable

senordingdong

Victor wrote:

The bridge at the Customs House was struck again today, would you prefer to have been derailed?

That has nothing to do with it.
I simply stated the frequency at which the Dart operates during rush hour, I didn't complain about unforseeable delays. That stuff I could deal with, becasue that stuff happens.

What I can't deal with, and this is in reference to MarkoP11's post aswell, is the poor plannign that went into the system. Yes, it was a great idea to provide a commuter service to towns like Drogheda and Maynooth, but how could they not have forseen the trouble it would cause.
It has effectivly destroyed the Dart service and the northside Dart's advantage over Dublin Bus.
That means that people actively planned this terrible service, and formed it out of an existing good service.

I see it every evening, sorry but you have no come back on IE on this one this has been ongoing for quite a while and is clearly shown in the timetable.

That's great, but the display on the platform said; '1, serving all stations to Malahide.'
When the Dart arrived, it was labelled Malahide. That is my grievance.

As regards the Laus...the Laus green line, operates every three minutes during rush hour. I know this because I use it every day, it may be un-official, but it's still a fantastic service that IE should be trying to learn from.

MarkoP11

senordingdong wrote:

That's great, but the display on the platform said; '1, serving all stations to Malahide.'
When the Dart arrived, it was labelled Malahide. That is my grievance.

Front destination was correct, Drogheda trains don't call all stops still say Drogheda on the front, thats not grounds for a complaint Getting the right destination displayed is a ongoing issue you would be suprised how many trains to Howth show Bray, the issue has been addressed somewhat by supervisors but its still not 100% its great game of cat and mouse to prove IE wrong when the claim its not happening

The timetable is a farce I've spoken to timetabling people outside IE and there is no doubt that the timeable does not maximise the use of the track but that doesn't matter as IE don't have enough trains regardless even then the difference between a good timetable and a bad mone may be 0 extra seats but much reduced potential for delays. You continuously get the lack of capacity excuse from Barry Kenny, its a lack of rolling stock. Mr Kenny does live in Howth so vent your anger if you see him mention the DART to Prague its his biggest nightmare currently

No one could have forseen the explosion on population growth on the Drogheda line all the estimates for Dublin where off by miles, Skerries and Malahide have the highest % of rail commuters in the country, it all went wrong in about 1999 the upcoming Greystones opening destabilised things and there was a staff shortage an unoffical strike and it just went mad but Malahide really sunk it, the DART should have gone to Skerries (The Greystones money would have paid for it) and that would have eliminated the Malahide terminus but the seat the goverment wanted was in Wicklow (incidentally FG lost the seat) not north Dublin. The key thing is investment is political in nature, IE actually had money withdrawn by the DoT which would increase the frequency of services on the northside

As regards the Laus...the Laus green line, operates every three minutes during rush hour. I know this because I use it every day, it may be un-official, but it's still a fantastic service that IE should be trying to learn from.

Thats not what the agreed roster the RPA have says they moved it from 5 minutes to 4.5 minutes in recent months. I got the presentation a few weeks back from the RPA and passenger numbers have remained static but the change has greatly reduced crowding

Strangely the RPA are said nothing about 4.5 minutes frequency on the Green line, its not on the website, the fact is they don't have enough trams to increase it below 4.5 minutes and sustain it, trams bunch up but over the hour its 13 trams an hour. This came about as the journey time could be reduced to 20 minutes compared to the planned 22 which made it possible to squeeze a bit more out of the system

Luas shows you what you can do if you build a dedicated line where money was no object still though its capacity is small, the DART was fine until Drogheda and Michael Lowry came along

senordingdong

Ok.