[Letter] DART queries are answered (but don't believe what Irish Rail tell you)

MarkoP11

It was only a matter of time before Barry Kenny of Irish Rail broke cover and tried to answer the deluge of letters appearing in the Indo, which of course happen since IE don't like written back to passengers. Of course Mr Kenny left the door open to have his media cover story proven false

So Irish Independent Letters Monday 24th

DART queries are answered

I wish to address a range of points raised by a number of correspondents to your Letters pages recently.

Firstly, Derek Gallagher ( April 8 ) raises the issue of our 8-carriage DART facilities, and his DART still operating as a 6-carriage train.

A significant number of DARTs at peak are now operating at 8-carriage length.

The number of these will increase still further as we progress the refurbishment of the original DART fleet, currently being undertaken in Germany.

With the size of the fleet having doubled in the last six years, we can do this important work now, and I'm sure Mr Gallagher will see direct benefit as the refurbished DARTs return to service.
Caroline Crowe ( April 13 ) asks why there is a lower fare for a day return rather than a five-day or monthly return.

It is common practice in the transport industry to have lower fares for tickets which have more restrictions on their use.

As a result, a return ticket which must be used on the same day is discounted against the price of one which offers the flexibility to return at any time on the following five-days or month.
I would strongly disagree with a number of points raised by Daithi MacCarthaigh (April 14 ).
With our new fleet and our maintenance facility at Drogheda, the standards of cleanliness and punctuality on the Drogheda line have never been higher, with punctuality consistently over 95 pewr cent.

Seating is also designed specifically for commuters traveling longer distances, whilst the trains are designed for high capacity standing also, to meet record demand.

Our fares are also extremely good value for money - a weekly commuter ticket from Drogheda at €43.50 equates to €4.35 per journey for a 32 mile journey. The same distance weekly commuter ticket in the London area costs over €100.

Furthermore, in Ireland, monthly and annual public transport commuter ticket holders can save a further 48 per cent in tax relief on their cost of commuting.

Finally, Ann Early ( April 15 ) requests additional services at busy times on the Sligo-Dublin line.
As Ms Early mentions, we expanded frequency on the route in December, and with a further order of new trains to enter service on the line through 2007 and 2008, we aim to expand to a service every two hours in each
direction.

BARRY KENNY,
MANAGER,
CORPORATE
COMMUNICATIONS,
IARNR0ID EIREANN,
CONNOLLY STATION,
DUBLIN1

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=53&si=1603692&issue_id=13960

MarkoP11

In recent weeks Barry Kenny has answered a raft of questions in the Irish Independent but has avoided some important facts

Question 1 is why are people writting to the Indo surely IE are meant to answer post emails etc ?

Mr Kenny of Iarnród Éireann in his response to recent letters (April 24) is somewhat economical with the truth.

Punctuality standards for suburban trains in Ireland classify a train on time if it is no more than 10 minutes late, while elsewhere including Northern Ireland 5 minutes is the standard, if Iarnród Éireann fails to make the targets set there is no provision to refund or discount the fares of weekly, monthly or annual ticket holders as there is in the UK and Northern Ireland.

Mr Gallagher (April 8) is quite correct to pose the question of incompetence with respect to the provision of 8 coach DART's, there is in fact a 4 coach DART in service in the evening peak.

What Mr Kenny omitted in his response was that the continued shortage of 8 coach DART's is in part due the now 10 month delay in the 60 million euro DART refurbishment project. The date having been revised by Mr Kenny and his colleagues from the initial June 2005 to September then November then February, it is almost May and still no sign. The first batch of coaches left in December 2004 and a total of 20 (out of 76) have so far travelled to Leipzig and then onwards to Siemens in Prague.

Ms Early (April 15th) is quite correct to inquire about additional services from Sligo as currently there exists only one intercity service to Sligo per week (Friday 15:55) and one to Dublin (Sunday 15:45) all other services are operated by commuter trains ill suited to the 3 hour 5 minute journey. Despite new track and new signalling journey times increased between Dublin and Sligo by 7 minutes last year.

All the hype Iarnród Éireann has placed on the new timetable is misplaced, there may be more trains but they are significantly less comfortable than those they replaced and the key measure, the daily number of seats has only increased by a fraction.

Iarnród Éireann have steadfastly refused to admit that they have got it very badly wrong with respect to Dublin Sligo.

The most shocking indictment of all is why so many members of the public feel they must write to local and national newspapers with rail service queries and complaints, is it because it is Iarnród Éireann policy not to respond to email complaints, the failure to respond to many written queries or is it that those lucky enough to receive written responses may be left waiting up to 8 weeks?

Yours Sincerely

Mark Gleeson
Platform 11 Ireland's National Rail Users Organisation

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=53&si=1605115&issue_id=13974

The difference is I can prove what I wrote

Can't wait for the third installment

SeanW

Mark Gleeson P11: Letter to the Indo wrote:

Dear Sir,

Mr Kenny of Iarnród Éireann in his response to recent letters (April 24) is somewhat economical with the truth.

Punctuality standards for suburban trains in Ireland classify a train on time if it is no more than 10 minutes late, while elsewhere including Northern Ireland 5 minutes is the standard, if Iarnród Éireann fails to make the targets set there is no provision to refund or discount the fares of weekly, monthly or annual ticket holders as there is in the UK and Northern Ireland.

Mr Gallagher (April 8) is quite correct to pose the question of incompetence with respect to the provision of 8 coach DART's, there is in fact a 4 coach DART in service in the evening peak.

What Mr Kenny omitted in his response was that the continued shortage of 8 coach DART's is in part due the now 10 month delay in the 60 million euro DART refurbishment project. The date having been revised by Mr Kenny and his colleagues from the initial June 2005 to September then November then February, it is almost May and still no sign. The first batch of coaches left in December 2004 and a total of 20 (out of 76) have so far travelled to Leipzig and then onwards to Siemens in Prague.

Ms Early (April 15th) is quite correct to inquire about additional services from Sligo as currently there exists only one intercity service to Sligo per week (Friday 15:55) and one to Dublin (Sunday 15:45) all other services are operated by commuter trains ill suited to the 3 hour 5 minute journey. Despite new track and new signalling journey times increased between Dublin and Sligo by 7 minutes last year. All the hype Iarnród Éireann has placed on the new timetable is misplaced, there may be more trains but they are significantly less comfortable than those they replaced and the key measure, the daily number of seats has only increased by a fraction. Iarnród Éireann have steadfastly refused to admit that they have got it very badly wrong with respect to Dublin Sligo.

The most shocking indictment of all is why so many members of the public feel they must write to local and national newspapers with rail service queries and complaints, is it because it is Iarnród Éireann policy not to respond to email complaints, the failure to respond to many written queries or is it that those lucky enough to receive written responses may be left waiting up to 8 weeks?

Yours Sincerely

Mark Gleeson
Platform 11 Ireland's National Rail Users Organisation

viewable here.

So much for P11 being the CIE fan club, or the Amiens St. gang, or whatever other nonsense has been said over the past while.

Edit: Ooops I just saw that Marko posted this letter in another thread, can't delete this post.