More Distruption 10/08/07 overhead lines AGAIN

The Denouncer

DART and commuter services are disrupted due to an overhead fault at Connolly Station.

Southbound services are only running from Pearse St Station and a limited number of northbound services are running from Connolly Station.

Dublin Bus is honouring all rail tickets until further notice.

Not again. I cannot believe this. I was delayed this morning on Drogheda train and the driver asked for someone from Irish Rail travelling on the train to help, when the train stopped before COnnolly.
We were left at Connolly to fight our way onto a packed DART.
Now less than 2 weeks since the last disaster Irish Rail muppets are going on about overhead lines and Dublin Bus honouring tickets (which didn't really happen last time). There is no bus to Donabate. Will they honour my €27 taxi fare?

What planet are these imbeciles on? Are they going to be back for the rush hour?

ixoy

Is there any accountability for this? I'm seeing red currently at my workstation and - when I galne away from the red-lined book - I'm still angry! This is utter incompetence to have it happen again: Is it the same issue? If so, was it not resolved properly the first time? Absolutely astoundingly bad.

The Denouncer

Customers are advised that DART and Commuter Services have resumed to normal by Corporate Communications

Friday 10th August 2007 - 13.00

Customers are advised that DART and Commuter Services have resumed to normal

I hope so, had enough delays in the last 3 weeks to last me a lifetime.

ixoy

The Denouncer wrote:

I hope so, had enough delays in the last 3 weeks to last me a lifetime.

I hear ya. During the weekend of the Landsdowne Road re-development, a train broke down at Killester. It meant all Northern line trains were restricted to a single line track and I got home much later than I should have. This was within seven days of the broken line fiasco, so this disruption would have made me explode.

Pineapple stu

The Denouncer wrote:

Not again. I cannot believe this. I was delayed this morning on Drogheda train and the driver asked for someone from Irish Rail travelling on the train to help, when the train stopped before COnnolly.
We were left at Connolly to fight our way onto a packed DART.
Now less than 2 weeks since the last disaster Irish Rail muppets are going on about overhead lines and Dublin Bus honouring tickets (which didn't really happen last time). There is no bus to Donabate. Will they honour my €27 taxi fare?

What planet are these imbeciles on? Are they going to be back for the rush hour?

Do you think its done on purpose? You didnt have to fight your way on to a packed dart, you chose to do so . Irish rail didnt know the fault was gonna happen,so what did you expect them to do? If all trains were cancelled for the day and buses couldnt be arranged then they would have put you in a taxi. Just because you keep having bad days in work dont take it out on irish rail over something so petty. Have a nice day and please mind the gap.:D

ixoy

cymro wrote:

You didnt have to fight your way on to a packed dart, you chose to do so .

Umm so you suggested he wait for the non-existent empty DART on the other platform?! He had no choice if he wanted to get to work!

If all trains were cancelled for the day and buses couldnt be arranged then they would have put you in a taxi.

Do you honestly believe that? The logistics aside, do you really see that happening?

Just because you keep having bad days in work dont take it out on irish rail over something so petty. Have a nice day and please mind the gap.:D

It's not petty when you've lost hours of your day due to these issues. What if you're late for work, for an important meeting? What if you have to subsequently work late to catch up and the knock on effect it can have on your day? Or are you happy to shrug the soldiers, twiddle your thumbs, and think "These things happen - sure they try their best" without wondering why these things seem to happen.

Xylophonic

The Denouncer wrote:

There is no bus to Donabate.

:rolleyes: I'm sure what you meant to say was 'There is no direct bus service from the City to Donabate', Because the 33B has been operating since the 1970's and possibly longer...

Donabate to City by Bus:

33B, then transfer at Swords onto one of the 33, 41/41A/41B/41C/41X or 43 services and use a travel 90 bus ticket (Details here), so it would not cost as much.

There is also a really early departure on route 33 from Balbriggan which operates through Donabate to the City.

A Dub in Glasgo

ixoy wrote:

It's not petty when you've lost hours of your day due to these issues. What if you're late for work, for an important meeting? What if you have to subsequently work late to catch up and the knock on effect it can have on your day? Or are you happy to shrug the soldiers, twiddle your thumbs, and think "These things happen - sure they try their best" without wondering why these things seem to happen.

All of this can happen if you commute to work by road, sea, air or rail. **** does happen. I have been stuck on a motorway for 5 hours because some inconsiderate git decided to crash their car!! I have been stuck at an Airport for hours for no apparent reason (late inbound plane!).

Can you tell me why these things happen?

The Denouncer

Xylophonic wrote:

:rolleyes: I'm sure what you meant to say was 'There is no direct bus service from the City to Donabate', Because the 33B has been operating since the 1970's and possibly longer...

Donabate to City by Bus:

33B, then transfer at Swords onto one of the 33, 41/41A/41B/41C/41X or 43 services and use a travel 90 bus ticket (Details here), so it would not cost as much.

There is also a really early departure on route 33 from Balbriggan which operates through Donabate to the City.

Em, yeah OK, I travel by train not bus. 2 weeks ago one of those 33b buses never arrived. The queue was 3 buses full, and it never arrived. Also they were not honouring rail tickets.
So a 1.5 hour journey to Swords on the 41, then transferring for a bus that runs only a few times a day to get my car in Donabate train station car park, then drive back to Swords where I live..yeah..

positron

The Denouncer wrote:

Not again. I cannot believe this. I was delayed this morning on Drogheda train and the driver asked for someone from Irish Rail travelling on the train to help, when the train stopped before COnnolly.

I was on that train that morning. There was an Irish Rail employee (i don't know what he does, he had the uniform on and he got in from Drogheda) in my coach, and when the driver asked for help, he went forward, but the door between the coaches where locked and he went back to his own seat. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

daymobrew

positron wrote:

I was on that train that morning. There was an Irish Rail employee (i don't know what he does, he had the uniform on and he got in from Drogheda) in my coach, and when the driver asked for help, he went forward, but the door between the coaches where locked and he went back to his own seat. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

As I mentioned on another thread, write to the Irish Rail CEO: richard.fearn@irishrail.ie
I did and mentioned the other thread. It didn't bounce but I didn't get a reply. I do (eventually) get replies when I write letters to him.

John R

For the record, the problem on the 10th was that a pantograph on a DART unit got tangled in the overhead lines between Connolly and Tara Street.

It could have been the wires that snagged the pan or a faulty pan that took down the wires. Either way the train was stranded there and couldn't be moved until the engineers untangled it. Before that could be done the passengers on the train had to be taken off and because of the location the only safe way was to bring an empty DART alongside on the other line, put a ramp between the cab doors and transfer them over.

All this took time to do meaning the line was completely blocked and many trains were stuck in the backlog. Normally when that happens they try to stop trains at stations to allow people off.

MarkoP11

They key issue which comes up over and over again is the lack of up to date information at platform level which leads to confusion and people walk off in many cases the train they wanted did actually run making the disruption look much worse than it actually was.

What these incidents do show are 3 things

1. There is a single point of failure on the rail network is a train failed between Connolly and Pearse. Still waiting on the interconnector tunnel to get around this
2. The system is running at close to capacity so recovery is slow from a disruption.
3. Irish Rail are incompetent when it comes to providing useful information during disruptions.

Irish Rail will never ever tell you about the ability to claim a refund http://www.platform11.org/passenger_info/refunds.php#their_fault

One thing I will say and its something which has not gone unnoticed when the Luas goes wrong the whole show stops, they just can't run any class of service under failure conditions, the rail system tends to struggle on

Pineapple stu

Do you honestly believe that? The logistics aside, do you really see that happening?

Yes , because it has happend. I suggest mr denouncer that you find yourself a diffrent way of getting to work ,because you seem to get workd up at any minor incident. please stand behind the yellow line, train now approching.:D

positron

cymro wrote:

I suggest mr denouncer that you find yourself a diffrent way of getting to work ,because you seem to get workd up at any minor incident.

Walking away from trouble could look like a decent gentlemen thing to do, but that isn't going to help him or anyone else for that matter. Otherwise we would still be wresting apes for a worm or a twig or something like that somewhere in Africa!

Tea drinker

I used to travel the DART bray to dun laoghaire, there was always leaves or wires or some such causing a delay. It got so bad it started to be a problem for my employer. I gave up on public transport after that.
I guess it's still unreliable?

My advice? get a good reliable car!

Pineapple stu

positron wrote:

Walking away from trouble could look like a decent gentlemen thing to do, but that isn't going to help him or anyone else for that matter. Otherwise we would still be wresting apes for a worm or a twig or something like that somewhere in Africa!

I was just concerend about his health thats all.

Xylophonic

The Denouncer wrote:

Em, yeah OK, I travel by train not bus. 2 weeks ago one of those 33b buses never arrived. The queue was 3 buses full, and it never arrived. Also they were not honouring rail tickets.
So a 1.5 hour journey to Swords on the 41, then transferring for a bus that runs only a few times a day to get my car in Donabate train station car park, then drive back to Swords where I live..yeah..

Em, yeah, eh, no need to be rude

The Denouncer

cymro wrote:

I was just concerend about his health thats all.

Thanks cymro no need to be concerned about me, just be concerned about the state of the public transport in this country.

Pineapple stu

The railway is great, the buses is great what more do you want?:D

godtabh

ixoy wrote:

Umm so you suggested he wait for the non-existent empty DART on the other platform?! He had no choice if he wanted to get to work!

I think he meant he could have waited for another dart. There is more than one of them!

ixoy wrote:

It's not petty when you've lost hours of your day due to these issues. What if you're late for work, for an important meeting? What if you have to subsequently work late to catch up and the knock on effect it can have on your day? Or are you happy to shrug the soldiers, twiddle your thumbs, and think "These things happen - sure they try their best" without wondering why these things seem to happen.

No matter how you get to work/college or what ever delays are going to happen.

I've spent 5 hours in a car traveling 13 miles.

I've spent 2.5 hours on a bus going from Lucan to the city center.

I've spent 3 hours going from Pearse to Louisa Bridge.

All of this has been in the last couple of months.

There could be any number of reasons why these things happen but you cant tell me why and Irish Rail wont tell us why. For all we know it could be just bad luck. Things do fail. Espically when you dont want them to!

People should be asking if things go wrong what measures can and should be put in place. Information is important. A back up plan/train would be nice but as has been said irish rail are at breaking point in this regard. Therefore better communication between IR/DB/BE& Lucas is required.

Irish Rail arent working on these and as a result is pissing of its customers