commuter trains.....on time????

prendy

ok im not living in dublin that long but im already sick of seeing those train posters saying 97%of trains leave on time....
Where do they come up with that figure because this week already out of the 11 trains i have caught 4 have been late.
maybe they count within 5 or 10 mins as being on time????
sorry bout the rant but jus wanted to see does anybody else find these false posters annoying?

pinkypinky

I've been trying to keep an eye on my train's punctuality. My morning train is usually on time but in the evenings, it varies by as much as 5 mins late nearly every day.

paulm17781

I think as long as it is under 10 minutes it is on time. It is easy to be on time when you have that much to spare.

prendy

thats such crap...in NY last year you wer told if it was anything over 30 secs late.
i noticed the evenings are way worse as well btw.

ChuckProphet

prendy wrote:

ok im not living in dublin that long but im already sick of seeing those train posters saying 97%of trains leave on time....
Where do they come up with that figure because this week already out of the 11 trains i have caught 4 have been late.
maybe they count within 5 or 10 mins as being on time????
sorry bout the rant but jus wanted to see does anybody else find these false posters annoying?

i'd say it's closer to 50%

meglome

I don't get the train much but the old poster used to say something like 'we reached 90& of our targets'. Which as we have no idea what 'their targets' are it's completely meaningless.

chipclub

I am very glad that I am not the only one annoyed by those posters. They do indeed allow themselves up to 10 minutes lateness and still consider the train to be on time. You can see this in the annual reports available for download on irishrail.ie.

My train, the 6:46 from Drogheda arrives in Pearse two or three minutes late almost every single morning. I have tried telling my boss that I can arrive in work up to 10 minutes late and still be on time but he is having none of it! On the way home the train will arrive in Drogheda at any random time between 17:18 (it never, ever arrives early) and 17:30. Pick a number, any number.

Saying that 97% of commuter trains arrive on time is an insult to us all.

MarkoP11

The reason the numbers are good is since the standard set by the Department of Transport don't record all trains and don't record the full length of some journeys. Of course they don't publish the actual standards, what is somewhat curious is senior IE managers have never seen the document which sets down the standards.

Standard is, 10 minutes or more == late, thats 9 minutes 59 seconds (in the UK its 10 minutes 59 seconds) for all services. The good news is the 15 minute standard on certain routes was culled about 18 months ago

International standards elsewhere (UK included) would have all suburban trains as 5 minutes == late but not in Dublin. The actual numbers for Dublin are something in the region of about 70-80% on time to 5 minutes, Irish Rail have refused to release the signaling records to enable third parties to do a little data mining to get the real data. IE are not under the FOI act so it can't be forced from them.

There is a total conspiracy to cover all this up since

This Memorandum of Understanding on Service Levels and Targets is of no legal effect and is not binding on Iarnród Éireann or the Department of Transport. The parties to this Memorandum of Understanding do not intend any part of this Memorandum to have any contractual status of any kind.

Its a real laugh to read http://www.platform11.org/resources/2006_MOU_intro.pdf

You can't find any details on the targets and results online, they are always being updated

And to make matters even worse, the clock on the signaling system computer varies by up a two minutes from true time further hiding delays

prendy

k im glad im not the only 1.
the thing i dont understand is not the lateness of them but being allowed to advertise falsly that they run on time...surely there is legislation to prevent such lies?

paulm17781

prendy wrote:

k im glad im not the only 1.
the thing i dont understand is not the lateness of them but being allowed to advertise falsly that they run on time...surely there is legislation to prevent such lies?

I believe the time frame they are set is under 10 minutes so they're not really lying they are in compliance. I think the Government would have to lower this.

Pineapple stu

chipclub wrote:

I am very glad that I am not the only one annoyed by those posters. They do indeed allow themselves up to 10 minutes lateness and still consider the train to be on time. You can see this in the annual reports available for download on irishrail.ie.

My train, the 6:46 from Drogheda arrives in Pearse two or three minutes late almost every single morning. I have tried telling my boss that I can arrive in work up to 10 minutes late and still be on time but he is having none of it! On the way home the train will arrive in Drogheda at any random time between 17:18 (it never, ever arrives early) and 17:30. Pick a number, any number.

Saying that 97% of commuter trains arrive on time is an insult to us all.

Giving out that your train is 2 or 3 minutes late arriving at your destination is petty. Are you sure that your watch is at the correct time?

marceldesailly

i think this annoys everyone.just the stupidity of the signs. anyway if a train is even 5minutes late on a 45minute journey (balbriggan-dublin) thats an addition of over 10% on the journey time

Jonny Arson

i have to laugh at those BS ''96% of services on time'' posters they wheel out every year...... they always seem to appear when i'm on a train that was delayed by 10-15 mins! the posters are insulting IMO, anyone who's unfortunate enough to have to use DART/Commuter services in Dublin these days knows that these posters are completely misleading, if not lies. just goes to show the low standards IE are set by the Dept. of Transport and in return the low standards IE deliver.

parsi

Jonny Arson wrote:

i have to laugh at those BS ''96% of services on time'' posters they wheel out every year...... they always seem to appear when i'm on a train that was delayed by 10-15 mins! the posters are insulting IMO, anyone who's unfortunate enough to have to use DART/Commuter services in Dublin these days knows that these posters are completely misleading, if not lies. just goes to show the low standards IE are set by the Dept. of Transport and in return the low standards IE deliver.

Bit like Ryanair - every time I have flown on the early flight from Cork to Stansted they have announced that we arrived "early". Of course we arrived early - they padded out the schedule so that they have plenty of wriggle time...