Two carriage DART units are to make a come back [April Fool]

Run_to_da_hills

Iarnrod Eireann has decided to reintroduce two carriage Dart unit sets after a lapse of over fifteen years.

The "off peak" move is said to be as a result of falling passenger demands at night, cost cutting on cleaning and maintenances and of course the reduction of power consumption. .



With the introduction of “smart card” ticketing Iarnrod will be able to closely monitor passenger traffic and assess the situation and review the situation after six months.

The Green party has welcomed this decision.

Irish Independent.

patrickmooney

I only hope they stop in the middle of the station. Short Darts have a tendency to bypass waiting passengers to stop right at the top. Always happens at Grand Canal Dock. Everyone then has to run and pile onto the last carriage.

Victor

patrickmooney wrote: »

I only hope they stop in the middle of the station. Short Darts have a tendency to bypass waiting passengers to stop right at the top. Always happens at Grand Canal Dock. Everyone then has to run and pile onto the last carriage.

This is a safety measure so that if the driver forgets / isn't sure how many carriages are on the train ("do I have 2/4/6/8 carriages?"), it will always stop fully on the platform (and not on the level crossing). The video screen connected to the platform CCTV is also at the head of the platform.

DWCommuter

Welcome back to the 80s!

Stinicker

DWCommuter wrote: »

Welcome back to the 80s!

Indeed, the 1880's

JJJJNR

Terrible move by them the fools do they not know.

tricky D

Ahh, the memories.

lord lucan

You only gave it a minute after midnight!:p

KC61

JJJJNR wrote: »

Terrible move by them the fools do they not know.

Why?

Where there are few people on the train surely a full size train is not necessary.

Is it not better to reduce costs by running shorter trains where appropriate and also to offer a safer surrounding for passengers where everyone is in two coaches rather than spread across four, six or eight?

D.L.R.

KC61 wrote: »

Why?

Where there are few people on the train surely a full size train is not necessary.

Is it not better to reduce costs by running shorter trains where appropriate and also to offer a safer surrounding for passengers where everyone is in two coaches rather than spread across four, six or eight?

Agree totally, always viewed those longer late trains as a complete waste of space and energy.

Just a pity it takes a hard recession to make us think about efficiency.

smackyB

It's certainly not been 15 years since they ran two-carriage darts, I'm fairly sure I've been on some in the last few years

KC61

April fool or not there is definitely scope for shorter trains at off-peak times.

FlameoftheWest

"That was Planet Bertie bah-pap-papah...!

FlameoftheWest

DWCommuter wrote: »

Welcome back to the 80s!

The 80's were creatively and culturally were better for Ireland than the Celtic Tiger years. I'm happy.

Judgement Day

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

The 80's were creatively and culturally were better for Ireland than the Celtic Tiger years. I'm happy.

The decade that taste forgot!

FlameoftheWest

Judgement Day wrote: »

The decade that taste forgot!

The 80's were more tasteful than today.

http://www.jedwardeastereggs.com/

Run_to_da_hills

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

The 80's were more tasteful than today.

At least the music was good.

DWCommuter

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

"That was Planet Bertie bah-pap-papah...!

And this is what they look like now.:D

dowlingm

What I want to know is why IE are shunting Alstom DARTs across the loop line and to Inchicore when they haven't an intention of putting them in service. Driver training maybe?

lord lucan

dowlingm wrote: »

What I want to know is why IE are shunting Alstom DARTs across the loop line and to Inchicore when they haven't an intention of putting them in service. Driver training maybe?

Probably to keep them from Commuters eyes. If you're at Clontarf road and you're waiting 15 minutes for a DART you might wonder why seeing as there looks like loads of spare DARTs lying idle at the Fairview depot. Most Commuters don't know the Alstoms are a pile of ****e. So IE's solution,remove them from view. That's my take on it. Only other explanation is they're doing serious maintenance at Inchicore on them but i reckon they'd be best sending them back to Alstom and let them fix them.

Run_to_da_hills

lord lucan wrote: »

Probably to keep them from Commuters eyes. If you're at Clontarf road and you're waiting 15 minutes for a DART you might wonder why seeing as there looks like loads of spare DARTs lying idle at the Fairview depot. Most Commuters don't know the Alstoms are a pile of ****e. So IE's solution,remove them from view. That's my take on it. Only other explanation is they're doing serious maintenance at Inchicore on them but i reckon they'd be best sending them back to Alstom and let them fix them.

What I cannot understand is that these gave trouble from the word go, If it was a new car that you had bought from a main dealer you would be straight on to a solicitor.

It is not the first time CIE ended up with a pile of lemons, The original 2 stroke Crossley motors fitted into all the Metrovics had be replaced because they gave nothing but trouble. One would expect a company like Alstohm to be over like a shot sorting out their problems. The same company produces TGV's London Undergrounds and has the lions share of ESB turbine contracts in the country.

dowlingm

lord lucan wrote: »

Probably to keep them from Commuters eyes. If you're at Clontarf road and you're waiting 15 minutes for a DART you might wonder why seeing as there looks like loads of spare DARTs lying idle at the Fairview depot. Most Commuters don't know the Alstoms are a pile of ****e. So IE's solution,remove them from view.

Right - but why not stick them somewhere where every so often you don't have to waste driver hours moving them from post to pillar, like the cement sidings in Platin if the intent is to fix them up before DART Maynooth or just scrap the damn things if you have no intention of ever fixing them.

Cookie_Monster

good move for once from IE. no point running 75% empty 6-8 car DARTs late at night.

dowlingm

Maybe the thinking by concentrating all the passengers in 2 cars skangers might be less likely to prey on the only other person in the car, and allow a more frequent presence by security in each operating car, looking for known gurriers?

It's been some time since I was on the DART - do any of the stations have a designated waiting area with extra lighting and an intercom? All Toronto subway stations have one. Seems like if there isn't, there should be at the point where a 2-car train would sit.

Run_to_da_hills

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

good move for once from IE. no point running 75% empty 6-8 car DARTs late at night.

Look at the time and date stamp on the OP.

Fat chance of ever seeing two carriage darts again unless they electrify the WRC. :pac:

dowlingm

One thing that's occurred to me since the NAMA/AIB,BOI,Anglo failout is whether the price of building the Interconnector will be the dieselisation of Connolly-Greystones if IE won't be able to front the cost of the necessary EMU order.

Run_to_da_hills

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

What I cannot understand is that these gave trouble from the word go, If it was a new car that you had bought from a main dealer you would be straight on to a solicitor.

It is not the first time CIE ended up with a pile of lemons, The original 2 stroke Crossley motors fitted into all the Metrovics had be replaced because they gave nothing but trouble. One would expect a company like Alstohm to be over like a shot sorting out their problems. The same company produces TGV's London Undergrounds and has the lions share of ESB turbine contracts in the country.

I don't get it, what the hell is wrong with these things? They even repainted them into the DART 25 livery last year and I don't think they turned a wheel in revenue earning service since being repainted.

Cookie_Monster

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Look at the time and date stamp on the OP.

Fat chance of ever seeing two carriage darts again unless they electrify the WRC. :pac:

typical :rolleyes:

why not do it though

Judgement Day

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Look at the time and date stamp on the OP.

Fat chance of ever seeing two carriage darts again unless they electrify the WRC. :pac:

I suspect that two car DARTs will eventually be seen on the Cobh and Midleton routes, hauled by 201s, if previous CIE performance is anything to go by.

Transportuser09

The 8200 DARTs would seem to be a victim of their small fleet size. It may not be cost effective to continually stock spare parts for only five sets, versus the relatively large amount of LHB and Toyku stock. When they were bought it was not known that IÉ would be able to order so many more 4-car sets afterwards. Its strange to think but 10 ten years ago there were only the 40 2-car LHB sets in service. Regarding the DART 25, I don't think this was neccessarily a repaint, but simply transfers with '25' were put onto the sets.

All the same, it does seem a waste of a fleet seen as they don't appear to have got much use over the last 3 or 4 years.