Irish Fail

MysticalSoul

There were changes to the DART/commuter timetable at the weekend, which in my opinion, was the worst weekend to do it, with it being a bank hol, and the Dublin Marathon being on. Anyway, was heading to Landsdowne to meet a friend early in the day from Portmarnock, and as all the posters during the week advised, checked the timetable online first, and it seemed that on the bank holiday Monday, a normal Sunday service was running, with the exception of having to disembark, and get across to Pearse. The Journey Planner on the website informed me of a commuter train which would be leaving at 9.36am, so I arrived at the station at 9,30am. The next train wasn't for another hour, I said it to the guy at the ticketing office, and he seemed not to care. As I was meeting a friend who had travelled up especially to meet up, ended up getting a taxi to Sutton to get the train on the Howth line, and said it to the guy there at the ticketing office, and his response was "what do you expect, it's Irish Rail" :eek:

I do intend writing in to Irish Rail about it, and yes know I won't get a satisfactory response, but the more people who do complain, they will have to realise that this isn't on - unfortunately as I don't drive, public transport is my only option.

KC61

Whatever about the train not showing up or the poor attitude (which is not acceptable), when is good to do major engineering works??

Bank holiday weekends tend to have far lower numbers travelling. The engineers needed three days as a whole crossover was being replaced.

DDigital

KC61 wrote: »

Whatever about the train not showing up or the poor attitude (which is not acceptable), when is good to do major engineering works??

Bank holiday weekends tend to have far lower numbers travelling. The engineers needed three days as a whole crossover was being replaced.

At night under flood lights? Or alternatively over two normal weekends and not a bank holiday weekend when a major event like the marathon is taking place? Of course if they have to do it they way they did then running trains according to their revised timetable would obviously be a help.:D

Ham'nd'egger

DDigital wrote: »

At night under flood lights? Or alternatively over two normal weekends and not a bank holiday weekend when a major event like the marathon is taking place? Of course if they have to do it they way they did then running trains according to their revised timetable would obviously be a help.:D

The point KC is making here is that you need a long stretch of hours to undertake certain engineering works and the least worst time to do them is over a long weekend where disruption and delays are minimal compared to peak time when it will be far busier passenger wise. This is the case for railways worldwide and indeed some road works are done at weekends for the same reason.

If the work was done over two weekends that means 4 days delays instead of two, assuming the work can be done in two day blocks in the first place. As it is, with 4 weekends of rugby in Dublin in November and Christmas on the way, this was the last chance to undertake the work before the New Year and with a bit of daylight.

KC61

DDigital wrote: »

At night under flood lights? Or alternatively over two normal weekends and not a bank holiday weekend when a major event like the marathon is taking place? Of course if they have to do it they way they did then running trains according to their revised timetable would obviously be a help.:D

The scale of the work involved required a three day continuous possession of the line by engineers - unfeasible at any time other than a bank holiday weekend. There have been other works done in the city centre area on the other bank holiday weekends earlier this year.

There are limited time windows for doing this sort of thing and unfortunately no time is a good time to do it as someone is going to be put out.

DDigital

KC61 wrote: »

The scale of the work involved required a three day continuous possession of the line by engineers - unfeasible at any time other than a bank holiday weekend. There have been other works done in the city centre area on the other bank holiday weekends earlier this year.

There are limited time windows for doing this sort of thing and unfortunately no time is a good time to do it as someone is going to be put out.

Fair enough to my uninformed mind, but according to the OP they still messed up the revised timetable which he/she had taken the time to look at. Thats not good anyway. I see the usual irish rail customer service attitude was exemplified as well. Is there too much talk on here of defending the technical side and not getting stuck into the customer service side? Just curious, because I note the responses are heavily focused on addressing the work side of things. Thanks.

Oliver1985

O.P I would defo report the bad customer service no one should have to be on the end of that

Bluetonic

DDigital wrote: »

Is there too much talk on here of defending the technical side and not getting stuck into the customer service side? Just curious, because I note the responses are heavily focused on addressing the work side of things.

What more do you want him to say about the customer service side of things? He already said it was unacceptable.

Trashing over the same complaints on boards.ie about Irish Rail is pretty much pointless. We all know they exist and they don't get solved by discussing them here.

DDigital

Bluetonic wrote: »

What more do you want him to say about the customer service side of things? He already said it was unacceptable.

Trashing over the same complaints on boards.ie about Irish Rail is pretty much pointless. We all know they exist and they don't get solved by discussing them here.

I didn't ask anyone to say anything more about it. I merely pointed out that I found a more "technical" discussion going on rather than one about the customer service side of things. If the forum has reached the stage that you suggest where we find it pointless to discuss the other issues with irish rail then whats the point to a discussion forum in the first place. I doubt irish rail come on here to discuss technical matters either. Have I stumbled into some private members club? If so then tell me. Otherwise I don't see the problem with me expressing my opinion. Thanks.

Bluetonic

DDigital wrote: »

I don't see the problem with me expressing my opinion.

Likewise.

DDigital

Bluetonic wrote: »

Likewise.

Thanks for your understanding.

Victor

Train not showing up isn't good.

However, on a bank holiday you could work from perhaps 9pm on Friday to 3am Tuesday. Thats 78 hours (if I'm right!) and equates to 8-10 work shifts. Given that it might take and entire shift to dismantle things (not for all tasks), before any of the desired work is done and another to put it back together, that might be 6-8 shifts of actual work. Cut out the Monday and you might be only able to do 3-5 work shifts.

So, a modest increase in disruption can lead to a much more subtantial amount of work being done.

KC61

DDigital wrote: »

Fair enough to my uninformed mind, but according to the OP they still messed up the revised timetable which he/she had taken the time to look at. Thats not good anyway. I see the usual irish rail customer service attitude was exemplified as well. Is there too much talk on here of defending the technical side and not getting stuck into the customer service side? Just curious, because I note the responses are heavily focused on addressing the work side of things. Thanks.

I was just trying to explain the technical side (not defend it) as the OP questioned why it was being done - most people generally do not realise the scale of work involved in the various works and often moan about it without realising how big the works are. You then queried it again and I explained why the disruption was on - that's all.

I certainly was not diminishing the bad attidudes. It is completely unacceptable. Staff need to realise that their behaviour is what belies how customers view the company, and might make the difference between someone choosing to drive rather than use public transport in the future. It only takes a second to inform people that there is a delay and the reason for it - for far too long there was a culture of tell the passengers nothing. It is a deep-rooted thing and does need to be eliminated.

Customer service is the biggest failing of the CIE Group, between often poor attitudes towards customers from a minority of staff and poor levels of customer information. There have been improvements but there remains a long way to go.

Having said that it is a two way thing - I generally find that most bus drivers will respond to a "good morning" or "thanks very much" as you board/leave a bus.

And top marks from the AlekSmart school of customer service to our driver on the 48a on Monday morning who stopped the bus, and proceeded to inform us all of the full diversionary route over the public address system, stressing that it would not serve Ranelagh or Milltown! A model for all to follow!

bobblepuzzle

What were they upgrading/replacing on the rail line anyway does anyone know?

Cookie_Monster

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

What were they upgrading/replacing on the rail line anyway does anyone know?

a complex set of points was going in I believe

This: http://www.railsceneireland.fotopic.net/p66920534.html though maybe somewhere else on the network, I can't imagine a place for that needed between Pearse and Connolly.

KC61

They were renewing the suburban junction where the lines from Connolly meet the Maynooth line, and also doing platform works in Tara Street.