Irish Rail station signage (old thread)

bay

Over the last while there have been some obvious improvements with irish rail and all its services such as improved access for disabled commuters, automatic ticket machines and new railway bridges. However iv noticed there is still a long way to go, all this stuff has come in gradually and in some cases without much thought, for example at pearse there are at least 4 types of station signage, commuet sigange, dart signage and various irish rail signage, growing up in the city i can adapt to this but it would be very confusing for tourists or those not familiar with the system. Also on more than one occasion i have been asked which platform or what train goes to such a place, this is because very few stations actually have maps on the platforms, or specify which platform serves which trains for a particular direction.

Can anyone else add to this, are there any other holes anyone else has noticed with navigating around irish rail stations or bare essentials which are currently not available such as maps at stations??

foggy_lad

Just on Improved access for disabled users, in Carlow station after their recent much needed refit/renovation/clean-up they have installed a very nice booking office counter with a lower section for disabled/wheelchair users.

But during the refit the only wheelchair accessible door into the ticket office was changed so it can't now be opened from the outside(no handle on outside)! Wheelchair users can't access the brand new very expensive wheelchair counter! Whatever utter morons planned this need to be weeded out and sacked and never given a state job ever again!

There is also no way across the tracks in Carlow for wheelchair users except for the barrow crossing which is only used for elderly passengers who might not survive being helped across the awful footbridge with its bockety worn down dangerously slippery when wet steps

The many signs up in Pearse Station are probably due to CIE's habit of replacing signage wiring etc etc but forgetting/neglecting to remove the old signs, wiring etc when they have been replaced. this not only causes confusion but it also makes any railway station look ghastly and delapidated and gives an air of communist backwardness that exists throughout CIE and its companies.

icdg

There are two main issues regarding Irish Rail's stations signage.

First of all, there is exterior signage which varies widely from station to station. Anyone who has travelled to Great Britain will know that while train companies do have differing standards of station signage, practically all stations will have a "totem" at the road side featuring at least a large British Rail logo and the name of the station (bilingual in Wales and parts of Scotland), as well as other information sometimes. Over the station enterance there will be another large sign with the station name, the British Rail logo, and the train company's logo. If the station's in London and shares with Underground, there'll be an Underground logo too. The point is, the exterior signage is excellent and remarkably similar from operator to operator in most cases (because they've all borrowed the old BR design manual, of course).

Contrast here. You have widely different variations. On the DART, there was a corporate signage programme in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The platform signs are long gone, but the exterior totems are still there in most cases, with their maps and other services indicated. On the Maynooth line, most stations have BR-style Irish Rail logos with the station name underneath.

I'm sad to say, these are probably the best examples of exterior signage on the IE network. Some new stations have "IE Station Name" exterior signs (sometimes in English only...). Some stations have a simple "IE Iarnrod Éireann". But many stations have no exterior signage whatsoever. I am particularly sad to say that the biggest railway station in the country, Hueston Station, is among those with no exterior signage whatsover. Its simply assumed that you know it.

On to platform signs, and these have improved no end in recent years from the standard two large unibar signs that used to be a staple of Irish Rail. Repeaters were late arriving but are finally here. Perhaps the main problem is that Irish Rail have changed their standards nearly every two years or so during the 2000s. Unlike the OP I wouldn't say Pearse is the worst. In fact Connolly is - take a trip down platform one. You'll see the late 1990s plastic signs still up, the mid-2000s orange and black signs (the best they have ever had), and their latest craze, the new white-on-purple signs which don't look great IMHO. Thankfully these haven't made much of a spread yet outside of the central Dublin stations. The main thinking behind them seems to be to avoid the Official Langauges Act by using symbols only - text only appears on actual name signage. Now I'm no fan of that particular piece of legislation but this seems to be a backwards step IMO.

Oh, and all the repeaters seem to be gone from Platforms 2-4 in Connolly for some reason.

BenShermin

I agree fully with icdg regarding confusing signage. For example, I don't understand why the signage in Heuston and Connolly refers to the station name as Heuston Station and Connolly Station yet on train announcements refer to the stations as Dublin Heuston and Dublin Connolly. A slight complaint you might say but this could cause confusion to tourists.

In nearly every other European City I've been to both station signage and on board announcements refer to the city name and then the name of the station, London Waterloo, Bruxelles Midi, Paris Est, Múnchen Hauptbahnof, Warszawa Centralna to name but a few. I don't see why Iarnród Éireann needlessly have to confuse the situation:mad:!


Regarding disabled access, I have to say that Ireland is light years ahead of the rest of Europe in this regard, I'd give exeption to the main intercity lines in the UK. Sure there might be farcical situations like the one Foggy Lad discribed in Carlow but at least wheelchair users can get from A to B in this country, even if it has to be a taxi transfer. There is access to probably every station in the country and the platforms are level.

They are also treated with dignity on the trains themselves, all Irish trains that have toilets also have wheelchair accessable toilets, the same cannot be said for any other European country afaik.

Take a trip on the likes of SNCB to see how dire the situation can be for disabled users in Western Europe.

spacetweek

BenShermin wrote: »

I agree fully with icdg regarding confusing signage. For example, I don't understand why the signage in Heuston and Connolly refers to the station name as Heuston Station and Connolly Station yet on train announcements refer to the stations as Dublin Heuston and Dublin Connolly. A slight complaint you might say but this could cause confusion to tourists.

In nearly every other European City I've been to both station signage and on board announcements refer to the city name and then the name of the station, London Waterloo, Bruxelles Midi, Paris Est, Múnchen Hauptbahnof, Warszawa Centralna to name but a few. I don't see why Iarnród Éireann needlessly have to confuse the situation:mad:!

Nah, don't agree. When you're hearing an announcement, you could be anywhere in Ireland. If you're in Limerick and hear "The train to Heuston Station is leaving" you don't know where Heuston is. But if you're in Dublin "Dublin Heuston" is overkill because you're already in Dublin.

icdg

You wouldn't like Berlin then, where every station that might have any semblance of an InterCity service has "Berlin-" prefixed to its name...

BowWow

spacetweek wrote: »

Nah, don't agree. When you're hearing an announcement, you could be anywhere in Ireland. If you're in Limerick and hear "The train to Heuston Station is leaving" you don't know where Heuston is. But if you're in Dublin "Dublin Heuston" is overkill because you're already in Dublin.

Answer to a 4 year old comment?