"Go Rail" Irish Rail's latest magazine

Judgement Day

Anybody seen a copy of this yet? I wonder if I could get odds from Paddy Power as to how long it will last. I've lost count of the amount of these magazines CIE/IE have had and each invariably fails. The distribution of the last one was unreal - IE asked passengers to replace it in the rack in the carriage after reading it and this when airlines/ferry companies etc. were encouraging you to take their ones home with you! The end result was racks full of sticky, dog eared magazines and invariably empty racks where staff couldn't be bothered to replenish supplies. The local station here has a display stand but NO magazines.

'The high-quality 68-page glossy publication will engage and entertain millions of rail customers each year across the network, and is packed full of quality editorial.

Go Rail is an exciting lifestyle magazine covering business, travel, food, celebrity, sport, music, fashion, leisure and more.

It will be published quarterly and distributed free of charge on every train in the Republic of Ireland as well as at all the major train stations.

The magazine is published by Osnovina, which publishes a number of high profile magazines including Hot Press and Enterprise.

“I am delighted to be a part of Go Rail and to have the opportunity to provide really good, high quality reading material to everyone travelling on Irish trains" said publisher Niall Stokes. "There is no better opportunity for people to sit back, relax and have a leisurely read than when they are making a journey in comfort on a train."

"With features on sport, music, fashion and celebrity as well as the arts, business and finance, no matter what your interests, the promise is that Go Rail will make great reading. Go Rail is completely free of charge, making it another great addition to Iarnród Éireann's customer service."

Iarnród Éireann Chief Executive Dick Fearn commented: “We want our customers to enjoy every Intercity journey to the full, so the concept behind Go Rail is to provide those who are travelling by train with a quality, entertaining magazine to add to that experience, each and every time. With the first edition in our hands, we can say that Go Rail is a superb magazine – and one we're really proud of."

Go Rail will cater for both the consumer and business traveller. Each issue will also have a special focus on different counties and regions of Ireland.

With its broad editorial mix, excellent features and fascinating tête-à-têtes with Irish and International celebrities and public figures, Go Rail promises to keep readers engaged and entertained for every minute of their journey.

The first issue of Go Rail features interviews with: The Script, Tipperary hurling star Brendan Maher, Joseph O'Connor, Today FM's Tony Fenton and Limerick chocolate entrepreneur, Nicole Dunphy. Plus there's a special preview of all of this year's big festivals.'

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1123

Drimnagh Road

Hmmm, thought Craig Doyle or Barry Kenny would have featured on the front page...

Features:
Interview with Barry Kenny in which the celebrity explains, through the use of lies, why the train you are on is running late and overcrowded.

popebenny16

Drimnagh Road wrote: »

Hmmm, thought Craig Doyle or Barry Kenny would have featured on the front page...

Features:
Interview with Barry Kenny in which the celebrity explains, through the use of lies, why the train you are on is on time - your watch is broken and nobody is standing - it is your imagination, because when you take into account all the trains which are running that day and divide it into the amount of people standing in your train - nobody is standing.

fixed that for you.

Drimnagh Road

popebenny16 wrote: »

Features:
when you take into account all the trains which are running that day and divide it into the amount of people standing in your train - nobody is standing.


fixed that for you.

You must be a passenger on the WRC. Indeed, you are correct in saying you wouldn't see anybody standing. In fact, you would be lucky to see anybody at all on WRC trains.

However, trains on other part of the network such as the 13:15 ex Westport which is generally overcrowded by Claremorris are formed of a three piece "revolution".

When you are waiting at Roscommon for this train and told to join a rail replacement peasontwagon due to overcrowding, you will arrive in Dublin late.

Transportuser09

Drimnagh Road wrote: »

However, trains on other part of the network such as the 13:15 ex Westport which is generally overcrowded by Claremorris are formed of a three piece "revolution".

You are right. Its unacceptable that this has been allowed to go on for as long as it has, yet Kildare commuter services get 22000s, when one of these could strengthen the Mayo service, while having the commuter service worked by a 29000 or similar.

parsi

I've never understood this obsession with "House Magazines" - works grand on the planes as its something to read especially for tourists but why trains - seems wasteful. The TGV has one and its fairly useless, the DB have one as well which is similarly useless.

StrawberryJazz

Oh joy, a reasonably written collection of advertisements articles promoting the current favourite of Irish C rate celebrities.

Another feature to tickle my interest on my overpriced, uneconomical, delayed Irish Rail service.

I'd rather a free cup of tea or maybe a new PA system on board the train
How about some rain shelters in stations past Hazelhatch?

Transportuser09

parsi wrote: »

I've never understood this obsession with "House Magazines" - works grand on the planes as its something to read especially for tourists but why trains - seems wasteful. The TGV has one and its fairly useless, the DB have one as well which is similarly useless.

Agreed. I can see why you might have such a thing on the Cork/Belfast service, maybe, but do we really need it for the likes of the Waterford, Sligo, etc. I wonder will it be available on the Ballybrophy to Limerick service?

As Strawberry Jazz says a free cuppa would go down a lot better imo.

DWCommuter

Like DART TV :rolleyes: this mag is just another example of a blatant ad revenue stream for fatally ambitious twats, who perhaps have intimate connections with the CIE Group.

Ultimately it will fail because historically the promoters and facilitators are of the same breed.

Judgement Day

Well, a year on and does it still exist? Issue #3 appeared in December 2011. Needless to say my local station hasn't had a copy since Issue.1. :rolleyes:

Neeson

They were readily available in Heuston In February/March this year.

steamengine

May-July 2012, Vol 2 Issue 2, available in Connolly just recently !!!

Judgement Day

Maybe Volume.1. Issue.2. will reach Enniscorthy soon.

OurLadyofKnock

steamengine wrote: »

May-July 2012, Vol 2 Issue 2, available in Connolly just recently !!!

Has some bollox in it about railfreight returning to Cork whcih won't ever happen of course.

Just put in there to pretend their are a real rail company now and again.

dowlingm

OurLadyofKnock wrote: »

Has some bollox in it about railfreight returning to Cork whcih won't ever happen of course.

Just put in there to pretend their are a real rail company now and again.

For any other company the clearing of Ballina-North Wall for 9'6" on standard wagons would actually be a sign that the pockets will be sent to Cork for freight service. With IE it has the appearance of "we're going to spend a bunch of money and then do nothing", like the relaying between Belview-Rosslare Strand (and get some of the rails nicked in the process) and the infamous painting of the West Cork railway stations.

end of the road

dowlingm wrote: »

relaying between Belview-Rosslare Strand

did that go ahead? i thought they left the old jointed track? i knew their was some track pannels taken but thought the relaying had been abandoned.

dowlingm wrote: »

the infamous painting of the West Cork railway stations.

WTF? they painted them even though they were closed, just before closure, or recently?

L1011

end of the road wrote: »

WTF? they painted them even though they were closed, just before closure, or recently?

The stations on the West Cork system were painted and repaired just before they were closed, to ensure that the line had a much higher recorded "loss" than in reality.

There was some painting and platform resurfacing on the Rosslare - Waterford line in its last year, oddly enough...

end of the road

MYOB wrote: »

The stations on the West Cork system were painted and repaired just before they were closed, to ensure that the line had a much higher recorded "loss" than in reality.

wouldn't expect anything less from good old CIE, IE carrying on traditions with their painting and platform resurfacing on the rosslare waterford line to drive up costs. whats more insulting is they actually think people are stupid enough to fall for their tactics, and believe their spin and lyes.

MYOB wrote: »

There was some painting and platform resurfacing on the Rosslare - Waterford line in its last year, oddly enough...

yeh, i knew that took place but thought they were going to do some track relaying as well? obviously that didn't go ahead in the end.

dowlingm

A programme of CWR was underway
http://www.irrs.ie/Journal%20167/167%20Infrastructure.htm

Not sure how far they got.

liamg353

I read in a recent edition an article about snoofing,frummaging and googlebluff as a way of avoiding giving up a seat,I would think it more in line for Irish rail to stand up and be counted for once and take the blame for people having to stand while travelling on a train after all it is the responsibility of Irish Rail to look after the wants and needs of their customers and to provide adequate seating.. A simple solution would be to have an extra one or two carriages during the busiest times and you are long enough in the business to know 99% of the times the extras would be needed, so no more cop outs, get your act sorted, Also when there is delays in journies the information or really the LACK of info. given to passengers leaves a lot to be desired.

end of the road

liamg353 wrote: »

I read in a recent edition an article about snoofing,frummaging and googlebluff as a way of avoiding giving up a seat,I would think it more in line for Irish rail to stand up and be counted for once and take the blame for people having to stand while travelling on a train after all it is the responsibility of Irish Rail to look after the wants and needs of their customers and to provide adequate seating.. A simple solution would be to have an extra one or two carriages during the busiest times and you are long enough in the business to know 99% of the times the extras would be needed, so no more cop outs, get your act sorted, Also when there is delays in journies the information or really the LACK of info. given to passengers leaves a lot to be desired.

completely agree, however excuse making and failure aren't unique to irish rail. it does seem to be unique to ireland and britain though. but maybe not.

devnull

I too found those articles about giving up your seat and the posters on the DART saying the same thing frustrating, sitting on my four car DART at peak time with barely any room to stand in very warm conditions in the summer, whilst passing Clontarf Road depot with in excess of 30 carriages sitting there idle. It appears to be trying to push the blame on passengers for the overcrowding rather than the fact that certain trains are too short at peak time when there is rolling stock available to lengthen them.

In the UK though overcrowding is actually caused by a shortage of rolling stock often through no fault of the operators themselves who have been subject to heavy levels of government interference who have even put obstacles in the way for companies ordering rolling stock. Often this is argued as being so that "Passengers and Taxpayers get the best value for money."

However, history has shown that the DFT rolling stock strategy is often based on a pretty pessimistic view on passenger number increases over the next number of years. There have been many cases where an operator has requested to order xx number of carriages but the DFT has made a large cut to it on the basis that the order is too big and would involve purchasing more stock than is needed and by the time the stock is delivered it is nowhere near sufficient for passenger numbers and overcrowding new stock was supposed to relieve still persists, all of which was predicted by the operators which is why they wanted to order longer trains in the first place.

For all intents and purposes the DFT procures and allocates rolling stock in the UK these days, and the DFT have to agree and have the power to veto and change any allocation or order of rolling stock order than any operator may wish to place. Large orders are often totally controlled by the DFT and from tender advertisement to contract award can take 4-5 years to procure and longer before they actually enter service.

The most recent illustration of the stock shortage has been the quite frankly absurd proposal to convert ex London Underground D stock trains that have just been replaced on the circle line into mainline trains to help deal with overcrowding in the belief that it would sort overcrowding sooner than ordering new trains off the shelf. Of course, all of this is s symptom of not ordering the required stock in the first place like the operators wanted.

The latest twist on all of this is now that in future franchise proposals the type of rolling stock to be used is laid out in every little detail. The franchise specification that companies are bidding for already heavily restricts them on what stock they are allowed to use and in some cases even says how long trains must be on certain services and routes as part of the contract. But then ironically every time there is overcrowding, the DFT bleed on about the operators "Needing to do more" but at the same time tying the operators hands behind their back.

On the information front if something happens before 7.30am most if the time you can expect not to hear about it. The staff don't know and control appear not to work that early. Many times I have left before that point and been waiting at stations along the DART line and the screen displays x minutes and does not change in 10 minutes waiting there, go and ask the employee in the ticket office who has no idea because "it's too early"

Central control and twitter and passenger information services etc should operate from departure of first service until arrival of last. If you are running a railway operation in a capital city it is unforgivable that if something happens early or late nobody is there to tell you about it and you are left to fend for yourself.

Decuc500

devnull wrote: »

I too found those articles about giving up your seat and the posters on the DART saying the same thing frustrating, sitting on my four car DART at peak time with barely any room to stand in very warm conditions in the summer, whilst passing Clontarf Road depot with in excess of 30 carriages sitting there idle. It appears to be trying to push the blame on passengers for the overcrowding rather than the fact that certain trains are too short at peak time when there is rolling stock available to lengthen them.

So true. I saw the results of the latest NTA census where they said there were less passengers using the northbound Greystones to Howth/Malahide service compared to the previous census. I know people who have stopped getting the Dart northside in the evening purely because most of the trains are only 4 carriages and overcrowded. If they put the carriages back on I'm sure more people would use the service. Irish Rail shooting themselves in the foot and wondering why they aren't getting more passengers.

devnull

The 5.10 from Bray continues to suffer hugely from this problem at four carriages long and the last Malahide branch DART train for 50 minutes and is the most heavily overcrowded train I see on the network at any time.

I have to resort to getting the 6 car train before to Howth which I can normally get a seat on and then get off at Howth Junction and change trains. The amount of people getting off that earlier train at Howth Junction and changing to Malahide is huge, by the time they all get off there's very little people going to the unique Howth section.

But people are choosing to do that because they know that there is a chance they won't get on the next train to Malahide if they wait for that so they would rather get the one a few minutes earlier and change later up the line where they have a better chance of getting on.

No doubt some people in Irish Rail then see the number of people on the Howth bound train and think it's pretty well filled, neglecting the fact that a large percentage of people are actually wanting the Malahide branch.

end of the road

surely this could be dealt with by the NTA putting into force a minimum amount of carriges that must be in service, which would effectively mean all carriges bar the few out for maintenence being in service?

Hilly Bill

I must say the Go rail magazines are very popular and can be a decent read. For those who hasnt read one , they are filled with various articles about various topics from cooking to entertainment and sport to music from the same crowd that makes Hot Press.

Del.Monte

"Go Rail" is a great read if you're a fan of advertorial drivel dressed up as bona fide stories and endless photos of rugby players and Craig Doyle. :rolleyes:

devnull

end of the road wrote: »

surely this could be dealt with by the NTA putting into force a minimum amount of carriges that must be in service, which would effectively mean all carriges bar the few out for maintenence being in service?

Previously I was told that the reason that the train could not be lengthened was because of the fact that the vast number of carriages stuck at Clontarf every peak, normally at least 30 is because most of them are not serviceable or are needed for spares and are scheduled on later services to replace other carriages coming off duty.

Yet tonight at Fairview depot a solitary 4 car 8100 train and another 2 car 8100 are parked up with nothing else. I know a match is on, but my point is that isn't it funny how they cannot spare 2 carriages for the 5.10 from Bray, but they can spare 24 for a match?

end of the road

devnull wrote: »

Previously I was told that the reason that the train could not be lengthened was because of the fact that the vast number of carriages stuck at Clontarf every peak, normally at least 30 is because most of them are not serviceable or are needed for spares and are scheduled on later services to replace other carriages coming off duty.
Yet tonight at Fairview depot a solitary 4 car 8100 train and another 2 car 8100 are parked up with nothing else. I know a match is on, but my point is that isn't it funny how they cannot spare 2 carriages for the 5.10 from Bray, but they can spare 24 for a match?

yeah i don't get that either TBH.

L1011

Rather like how extra paths were found Connolly - Maynooth for the Ryder cup but can't be for regular services - it's easier to lie for a simpler life