What do you think of Irish Rail Howth-Bray?

Andremac96

i get this quite often and am wondering what are you opinions comments complaints satisfaction and improvments that could be made open to all:)

Captain Chaos

The DART service you mean. It's slow, too much padding in the time table. The trains are just wallowing along most of the time hardly pushing their performance at all. Too long dwell times at stations. I reckon they could knock 15-20 mins at least off the time it takes from Howth to Bray while still stopping at all stations.

I remember one morning, the first DART was running very late. It managed Howth Junction to Connolly in 7 mins, calling at all stations. That run is timetabled for 18 mins. It's a disgrace. They can do it if they want and need to.

Andremac96

yea I went from bayside to hewston last month. took 25 mins so that could probably take 15 if they hurried up and stopped messing about.

Hilly Bill

You got a dart to Heuston ?

7 minutes from howth junction to Connolly ? I doubt it very much.

This thread sounds like a wind up.

Cookie_Monster

It's just too slow.
great service to have, esp now you can bring your bike on but it takes an age.

1h 10 average timetable to do approx 38km is pretty poor
http://g.co/maps/gvf8x

Captain Chaos

Hilly Bill wrote: »

7 minutes from howth junction to Connolly ? I doubt it very much.

This thread sounds like a wind up.

I was actually on the thing at the time and needed to be in the city centre to catch a bus for work. It was the 06:15 service that is now the 06:17 service as it now takes an extra 2mins to get from Howth to Howth Junction now with the new "improvements".

That DART I was on, each stop was only about 20 seconds. As opposed to the 2 mins at each stop normally. Even the approach into Connolly it was very quick over the points, I was never on a DART entering Connolly that fast since the mid '90s. 7 mins was probably a slight over estimate but it was 10-11 mins tops. It is only a 5 mile trip with 5 stops. With a good driver and rail conditions is very do-able.

DARTs these days mosey around like the 121s struggling with a 6 piece Mk3 PP set at crush load during the evenings. Those were the days.

dublinman1990

There are some DART'S going from Howth to Greystones as well as from Malahide I far as I know. They do not all go to Bray .

Anyway, I was on a DART from Howth heading for Bray very recently as over a week ago after attending the Dublin Bay Prawn festival in Howth two weekends ago. The DART was going very slowly between there and Sutton. To you guys at Irish Rail, I mean; a figure of 2 MPH between there and Sutton is slow in any rail standards.

Cookie_Monster

dublinman1990 wrote: »

There are some DART'S going to Greystones as I far as I know. They do not all go to Bray .

really:rolleyes:
Of course some go to Greystones, they don't all come from Howth either and the odd one only goes to Dun Laoghaire.
The OP specifically asked about Howth-Bray and that's what people are responding too.

popebenny16

Andremac96 wrote: »

i get this quite often and am wondering what are you opinions comments complaints satisfaction and improvments that could be made open to all:)

you also started a thread today about dublin bus.

conflict of interest thread is up there ^^^^^^

Judgement Day

will the howth to bray railway ever reopen again as a railway?

Hilly Bill

dublinman1990 wrote: »

There are some DART'S going from Howth to Greystones as well as from Malahide I far as I know. They do not all go to Bray .

Anyway, I was on a DART from Howth heading for Bray very recently as over a week ago after attending the Dublin Bay Prawn festival in Howth two weekends ago. The DART was going very slowly between there and Sutton. To you guys at Irish Rail, I mean; a figure of 2 MPH between there and Sutton is slow in any rail standards.

Did you stop and have a think as to why it was going slow ? 2mph? sure of that ? Was it going that slow from the time it left Howth all the way to Sutton?

Actually does anyone know why the dart stops so much? It's one thing that they seem to change drivers a lot, and I know they have to let certain trains pass others, but I get the dart twice a day every weekday and I've never been able to come up with a reason why they stop so often...

I appreciate the service, and I usually argue against people who complain about it, but I genuinely can't understand what the problem of stopping could be caused by other than terrible timetabling?

Hilly Bill

stations? signals? the driver one could be easily solved if they changed over at clontarf station which is only a few metres away from the current stop.

n97 mini

Captain Chaos wrote: »

The DART service you mean. It's slow, too much padding in the time table. The trains are just wallowing along most of the time hardly pushing their performance at all. Too long dwell times at stations.

Jeez, you should try the Maynooth line some time.

Northern Monkey

Hilly Bill wrote: »

stations? signals? the driver one could be easily solved if they changed over at clontarf station which is only a few metres away from the current stop.

The stop outside clontarf is the driver waiting for signaling.

carlmango11

As a new regular user of the DART I think it's a terrible service.

Times between trains are much too high to rely on it as a rapid service. I remember hearing that there are capacity problems at the Loopline bridge? Can someone confirm this because I don't understand how there are often trains 5 minutes apart at the peak morning times but then intervals like that become impossible at other times?

I don't believe it's a lack of numbers; look at the Luas, because it's regular and reliable people use it all the time and it's busy all throughout the day. The DART could be the exact same but I think people don't like the idea of getting caught waiting 20 minutes for the next one. Increase frequency and people will rely on it.

Another problem is, as someone mentioned, the dwell times at stations. It seems every morning the trains seem to wait for far too long with their doors open at Connolly and Tara Street? Probably others but I get off at Pearse. In London if the trains wait for a longer-than-normal time the driver gives a quick reason explanation over the speakers. Simple exchanges of information like this are much appreciated by commuters rather than random unexplained waits with no indication as to how long the delay will be.

Don't get me started on the absolutely BRUTAL ticket barriers. The other day I saw a DART arrive at Dun Laoghaire and a member of staff walked to the barriers to assist/ensure people had tickets. Even with this member of staff standing at the ticket gates a group of 3 (yes three) girls managed to walk through on 1 ticket. The machines are totally unfit for their purpose, cause delays and don't stop non-ticketholders.

Another thing is the complete lack of information at stations. Platforms 1 and 2. Yes that's helpful. How about Northbound and Southbound with a list of stations?

The visual displays on the trains are more often wrong than right. I haven't seen the electronic displays of the stations passed and upcoming ones (with the green and red lights) work correctly once in the last 2 months. The times on the platform electronic signs often say 2 minutes as the train pulls into the platform; if buses which deal with unpredictable traffic can do it then why can't the DART which runs on rail?

The whole service is just totally sub-standard. Get Veolia in there and I guarantee they could turn it around.

Hilly Bill

Northern Monkey wrote: »

The stop outside clontarf is the driver waiting for signaling.

The little metal platform outside the shed im on about. Its the driver changeover platform.

carlmango11

carlmango11 wrote: »

I don't believe it's a lack of numbers; look at the Luas, because it's regular and reliable people use it all the time and it's busy all throughout the day.

Another thing is the complete lack of information at stations. Platforms 1 and 2. Yes that's helpful. How about Northbound and Southbound with a list of stations?

I'm not sure what you mean about people relying on the dart more if it was more frequent; thousands of people have been relying on the dart for years before the luas and have continued to do so. And the majority of people don't have a choice anyway, I live in Howth and the dart by far the best form of transport for me, I can only imagine what it's like for people further out, like on the far ends of Commuter lines.

As for calling platforms Northbound and Southbound, that wouldn't really make much sense. The platforms are clearly numbered; there shouldn't be any problem with that. Whereas if you did change the labels, say at Howth - both platforms are always going to be Southbound so how would you say the next train is stopping at platform 2? Or in Connolly when northbound darts are going through platform 6, how would the announcer let people know?

Other than that I agree with you, the darts stop far too long at some stations: Howth Junction, Clontarf Road, Connolly, Tara...

carlmango11

true-or-false wrote: »

I'm not sure what you mean about people relying on the dart more if it was more frequent; thousands of people have been relying on the dart for years before the luas and have continued to do so. And the majority of people don't have a choice anyway, I live in Howth and the dart by far the best form of transport for me, I can only imagine what it's like for people further out, like on the far ends of Commuter lines.

Perhaps rely wasn't the right word. What I mean is that people would be more likely to choose it over the car if it came more regularly like the Luas. Especially for shorter trips where the car would be as fast/quicker.

true-or-false wrote: »

As for calling platforms Northbound and Southbound, that wouldn't really make much sense. The platforms are clearly numbered; there shouldn't be any problem with that. Whereas if you did change the labels, say at Howth - both platforms are always going to be Southbound so how would you say the next train is stopping at platform 2? Or in Connolly when northbound darts are going through platform 6, how would the announcer let people know?

For termini such as Howth, Bray, Malahide and Greystones then the numbered platforms would be better with a information boards showing the next departure platform number but for the vast majority of the stations every northbound train is on one platform and every southbound is on the other. Connolly would be an exception because they seem to change. They could either stop doing that if that's a possibility or continue using numbers.

They've done this in Pearse Station. Although the signs are ugly and don't match the station (I'm never happy).

EDIT: Example on London Underground: http://www.londontransportoriginalsigns.co.uk/London_Underground_Enamel_Signs_files/MVC-023S.jpg

Cookie_Monster

carlmango11 wrote: »

Times between trains are much too high to rely on it as a rapid service. I remember hearing that there are capacity problems at the Loopline bridge?

I think it's more to do with slots in Connolly.

The North and Southbound is a good idea, though in conjuction with platform numbers.

Milan Cobian

IIRC, Howth-Bray used to be timetabled for 1hr back in the 80s and 90s. I know there are a couple more stations nowadays, but to have lost 10 mins seems to indicate a disimprovement.