Minor Heuston Schedule Changes from 28 September

Jamie2k9

http://www.irishrail.ie/news/schedule-alterations-to-cork-limerick-tralee-westport-athlone-morning-services

Schedule Alterations to Cork, Limerick, Tralee, Westport & Athlone Morning Services

18 September 2015

Following customer feedback we are altering some service departure times beginning the 28th September in order to improve performance and reliability of services into Heuston in the morning peak.

From 28th September the following changes will take place:

05.55 Cork (Kent) / Dublin Heuston service (Monday to Saturday) will now depart at 05.50 hrs and will call at Mallow at 06.11, Charleville at 06.24, Limerick Junction at 06.46 and arrive in Dublin Heuston at 08.20 hrs.

06.20 Limerick (Colbert) / Limerick Junction service (Monday to Saturday) will now depart at 06.15 hrs and will arrive in Limerick Junction at 06.41 hrs.

04.50 Tralee (Casement) / Mallow service (Monday Only) will now depart at 04.45 hrs and will call at Killarney at 05.15, Millstreet at 05.40 and arrive in Mallow at 06.07 hrs.

05.25 Westport / Dublin Heuston service (Monday to Friday) will now depart at 05.20 hrs and will call at Castlebar at 05.32, Claremorris at 05.50, Ballyhaunis at 06.03, Castlerea at 06.16, Roscommon at 06.34, Athlone at 07.00, Clara at 07.14, Tullamore at 07.22, Portarlington at 07.40, Monasterevin at 07.48, Kildare at 07.55, Newbridge at 08.02 and arrive in Dublin Heuston at 08.30 hrs.

07.05 Athlone / Dublin Heuston service (Saturday only) will now depart at 07.00 hrs and will call at Clara at 07.14, Tullamore at 07.22, Portarlington at 07.40, Monasterevin at 07.48, Kildare at 07.55, Newbridge at 08.02 and arrive in Dublin Heuston at 08.30 hrs.

Will be as successful as 06.15 Cork-Heuston launch :rolleyes:

kc56

Making more room for the 0615 more likely.

end of the road

stops within the portlaoise heuston corridor should be removed from long distance services unless its an interchange. portlaoise for cork/limerick/tralee, portarlington for galway/westport, kildare for waterford. if anything it would help with any overcrowding on these services. if they took advantage of the 4 track section and had a 29 run along from hh in the peaks that would help a lot as well, but forget that happening

kc56

end of the road wrote: »

stops within the portlaoise heuston corridor should be removed from long distance services unless its an interchange. portlaoise for cork/limerick/tralee, portarlington for galway/westport, kildare for waterford. if anything it would help with any overcrowding on these services. if they took advantage of the 4 track section and had a 29 run along from hh in the peaks that would help a lot as well, but forget that happening

Most of the commuter traffic on the Portlaoise corridor travel from Sallins, Newbridge and Kildare so having Intercity skip these stations and running a 29 from HH would not help but increase overcrowding on the few remaining HN-PL services and mean longer commute times for many.
Alternative solution needed.

The 4-track is used to allow Intercities overtake the commuters.

end of the road

kc56 wrote: »

Most of the commuter traffic on the Portlaoise corridor travel from Sallins, Newbridge and Kildare so having Intercity skip these stations and running a 29 from HH would not help but increase overcrowding on the few remaining HN-PL services and mean longer commute times for many.

not really.

kc56 wrote: »

Alternative solution needed.

its a good solution. the overcrowding would balance out. and those traveling the length of the country would have a lesser journey time. might sound small but any time saving on our rail network is revolutionary, thats how slow it is

kc56 wrote: »

The 4-track is used to allow Intercities overtake the commuters.

yes, so plenty of room for a suburban along it

kc56

end of the road wrote: »

not really.

From 2013 Rail Census - Inbound:
Parkwest - 111
Clondalkin - 23
Adamstown - 64
Hazelhatch - 223
Sallins - 753
Newbridhe - 948
Kildare - 631
Facts show busiest stations are in fact Sallins, Newbridge and Kildare.

its a good solution. the overcrowding would balance out. and those traveling the length of the country would have a lesser journey time. might sound small but any time saving on our rail network is revolutionary, thats how slow it is

Removing 50% of the trains and doubling the travel times for many is not a solution. Like it or not the Intercity trains do provide an essential service to the busiest commuter stops.

yes, so plenty of room for a suburban along it

Even now, some suburban services have to wait for clearance while being overtaken. One, 1720, is overtaken by 3 trains.

If IC trains were skip the busy stations, they would need to be replaced by additional fast services. There are capacity issues on the Heuston side where they are trying to mix non-stop and commuting services; adding a load more trains will make this worse unless 4-track is extended further down the line.

end of the road

kc56 wrote: »

Removing 50% of the trains and doubling the travel times for many is not a solution.

i don't see any "doubling" of travel times. there are a lot more portlaoise and other suburbans then intercity.

kc56 wrote: »

Like it or not the Intercity trains do provide an essential service to the busiest commuter stops.

meaning those from longer stops take way longer then they need to. can be solved if the will was there. intercity trains should not be stopping in suburban land apart from an interchange. only ireland especially and to an extent britain seem to be unable to manage this, and we all end up being slowed down because of it. suburban times wouldn't really change much i'd suspect.

kc56 wrote: »

Even now, some suburban services have to wait for clearance while being overtaken. One, 1720, is overtaken by 3 trains.

should be looked at for the time table changes. can't see how it couldn't be solved, again if the will was there.

kc56 wrote: »

If IC trains were skip the busy stations, they would need to be replaced by additional fast services. There are capacity issues on the Heuston side where they are trying to mix non-stop and commuting services; adding a load more trains will make this worse unless 4-track is extended further down the line.

i don't believe you would need that many extra services to replace them. cork is the only hourly intercity service the rest are 2 hours. nothing that can't be solved. people on long distance trains are long enough on them and IE should be looking to grow that business as well. taking as long as they do and then stopping within the dublin area slowing them down further isn't going to encourage people to leave the car. suburbans being slow is something to be expected unfortunately. mind you in this country, slower and slower instead of faster seems to be the way so its not surprising intercity passengers are being expected to meander along through the dublin area.

kc56

end of the road wrote: »

i don't believe you would need that many extra services to replace them. cork is the only hourly intercity service the rest are 2 hours. nothing that can't be solved. people on long distance trains are long enough on them and IE should be looking to grow that business as well. taking as long as they do and then stopping within the dublin area slowing them down further isn't going to encourage people to leave the car. suburbans being slow is something to be expected unfortunately. mind you in this country, slower and slower instead of faster seems to be the way so its not surprising intercity passengers are being expected to meander along through the dublin area.

At peak, most services are hourly - Waterford, Limerick, Galway are all hourly.

You suggest having all IC trains not serve the busiest stations. The remaining service is basically hourly with a few extras at peak times. At present there are 10 trains serving Kildare between 16:20 and 18:35. Without the ICs, there would only be 5 trains; Newbridge would go from 9 to 5; Sallins from 8 to 5. That's a huge reduction in service levels for peak commuting times.

You could, I suppose, shorten all the IC trains and lengthen the locals to maintain capacity but frequency of service is also important. 8-10 trains in 2 hours is a modest level of service; 5 in two hours is not. The ICs not only provide additional capacity, they also provide frequency and, as a bonus, shorter travel times.

end of the road

kc56 wrote: »

At peak, most services are hourly - Waterford, Limerick, Galway are all hourly.

You suggest having all IC trains not serve the busiest stations. The remaining service is basically hourly with a few extras at peak times. At present there are 10 trains serving Kildare between 16:20 and 18:35. Without the ICs, there would only be 5 trains; Newbridge would go from 9 to 5; Sallins from 8 to 5. That's a huge reduction in service levels for peak commuting times.

You could, I suppose, shorten all the IC trains and lengthen the locals to maintain capacity but frequency of service is also important. 8-10 trains in 2 hours is a modest level of service; 5 in two hours is not. The ICs not only provide additional capacity, they also provide frequency and, as a bonus, shorter travel times.

not the problem of intercity passengers who expect a reasonable journey time which they don't get as their train is also expected to be a suburban service meandering through the dublin area taking forever and a day on top of the long journey time they experience all ready. intercity services can only be intercity services. they are not suburban services. they are not competitive. if they are to survive then they need to grow, that means making them faster. that means unpopular decisians like removing stops within the suburban area.

Carawaystick

What happened to the clockface timetable on the Cork to Dublin line? can IÉ not manage that?

end of the road

Carawaystick wrote: »

What happened to the clockface timetable on the Cork to Dublin line?

gone out the window?

Carawaystick wrote: »

can IÉ not manage that?

probably not

kc56

From the viewpoint of IC passengers, I agree that IC trains should not be doing commuter duty. The fact that they do is probably a question of resources and keeping costs down.

In the original 4-track proposal, the plan was for an IC every 15 mins, a local to HH every 15 min and a regional semi-express to Carlow/Portlaoise/Athlone every 15 minutes. But there are more ICs than 4 per hour sometimes (e g 1700,1705,1725,1730,1735) so some regional slots would be converted to IC. Then there is the issue of express services catching up with regionals - at present nothing is let out after 40mins so that the Corks aren't delayed - or regionals catching up with locals even with the 4-track. And that's just outbound; inbound the problems are multiplied.

There is a real issue trying to leave long enough gaps for express services while also running an adequate regional commuter service. The more non-stop trains, the worse the problem. And the problem section is HH onwards.

An example; the 1810 to PL is overtaken by the 1815 to Westport. The 1830 Galway is frequently delayed by the 1810 from Kildare onwards and that is despite a 20min headway and it skips two stations. Non-stop trains need a lot of headway. Try and do that every 15 mins...

The aim of making IC services faster is very desirable but the need to serve the daily commuter complicates the issue. The only long term solution is to have dedicated fast tracks from at least Kildare if not further. That's how they do it in other countries. Then fast IC trains will become a reality.