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Major delays on Cork line @ weekend?
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Hi all,
Seems to have been a significant increase in train failures and other issues so far this month. Cork line is getting it's fair share of them.
This is a list of the published delays, which does not include where a passenger experienced a delay but was not acknowledged by IE:
28/07– mechanical delays 1pm Heuston to Cork 30 mins delay in Mallow. Not sure if it ended up in bus transfer? 16.30 Heuston to Galway & 16.25 Heuston to Limerick 15 mins mechanical issue
27/07 –1pm & 2pm Heuston to Cork & 12.20pm Cork to Heuston = up to 70 mins delay, due to mechanical fault @ Portlaoise. Mechanical fault on DARTS 4.30 caused delays up to peak hour trains
26/07 – 8am ish +20 mins delays to Maynooth and Sligo trains due to level crossing v’s bin truck incident.
24/07 – 6.30am Dundalk to Dublin, 20 mins mechanical delay at Rush and Lusk. Delays to all inbound commuter trains and DARTS from Malahide, 7.40am Limerick to Heuston +20 mins delays
22/07 7am Heuston to Cork 40 mins late due to mechanical failure. 7.30am Signal failure on Maynooth line, impact undefined. 9.30am Connolly to Belfast 40 mins delay, incident between Howth Junction and Malahide. Also impacted southbound DARTs.
21/07 Fire adjacent to Enfield 2-6pm 1pm Sligo to Connolly 30 mins late, plus others. 6am Gorey to Connolly 80 mins late, train hit a fallen tree. 5.35am Rosslare to Connolly delayed 30 mins behind that train
20/07 7am Dundalk to Connolly 30 mins delayed due to signal issue. Lots of southbound Drogheda originating trains and DARTS delayed behind this.
19/07 7.10am Waterford to Heuston mechanical failure @ Kildare, 2 hours late. 07.50am Waterford to Heuston 70 mins late
18/07 5.35am Rosslare to Connolly – bus transfer to Connolly, mechanical failure. Unsure of impact.
17/07 17.05 Heuston to Tralee & 20.20 to Cork 30 mins late due to signal failure. 19.13 GCD to Hazelhatch held @ Connolly due to incident @ Cabra. 30 mins late. 11am Heuston to Cork 40 mins late mechanical failure.
13/07 – 2pm Dublin to Cork 45 mins late. Mechanical failure. Replacement train sent @ Ballybrophy
11/07 8am Heuston to Cork 70 mins late due to ill passenger
10/07 All DARTs, Maynooth, Drogheda/Dundalk, Enterprise, Rosslare, PPT services delayed up to 30 mins bridge strike 5pm Amiens st . issues with no announcements to passengers stuck on trains/DARTs. 2nd bridge strike incident that day, same bridge. Previous one around 2.30pm
09/07 19.05 Connolly to Sligo stuck @ Edgeworthstown 60 mins late. Gardai request?
08/07 3pm Cork to Heuston mech failure Charleville 2 hours 45 mins late (ouch!)4pm & 5pm then combined so ran 80 mins and 40 mins late. 18.20 Cork to Heuston 45 mins late. Earlier issues that day with DARTS
07/07 16.20 Cork to Heuston mech failure 50 mins late. 4.30pm bridge strike @ Kildare. Points failure @ Connolly 9am. All services impacted, delays up to 15 mins
05/07 5.30am Limerick to Heuston 30 min delay level crossing fault, PA broken on train.
04/07 05.40am Longford to Pearse, terminated Connolly, mechanical issue
03/07 7am Heuston to Cork 30 mins delay due to mech issue. 05.45 Sligo to Connolly 20 mins late. Livestock on the track
02/07 Connolly to Belfast 90 mins late, issues with Drogheda commuter trains
01/07 – Dublin to Cork and vv. 30 min delays, signal failure 8pm. Level crossing fault Lansdowne Rd 7pm. DARTS and Commuter trains 30 mins late0 -
jesus not only is that a lot of delays, but a lot of mechanical issues among the list. not good for the railway this month.
ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.
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Most of that is been blown out of proportion.0
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Most of that is been blown out of proportion.
Not sure what you mean. Everyone of these delays and the impacts are factually correct per Irish Rail. For such a small network, with not many services, the lack of proper maintenance after millions of investment by the government in rolling stock is catching up. Not sure how it compares internationally....0 -
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Not sure what you mean. Everyone of these delays and the impacts are factually correct per Irish Rail. For such a small network, with not many services, the lack of proper maintenance after millions of investment by the government in rolling stock is catching up. Not sure how it compares internationally....
You must not of read your own post. Out of the 21 days only 10 contained mechanical faults and that could be for any reason. Just like a an airline IE will withdraw a train if it's unsafe to continue. Personally I don't think a service running 20mins or less behind schedule should classed as a delay it more so LATE.
11 of the 21 days the delays where caused by;
Level crossing incident with bin truck
A fire beside Enfield
Fallen tree on the line
fault blocking services behind/front(single line)
Incident at a station
I'll passenger
Terminate Connolly instead of Pearse
Bridge strikes, same bridge twice in the one day
Gardi requesting a stop
Bridge strike
Livestock on the line
Belfast route, Drogheda commuter problem, no mention of commuter services been delayed.
There seems very little Irish Rail could of some to prevent them delays.
20 - 30min delay caused by signal/points (3 in total) is reasonable in my book. Dublin airport will have multiple delays each day and you wouldn't bat an eyelid at them. Buses are continuously late or delayed so I'm sure its expected Irish Rail can have a few occasional delays without having people milking it that the network fails daily.0 -
10 mechanical failures in a month is not good.
nobody has an issue with the other delays as they couldn't be helped but 10 mechanical failures in a month says to me that people need to be a bit more on the ball.ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.
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end of the road wrote: »10 mechanical failures in a month is not good.
nobody has an issue with the other delays as they couldn't be helped but 10 mechanical failures in a month says to me that people need to be a bit more on the ball.
Okay so to brake it down again there is different types such fault, failures and issues.
Failures seem to issue the longest delays which suggest the train "broke down" there was 2 of these.
Fault usually led to a 30 - 40 min delay. My guess would either a quick swap of train if possible or a quick fix or hold the train a couple of mins to remove or disconnect something.
Issue led to 20 min delay. I'd imagine these could range from anything like a door closing or lock fully, waiting for wheel chair ramp, problem with lighting ect.
Signals I'm sure you can expect a buld or some wiring to give way from time to time.
Again compare it to any other transport mode or company and see who the most delays. As I said airlines have plane going tech regulary and cause delays of up hours or even days.0 -
We will have to agree to disagree. I get the train every day. It's a simple 30 min journey, but most days it suffers a 5-10 min delay every evening (17.09 Dun Laoghaire to Drogheda), due to a new feature 'congestion'. Then we have the impacts of longer delays some of which are mentioned above, but most don't even appear in the list I posted.Personally I don't think a service running 20mins or less behind schedule should classed as a delay it more so LATE.
re international comparisons - I'm no expert, but when I lived in west London I used the Chiltern line. When I checked their website, they use 5 minutes late as a Public Performance Measure when publishing delays. And they pay compensation after 30 min delays, not the minimum 1 hour for IE. Yes, no doubt they charge a lot more per journey, but personally I would be happy to pay more if I could get drivers to make announcements during delays, and if 'real' punctuality improved. Just my 2p.
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We will have to agree to disagree. I get the train every day. It's a simple 30 min journey, but most days it suffers a 5-10 min delay every evening (17.09 Dun Laoghaire to Drogheda), due to a new feature 'congestion'. Then we have the impacts of longer delays some of which are mentioned above, but most don't even appear in the list I posted.
re international comparisons - I'm no expert, but when I lived in west London I used the Chiltern line. When I checked their website, they use 5 minutes late as a Public Performance Measure when publishing delays. And they pay compensation after 30 min delays, not the minimum 1 hour for IE. Yes, no doubt they charge a lot more per journey, but personally I would be happy to pay more if I could get drivers to make announcements during delays, and if 'real' punctuality improved. Just my 2p.

But not a single one of them delays were regarded as congestion. If your going to get onto a bus at 17:10 it's going to be delayed compared to getting a bus at 15:10 due to extra demand and more traffic during busy times. It's normal enough to expect some peak time services running a 5 - 10 mins late. If more padding was to be put into timetables then you will have less frequency. The UK is a bad comparison to Ireland as nearly every route/service has its own running line in the major cities.0 -
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Correct. Congestion is a new term used since PPT was introduced for the morning/nightly peak time delays. I did not mention them in my list as there would be too many, and IE don't even report on them. Passengers just need to get used to it till the new timetable hopefully resolves it.But not a single one of them delays were regarded as congestion.
I would never compare buses to trains. Buses have to compete with cars etc.
And yes, UK might not be a great comparison. But they have good available metrics so handy to check online.
I tried to compare New Zealand trains to those in Ireland (similar population etc.), but could not get an accurate comparison. But while researching it, I came across this:
https://www.metlink.org.nz/customer-services/public-transport-facts-and-figures/public-transport-customer-satisfaction/
Can you imagine it IE genuinely engaged with their customers like this company did? This summary was supported by a 130 page report0 -
Correct. Congestion is a new term used since PPT was introduced for the morning/nightly peak time delays. I did not mention them in my list as there would be too many, and IE don't even report on them. Passengers just need to get used to it till the new timetable hopefully resolves it.
I would never compare buses to trains. Buses have to compete with cars etc.
And yes, UK might not be a great comparison. But they have good available metrics so handy to check online.
I tried to compare New Zealand trains to those in Ireland (similar population etc.), but could not get an accurate comparison. But while researching it, I came across this:
https://www.metlink.org.nz/customer-services/public-transport-facts-and-figures/public-transport-customer-satisfaction/
Can you imagine it IE genuinely engaged with their customers like this company did? This summary was supported by a 130 page report
I think your expectations are too high for an under rescoured and restricted network. Passengers are increasing although the network hasn't. You should be grateful your only delayed 5 - 10mins. If you want better punctuality well then you must willing to suffice less frequency.0 -
100% agreed, hence why I said I would be happy to pay more if only the service improved. However, actual customer experience with front line staff could be increased significantly with only minimal cost. Yes, there are individually some great staff, but my experience is daily the way a lot of staff react to customers is very poor, and I certainly feel some have a large chip on the shoulders which they have no issue letting the customers know.I think your expectations are too high for an under rescoured and restricted network.... If you want better punctuality well then you must willing to suffice less frequency.
Perfect example... customer's should be 'grateful' for the service we receive.You should be grateful0 -
100% agreed, hence why I said I would be happy to pay more if only the service improved. However, actual customer experience with front line staff could be increased significantly with only minimal cost. Yes, there are individually some great staff, but my experience is daily the way a lot of staff react to customers is very poor, and I certainly feel some have a large chip on the shoulders which they have no issue letting the customers know.
Perfect example... customer's should be 'grateful' for the service we receive.
You will get ratty staff in every job it's not just an Irish Rail thing and no you shouldn't have to experience it but it does happen and your probably not the first person that day to come to that member of staff to complain or ask an "irritating question" in their view.
Grateful in the sense that with a network stretched to its limits, increasing numbers and reduced funding a service running 5 or 10 mins is rather minor giving what could the case.
You have to choose what it is you expect from IE are you more focused on getting a train or someone giving a big smile. Unfortunately I think their best customer service is putting the resources into getting the trains moving rather than focusing on how to resolve complaints.0 -
Grateful in the sense that with a network stretched to its limits, increasing numbers and reduced funding a service running 5 or 10 mins is rather minor giving what could the case.
Funding has increased to CIE over the last few years.
That's before I remind you of the fact that all the money that has been spent on the city center re signalling project that Irish Rail got from the state on the basis that they could deliver additional trains through the system.
Or are you saying that Irish Rail have not been able to deliver the benefits that the technology should be able to, or perhaps that the improvements they claim they needed investment for are not deliverable in practice?You will get ratty staff in every job it's not just an Irish Rail thing and no you shouldn't have to experience it but it does happen and your probably not the first person that day to come to that member of staff to complain or ask an "irritating question" in their view.
If staff working for a public service company don't like dealing with the public, then quite frankly they shouldn't be working in a job which is to serve said people, there is no excuse for being rude or having a bad attitude, no matter what the reason is.You have to choose what it is you expect from IE are you more focused on getting a train or someone giving a big smile. Unfortunately I think their best customer service is putting the resources into getting the trains moving rather than focusing on how to resolve complaints.
Proper train companies do both, not one or the other.
They are also more transparent with their delays and problems that are being experienced and disruption to train services and have proper procedures in place to deal with them to keep the customers first, Irish Rail are terrible with this and a lot of station staff think their job is to sell tickets and little else.
I commuted on the DART for 2 years through 2014-2016 and if there is any kind of service disruption before 7am, don't expect anyone to know anything before that, meanwhile don't even expect anyone in the station to make announcements, because after all, that's not their job as one staff member told me, central control are for that.
Here's something radical however, instead of guessing what the customers want, why don't they ask them and get them more involved? I mean, not like it's a public service, right?0 -
Typical IE apologist. "We're crap but thats fine" *goes back to reading paper and ignoring pax*.0
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Funding has increased to CIE over the last few years.
That's before I remind you of the fact that all the money that has been spent on the city center re signalling project that Irish Rail got from the state on the basis that they could deliver additional trains through the system.
Or are you saying that Irish Rail have not been able to deliver the benefits that the technology should be able to, or perhaps that the improvements they claim they needed investment for are not deliverable in practice?
If staff working for a public service company don't like dealing with the public, then quite frankly they shouldn't be working in a job which is to serve said people, there is no excuse for being rude or having a bad attitude, no matter what the reason is.
Proper train companies do both, not one or the other.
They are also more transparent with their delays and problems that are being experienced and disruption to train services and have proper procedures in place to deal with them to keep the customers first, Irish Rail are terrible with this and a lot of station staff think their job is to sell tickets and little else.
I commuted on the DART for 2 years through 2014-2016 and if there is any kind of service disruption before 7am, don't expect anyone to know anything before that, meanwhile don't even expect anyone in the station to make announcements, because after all, that's not their job as one staff member told me, central control are for that.
Here's something radical however, instead of guessing what the customers want, why don't they ask them and get them more involved? I mean, not like it's a public service, right?
What I'm saying is most services run fine but yet when a service is 5 or 10 mins late there is uproar. It's a tight ship at peak times and it only take one knock to effect many services. As I was pointing out earlier many of the reasons for these complaints are out of IE hands such as I'll passenger, a line side fire, livestock on the line or garda requesting a train to stop.
People are expecting and pushing for more services and less padding. The result of this is a very tight schedule, more trains and without extra running lines been supplied. So in my opinion a service running slightly late is reasonable. You can't have it all without major investment
Proper train companies have proper resources and investment with large funds.
Irish Rail are a public service agent and their job is to get you from A-B via a train safely. If they can add customer service great. But if you want more customer service then ask the government to invest in it as most large private companies invest millions in it. Personally I'd rather see IE invest the small funds they receive into running trains rather than giving you wave and smile when getting on-board or at a counter.0 -
People are expecting and pushing for more services and less padding. The result of this is a very tight schedule, more trains and without extra running lines been supplied. So in my opinion a service running slightly late is reasonable. You can't have it all without major investment.
Irish Rail asked for money from the government to upgrade the signalling system over several years, the government provided said money and Irish Rail said it would deliver certain benefits and that was their justification for applying for the funding, the government accepted that such benefits would be in the interests of the public so provided funded for Irish Rail to do that.
Despite the fact that several years and tens of millions have been spent on this project, we are still continually spun on a regular basis that the system cannot cope with the amount of trains that is being thrown at it currently, let alone the additional 6-7 trains per hour that was claimed the signalling upgrade would allow to run on the system.Proper train companies have proper resources and investment with large funds
Unfortunately as the City Center re-signalling project shows, when Irish Rail are provided with investment on the back of promised upgrades to the system, we cannot be sure that they will deliver what they say they will, large funds doesn't mean you have a better system if the use of resources, projects and the implementation of them is poor, which unfortunately it is in Irish Rail.
On the subject of the City Center Re signalling project which one of these is true in your opinion, because surely one of them has to be true?
a) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which they were not certain was possible to deliver?
b) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which could be delivered but they are unable to do so?
The taxpayer is entitled to see that Irish Rail deliver what they said they would in exchange for investment.Irish Rail are a public service agent and their job is to get you from A-B via a train safely. If they can add customer service great. But if you want more customer service then ask the government to invest in it as most large private companies invest millions in it. Personally I'd rather see IE invest the small funds they receive into running trains rather than giving you wave and smile when getting on-board or at a counter.
Customer service is optional? And you wonder why Irish Rail is close to insolvency? Maybe just maybe if they had a better attitude to their customers, they might, just might encourage more people to use the train.....
You think that turning up for a train and nobody knowing why it does not run, nobody giving announcements or telling passengers what is going on, and essentially leaving them to it is something that is acceptable as long as they run most of their trains and they are run safely?
It doesn't require any investment for a person to make an announcement that has the facilities to do so in their ticket office, it just requires them to be pro-active and drop the "not my job" attitude and all pitch in together in order to provide an excellent customer service ethos, it doesn't require investment, it requires a better attitude.0 -
Irish Rail asked for money from the government to upgrade the signalling system over several years, the government provided said money and Irish Rail said it would deliver certain benefits and that was their justification for applying for the funding, the government accepted that such benefits would be in the interests of the public so provided funded for Irish Rail to do that.
Despite the fact that several years and tens of millions have been spent on this project, we are still continually spun on a regular basis that the system cannot cope with the amount of trains that is being thrown at it currently, let alone the additional 6-7 trains per hour that was claimed the signalling upgrade would allow to run on the system.
Unfortunately as the City Center re-signalling project shows, when Irish Rail are provided with investment on the back of promised upgrades to the system, we cannot be sure that they will deliver what they say they will, large funds doesn't mean you have a better system if the use of resources, projects and the implementation of them is poor, which unfortunately it is in Irish Rail.
On the subject of the City Center Re signalling project which one of these is true in your opinion, because surely one of them has to be true?
a) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which they were not certain was possible to deliver?
b) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which could be delivered but they are unable to do so?
The taxpayer is entitled to see that Irish Rail deliver what they said they would in exchange for investment.
Customer service is optional? And you wonder why Irish Rail is close to insolvency? Maybe just maybe if they had a better attitude to their customers, they might, just might encourage more people to use the train.....
You think that turning up for a train and nobody knowing why it does not run, nobody giving announcements or telling passengers what is going on, and essentially leaving them to it is something that is acceptable as long as they run most of their trains and they are run safely?
It doesn't require any investment for a person to make an announcement that has the facilities to do so in their ticket office, it just requires them to be pro-active and drop the "not my job" attitude and all pitch in together in order to provide an excellent customer service ethos, it doesn't require investment, it requires a better attitude.
Again as I stated previously out of the 21 days of delays mentioned only a handful were caused by Irish Rail but yet you and the previous poster milking it and blown it out of proportion by claiming it some daily failure of Irish Rail not implementing the Cross city resignalling project. So if you can confirm what the follow has to do with the city centre resignalling project.
1.Livestock on the line in Wicklow somewhere
2.A line side fire in Enfield
3.Garda stopping a train in Edgeworthstown
4.Sick passenger
5.A incident at a station in Cabra
6.Bin truck hitting level crossing
7.3 bridge strikes, 2 in Kildare on same day same bridge
8.A delay to 1 service in Drogheda due to a line blockage
9.Terminate Connolly instead of Pearse
10.A fallen tree
There was another 1 or 2 as well. Then we had 4 or 5 mechanical issues causing 10 - 20 delays. To me these are relatively minor and likely to be a door problem, computer glich or waiting for a wheel chair ramp.
2 where a signalling fault in sure you have come across a set of traffic lights not working before or even had a buld gone you before again these resulted 15 - 20min delay.
So if you want to bash IE on everything at least give them a fair crack of the whip rather than blaming them on everything. I'm not saying their perfect but I find it hard to find fault with them given the lack of funding and resources they have.
An increase in traffic either by trains or passengers at peak times is going to lead to slower timings just the same as any road network or airport it's not solely an Irish Rail thing. If punctuality of 5 or 10mins is more important to you over frequency well then you must be willing to sacrifice the extra trains you want as padding is need to account for these mishaps. If padding is reduced then the risk of a late train increases. A train delayed in Bray, Drogheda or Parkwest has nothing to do with the resignalling project.0 -
The final phase of the city centre resignalling program has yet to start and that covers Connolly which is the root cause of most delays. Only once that is complete do the capacity benefits come.
Since the system has settled down it has been incredibly reliable, trains coming over from the Kildare line are a problem.0 -
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Again as I stated previously out of the 21 days of delays mentioned only a handful were caused by Irish Rail but yet you and the previous poster milking it and blown it out of proportion by claiming it some daily failure of Irish Rail not implementing the Cross city resignalling project. So if you can confirm what the follow has to do with the city centre resignalling project.
1.Livestock on the line in Wicklow somewhere
2.A line side fire in Enfield
3.Garda stopping a train in Edgeworthstown
4.Sick passenger
5.A incident at a station in Cabra
6.Bin truck hitting level crossing
7.3 bridge strikes, 2 in Kildare on same day same bridge
8.A delay to 1 service in Drogheda due to a line blockage
9.Terminate Connolly instead of Pearse
10.A fallen tree
I'm sorry, but what you are talking about here has nothing to do with my post, I quoted a post of yours and gave my view on some of the things what you mentioned in said post, I'm not sure what relevance these things have, other than an apparent attempt to avoid answering the questions and the points that I put to you in my last post by quoting some other things which I did not even refer to or never said.
I never stated that any of the above things were related to the City Center re-signalling project, you simply stated that you cannot have it all without investment and I was simply illustrating that Irish Rail asked for investment based on delivering an increased volume of trains through the core, the state provided that investment but you appear to be claiming that the investment has not resulted in the volume that Irish Rail claim it can result in.There was another 1 or 2 as well. Then we had 4 or 5 mechanical issues causing 10 - 20 delays. To me these are relatively minor and likely to be a door problem, computer glich or waiting for a wheel chair ramp.
2 where a signalling fault in sure you have come across a set of traffic lights not working before or even had a buld gone you before again these resulted 15 - 20min delay.
I won't remind you about the signalling fault that happened in 2014 that happened several days running and for weeks at exactly the same time and nobody in Irish Rail could sort it out and experts found the problem very very quickly. I guess that is nothing to do with Irish Rail?
Also train defects are within the control of the company because they own the trains and are the ones that do maintenance, of course trains break down but there are things that the company can do to make it less likely, the fact they can't even get trains to know where they are going on a regular basis doesn't inspire confidence...So if you want to bash IE on everything at least give them a fair crack of the whip rather than blaming them on everything. I'm not saying their perfect but I find it hard to find fault with them given the lack of funding and resources they have. .
So you find it acceptable that someone can be waiting for half an hour at a station with nobody having any idea what is going on because the service starts before around half an hour before staff who can relay the information about disruption until 7.00am and ticket office staff who say that it's not their job to assist the customers because that is someone elses job?
Too often lack of funding is used as a convenient excuse to blame everything negative about the company on, and it's a cop-out, being nice to customers and keeping them informed, making announcements and being customer focused are things which cost almost nothing in money but cost something in effort.0 -
goingnowhere wrote: »The final phase of the city centre resignalling program has yet to start and that covers Connolly which is the root cause of most delays. Only once that is complete do the capacity benefits come.
Since the system has settled down it has been incredibly reliable, trains coming over from the Kildare line are a problem.
For me a simple solution is to allow a few Maynooth of Sligo services to bypass Drumcondra via Newcome Rd jct and use platform 7 allowing the Kildare service the original path.0 -
Irish Rail asked for money from the government to upgrade the signalling system over several years, the government provided said money and Irish Rail said it would deliver certain benefits and that was their justification for applying for the funding, the government accepted that such benefits would be in the interests of the public so provided funded for Irish Rail to do that.
Despite the fact that several years and tens of millions have been spent on this project, we are still continually spun on a regular basis that the system cannot cope with the amount of trains that is being thrown at it currently, let alone the additional 6-7 trains per hour that was claimed the signalling upgrade would allow to run on the system.
it's not just the signalling one needs to take into account but the fact that the vast majority of line within the doublin area (connolly area mostly) is double track with very little passing loops and sidings. the signalling is able to deliver extra trains but there isn't enough tracks to accommodate them apart from the krp section out of heuston. remember also IE went through a spate of removing loops, for you know just because reasons.Unfortunately as the City Center re-signalling project shows, when Irish Rail are provided with investment on the back of promised upgrades to the system, we cannot be sure that they will deliver what they say they will, large funds doesn't mean you have a better system if the use of resources, projects and the implementation of them is poor, which unfortunately it is in Irish Rail.
the job of the relevant authorities is to find out why that is . is it bad management? are the people within irish rail who are in charge of that aspect of the company incompetent? it can easily be solved if the will is there.On the subject of the City Center Re signalling project which one of these is true in your opinion, because surely one of them has to be true?
a) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which they were not certain was possible to deliver?
b) Irish Rail claimed investment for a project which could be delivered but they are unable to do so?
The taxpayer is entitled to see that Irish Rail deliver what they said they would in exchange for investment.
yes we are. however the reality is new signalling was needed regardless, so if IE were to claim it could deliver more then it could to get the funding for it then considering who has been in government the past few years and the state of the country, i don't blame them. i don't agree with it if that is what they did but i don't blame them either. however i believe there is a third option. the signalling can deliver more trains, but the track infrastructure is constrained in the connolly area (the krp can take more trains all though it needs to be finished in full once funding allows)Customer service is optional? And you wonder why Irish Rail is close to insolvency? Maybe just maybe if they had a better attitude to their customers, they might, just might encourage more people to use the train.....
You think that turning up for a train and nobody knowing why it does not run, nobody giving announcements or telling passengers what is going on, and essentially leaving them to it is something that is acceptable as long as they run most of their trains and they are run safely?
It doesn't require any investment for a person to make an announcement that has the facilities to do so in their ticket office, it just requires them to be pro-active and drop the "not my job" attitude and all pitch in together in order to provide an excellent customer service ethos, it doesn't require investment, it requires a better attitude.
completely agree. customer service is not optional it's a right and IE need to deliver it, no excuses. it doesn't cost anything, it just needs good management to insure it happens.ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.
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I'm sorry, but what you are talking about here has nothing to do with my post, I quoted a post of yours and gave my view on some of the things what you mentioned in said post, I'm not sure what relevance these things have, other than an apparent attempt to avoid answering the questions and the points that I put to you in my last post by quoting some other things which I did not even refer to or never said.
I never stated that any of the above things were related to the City Center re-signalling project, you simply stated that you cannot have it all without investment and I was simply illustrating that Irish Rail asked for investment based on delivering an increased volume of trains through the core, the state provided that investment but you appear to be claiming that the investment has not resulted in the volume that Irish Rail claim it can result in.
I won't remind you about the signalling fault that happened in 2014 that happened several days running and for weeks at exactly the same time and nobody in Irish Rail could sort it out and experts found the problem very very quickly. I guess that is nothing to do with Irish Rail?
Also train defects are within the control of the company because they own the trains and are the ones that do maintenance, of course trains break down but there are things that the company can do to make it less likely, the fact they can't even get trains to know where they are going on a regular basis doesn't inspire confidence...
So you find it acceptable that someone can be waiting for half an hour at a station with nobody having any idea what is going on because the service starts before around half an hour before staff who can relay the information about disruption until 7.00am and ticket office staff who say that it's not their job to assist the customers because that is someone elses job?
Too often lack of funding is used as a convenient excuse to blame everything negative about the company on, and it's a cop-out, being nice to customers and keeping them informed, making announcements and being customer focused are things which cost almost nothing in money but cost something in effort.
Well resignalling is not finiahed and the original topic was regarding a post about delays during July but it suits you more to rant about what you see as poor performance from IE's resignalling project.
Again the signalling error caught everyone by surprise and was rare computer glitch which took awhile to diagnose and needed EXPERTS to come and fix happens to the best of companies including British Airways, do tar them with same brush or refuse to use them over it. Also it didnt last weeks it took 2 or 3 days resolve.
Actually how many other companies or service providera do you use that offer a 24 hour customer service. I've never heard of mobile phone, Airline, Social media or Bank offer you this service but I bet you still use them.0 -
end of the road wrote: »
completely agree. customer service is not optional it's a right and IE need to deliver it, no excuses. it doesn't cost anything, it just needs good management to insure it happens.
Would you rather see the little funding they receive going towards rail operations or been spent teaching people how to please you. I agree customer service is important but id rather see funds been pumped into the train service than getting a smile and a wave. In fact if more focus is put into running the service you wouldn't need such customer service.0 -
Well resignalling is not finiahed and the original topic was regarding a post about delays during July but it suits you more to rant about what you see as poor performance from IE's resignalling project.
All I was saying is that when I quote someone I discuss what I quote, I don't discuss anything else that I don't quote, generally that is how I use the quote function, if I was replying in general I wouldn't quote.Again the signalling error caught everyone by surprise and was rare computer glitch which took awhile to diagnose and needed EXPERTS to come and fix happens to the best of companies including British Airways, do tar them with same brush or refuse to use them over it. Also it didnt last weeks it took 2 or 3 days resolve.
It was going on for a few weeks on and off with the same proble, it was happening at the start of November and also in the second half of November at exactly the same time. It shouldn't take them over a fortnight to call in the experts or resolve the issues.How many other companies or services do you use that offer a 24 hour customer service.
Who asked for 24 hour customer services? Please can you stop putting words in my mouth and implying that I have said things which I have not, I never asked for 24 hour customer services, not in any of my posts.
If Irish Rail start a train service at a certain time, they need to have procedures in place to ensure that they can communicate any issues or problems with their customers ahead of that time, this is basic stuff and the basics of running a customer focused operation.
The simple fact is that I shouldn't walk to a platform at 6.30 in the morning waiting for a train at 6.37 and the staff member to tell me that unfortunately no information will be available until 7.00am which I have been told on countless occasions, they don't even start twitter until 7.30am.
Being nice to customers and keeping them informed, making announcements and being customer focused are things which cost almost nothing in money but cost something in effort and has nothing to do with anything other than a lack of customer focus.0 -
I agree customer service is important but id rather see funds been pumped into the train service than getting a smile and a wave.
Turning up at a train station and expecting the staff to be able to inform passengers what is going on during disruption and making announcements and helping them out it's not called giving a smile and a wave, it's called caring about your customers.
Heaven forbid Irish Rail actually do something to keep passengers or attract new ones, I mean, at the end of the day they're just an inconvenience.0 -
All I was saying is that when I quote someone I discuss what I quote, I don't discuss anything else that I don't quote, generally that is how I use the quote function, if I was replying in general I wouldn't quote.
It was going on for a few weeks on and off with the same proble, it was happening at the start of November and also in the second half of November at exactly the same time. It shouldn't take them over a fortnight to call in the experts or resolve the issues.
Who asked for 24 hour customer services? Please can you stop putting words in my mouth and implying that I have said things which I have not, I never asked for 24 hour customer services, not in any of my posts.
If Irish Rail start a train service at a certain time, they need to have procedures in place to ensure that they can communicate any issues or problems with their customers ahead of that time, this is basic stuff and the basics of running a customer focused operation.
The simple fact is that I shouldn't walk to a platform at 6.30 in the morning waiting for a train at 6.37 and the staff member to tell me that unfortunately no information will be available until 7.00am which I have been told on countless occasions, they don't even start twitter until 7.30am.
Being nice to customers and keeping them informed, making announcements and being customer focused are things which cost almost nothing in money but cost something in effort and has nothing to do with anything other than a lack of customer focus.
But all your doing is take parts of a topic to suit your argument rather than reading and given a response about the discussion in total. In fact it was you that brought in signalling projects.
I'm pretty sure it happened 2 or 3 days in a row or many it waa every Tuesday for 2 or 3 weeks in a row. It's was unknown problem and a computer issue. As you stated it took experts to fix it and to be fair Irish Rail are a train operator not computer software experts. As i said the same kind of problems happen to other companies bit when it happens to Irish Rail you make it out to be a national scandal.
Didn't say you wanted 24hrs service but customer service usually works during business hours if you don't expect other service providers to offer it when using their service why is it such a problem IE don't have a full customer service operation in place at 6 or 7am.
Can you name me one company that operates and offers a customer service department at 6 or 7am.0 -
Turning up at a train station and expecting the staff to be able to inform passengers what is going on during disruption and making announcements and helping them out it's not called giving a smile and a wave, it's called caring about your customers.
Heaven forbid Irish Rail actually do something to keep passengers or attract new ones, I mean, at the end of the day they're just an inconvenience.
As I already asked name one other company that has such practices in place. 7am is reasonable time for starting customer service. Early morning, late night and over night service in any company, industry or service will only operate a scaled back version due to costs. It's simple economics. If the service doesn't meet your level of expectations then don't use it.0 -
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IE begin operating passenger services from about 5.30 in the morning at least.
passengers will remember that famous incident from a few years ago on the rosslare line where a train coming down to run an early morning service hit a landslide. no communication what soever via any means which could have allowed people to decide not to travel should they not have needed to.
instead, plenty turned up to the stations to be greeted with a bus transfer and a notice on the door, that was at wexford station at least. so they managed to organise a bus transfer but couldn't tell people that there had been an incident. not good enough. IE need to be able to communicate in some form from the minute passenger services start operating, until they end. whether that is via the website, announcements or twitter. i'm not interested in discussing what other businesses do, but how IE'S communication operates, which frankly just isn't to a high standard, which is not good enough.ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.
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