Snow Chaos

Emme

The 13.15 to Waterford (4 cars) is packed with no standing room and crowds of people waiting outside. Despite this Irish Rail cannot get their act together and put on extra carriages. They cannot suggest that passengers disembarking at stations before or including Kildare get an alternative train so those going to Athy and beyond can travel. Nobody in Irish Rail anticipated that colleges might send students home thus increasing the demand for a train that is normally 4 cars.

Jamie2k9

4 car is an upgrade, at least they tried!

Emme

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

4 car is an upgrade, at least they tried!

Surely you are joking. I didn't realise Athy was the first stop which makes it worse. People still packed like sardines en route to Carlow. To add insult to injury the train has to stop for 5 minutes in Kildare and Athy so the driver could clear out his horn. You couldn't make it up!

Once you get off at station after Kildare you are a second class citizen. Especially on the Waterford line. They could have easily filled a 6 car train and and should have put one on for the day that was in it. The first stop on that train is Athy so we were in Calcutta conditions for well over an hour because the train was going slow.

The people who were left on the platform will have to wait until after 3pm for the next train. That's a wait of over 2 hours. Other lines travel every hour. The Waterford train is treated like a poor relation.

I hope that IE take note of the demand for the Waterford train and improve the service.

Jamie2k9

Yeah 3 car Mon-Thur, 6 car Fri-Sat. There does be people standing most days when its a 3 car. They only send 3 or 6 because it runs to Limerick J after it arrives and it can only take a 3 car set on the platform.

They prefer not to be splitting and joining the ICRs during cold spells, causes to many issues.

Vic_08

Emme wrote: »

Surely you are joking. I didn't realise Athy was the first stop which makes it worse. People still packed like sardines en route to Carlow. To add insult to injury the train has to stop for 5 minutes in Kildare and Athy so the driver could clear out his horn. You couldn't make it up!

Once you get off at station after Kildare you are a second class citizen. Especially on the Waterford line. They could have easily filled a 6 car train and and should have put one on for the day that was in it. The first stop on that train is Athy so we were in Calcutta conditions for well over an hour because the train was going slow.

The people who were left on the platform will have to wait until after 3pm for the next train. That's a wait of over 2 hours. Other lines travel every hour. The Waterford train is treated like a poor relation.

I hope that IE take note of the demand for the Waterford train and improve the service.

Where do you think they are going to get a bigger train from? there aren't stacks of spares just lying around for freak weather events. Disruption means there is less capacity available not more and there is a whole network to be run not just your single service.

The wilful ignorance and stupidity of internet moaners knows no bounds when any event like this happens, as soon as your precious life is interrupted, everything is an epic disaster and no-one's efforts are good enough for you.

And how dare the driver stop to maintain his train or drive at an appropriate speed to ensure your safety, just bull on at full pelt without any warning equipment, sure the train will probably stop just as quickly as it usually does and there is not likely to be any obstructions on the line in this weather is there?

IE 222

Emme wrote: »

Surely you are joking. I didn't realise Athy was the first stop which makes it worse. People still packed like sardines en route to Carlow. To add insult to injury the train has to stop for 5 minutes in Kildare and Athy so the driver could clear out his horn. You couldn't make it up!

Once you get off at station after Kildare you are a second class citizen. Especially on the Waterford line. They could have easily filled a 6 car train and and should have put one on for the day that was in it. The first stop on that train is Athy so we were in Calcutta conditions for well over an hour because the train was going slow.

The people who were left on the platform will have to wait until after 3pm for the next train. That's a wait of over 2 hours. Other lines travel every hour. The Waterford train is treated like a poor relation.

I hope that IE take note of the demand for the Waterford train and improve the service.

At least you got there.

You would of had a much longer wait if someone was hit by the train because they couldn't here the horn, its not a toy after all.

No pleasing some people.

tabbey

Emme wrote: »

The 13.15 to Waterford (4 cars) is packed with no standing room and crowds of people waiting outside. Despite this Irish Rail cannot get their act together and put on extra carriages. They cannot suggest that passengers disembarking at stations before or including Kildare get an alternative train so those going to Athy and beyond can travel. Nobody in Irish Rail anticipated that colleges might send students home thus increasing the demand for a train that is normally 4 cars.

Be thankful you got home.

In 1947, people would have been delighted with such a service and residents of Roundwood would have thought it a miracle.

In years to come you can tell your grandchildren how you had to rough it during the blizzard.

Losty Dublin

Emme wrote: »

Other lines travel every hour. The Waterford train is treated like a poor relation.

I hope that IE take note of the demand for the Waterford train and improve the service.

Bunkum.

The only Inter City that gets an hourly service is Cork, with Limerick benefitting from this as well. Waterford does well in comparison to other lines with it's seven trains a day, the same as Belfast and Sligo and one less than Galway. Westport gets just four, which are part shared with Galway services.

Dev84

tabbey wrote: »

Be thankful you got home.

In 1947, people would have been delighted with such a service and residents of Roundwood would have thought it a miracle.

In years to come you can tell your grandchildren how you had to rough it during the blizzard.

There were also a lot less cars aroumd in 1947. Not sure what your point is though?

IE charge top dollar for a poor enough service. Its beyond a joke.

OP stay at home tomorrow and friday.

Dev84

IE 222 wrote: »

At least you got there.

You would of had a much longer wait if someone was hit by the train because they couldn't here the horn, its not a toy after all.

No pleasing some people.

Im much quicker clearing out my horn.....about 30 seconds.

tabbey

Dev84 wrote: »

There were also a lot less cars aroumd in 1947. Not sure what your point is though?

The point is that in 1947 and 1963 whole areas were cut off by snow and left without basic foodstuffs.

I was not around in 1947, but remember 1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company , flew a plane with the door open to drop food supplies on Roundwood which was cut off. This man got pneumonia from the cold, but suffered less than people in isolated communities.

In 1947, many places around the country were isolated and people had to help shovel away snow to reopen railway lines in order that food could be conveyed to towns where inhabitants would have otherwise been hungry.

As for your reference to fewer cars in 1947, they could not get through the snow.

This thread is being used by people who have nothing else to complain about.

Jamie2k9

Playing devil's advocate here, its more likely the 4 car was used to avoid splitting sets rather than passenger demand.

Where do you think they are going to get a bigger train from? there aren't stacks of spares just lying around for freak weather events. Disruption means there is less capacity available not more and there is a whole network to be run not just your single service.

Yes there could be issues with trains however there would of been one available. If you want to be really cynical, in times of bad weather demand will always peak mid afternoon where the capacity is needed and not in the evenings.

I will say by in large IE have done a great job today.

CeilingFly

People simply have to understand that snow events like this in Ireland are very rare - maybe 3 or 4 in the last 50 years.

No matter what "preparation" there is, things will not run smoothly as things change by the minute.


I'll always relate what I saw in Las Vegas in January 2005 - they had two inches of rain in 24 hours and almost 5 inches in a 5 day period (they got total of 7 inches for the entire 2005) and yearly average is less than 4 inches.

They had forecasted it 2 weeks in advance - the BIG rain storm. Everyone warned how to drive with care.
It was simply laughable. They hadn't a clue. Cars crashed left right and centre (accidents were in the high hundreds). It was hilarious. Traffic jams were mile and miles long. Schools were closed.

Why? Because they had little or no experience of heavy rainfall.


Same amount of rain here? - It slows up a little, but aside from that, no-one has an issue. Why - we're used to it.


So cut everyone a break - its a very very unusual event. Chill out, enjoy it.

Dev84

tabbey wrote: »

The point is that in 1947 and 1963 whole areas were cut off by snow and left without basic foodstuffs.

I was not around in 1947, but remember 1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company , flew a plane with the door open to drop food supplies on Roundwood which was cut off. This man got pneumonia from the cold, but suffered less than people in isolated communities.

In 1947, many places around the country were isolated and people had to help shovel away snow to reopen railway lines in order that food could be conveyed to towns where inhabitants would have otherwise been hungry.

As for your reference to fewer cars in 1947, they could not get through the snow.

This thread is being used by people who have nothing else to complain about.

Yeh but 1947 or 63 or even 82 are not relevent to 2018.

IE 222

Dev84 wrote: »

Im much quicker clearing out my horn.....about 30 seconds.

Yours wouldnt be as big as his.

1huge1

Any idea why the Luas is so adversely affected by the snow, I am in no way a engineer however I lived in Austria where the on street trams in Graz/Vienna ran through snow for weeks/months on end without disruption.

I'm aware they are much better prepare for snow than we are but I am still not sure the exact cause of the Luas having to stop.

Has anyone got any insight into this?

goingnowhere

The body catcher under the front gets triggered by the snowfall and stops the tram.

The CRR has given an exemption to allow this to be disabled in snow so unclear why things are so bad.

devnull

Updated the disruption list here
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057846249

Latest updates are essentially:
- no Aircoach services after 2pm tomorrow until at least lunchtime on Friday
- no Bus Eireann services in Leinster and Munster Thursday or before 12pm on Friday
- Irish rail services start to shut down 12pm Thursday until at least 12pm Friday.
- No LUAS after 12pm Thursday
- No Dublin Bus or Swords Express tomorrow.

Dev84

1huge1 wrote: »

Any idea why the Luas is so adversely affected by the snow, I am in no way a engineer however I lived in Austria where the on street trams in Graz/Vienna ran through snow for weeks/months on end without disruption.

I'm aware they are much better prepare for snow than we are but I am still not sure the exact cause of the Luas having to stop.

Has anyone got any insight into this?

Its a much more advanced system than that of graz And vienna. Lower clearence and can predict line conditions on the fly. Up to 40 cm of snow. Forget about the Luas and stay at home. Much safer than vienna or graz.

end of the road

hi op . i can completely understand where you are coming from and understand your annoyance. in general short trains are a massive problem on a lot of the network, never mind exceptional circumstances such as today. and that is what today was, an exceptional circumstance. there will be lots of other services requiring extra capacity as well, + likely extra failures due to the weather which will mean reduced capacity unfortunately. i agree it's not good enough, but given the exceptional weather it's a high likelyhood that there will be a downgraded service.

AMKC

tabbey wrote: »

The point is that in 1947 and 1963 whole areas were cut off by snow and left without basic foodstuffs.

I was not around in 1947, but remember 1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company , flew a plane with the door open to drop food supplies on Roundwood which was cut off. This man got pneumonia from the cold, but suffered less than people in isolated communities.

In 1947, many places around the country were isolated and people had to help shovel away snow to reopen railway lines in order that food could be conveyed to towns where inhabitants would have otherwise been hungry.

As for your reference to fewer cars in 1947, they could not get through the snow.

This thread is being used by people who have nothing else to complain about.

1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company

I don't think multinational companies existed in 1963.

end of the road

AMKC wrote: »

1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company

I don't think multinational companies existed in 1963.

they did.

L1011

AMKC wrote: »

1963 well.
A neighbour who had flown in WW2 and worked for a multinational company

I don't think multinational companies existed in 1963.

Concept well established by the mid Victorian era

goingnowhere

Dutch East India Trading Company, 1602...

Rail services had a lot more delays this morning than yesterday, but still moving

Dev84

goingnowhere wrote: »

Dutch East India Trading Company, 1602...

Rail services had a lot more delays this morning than yesterday, but still moving

Only front line services and staff should be operational anyway.

Ohmeha

I had a DART this morning vanish off the real time display at the station appeared to be cancelled without any announcement or anything on twitter about it leaving me stuck at the station for over half an hour.

Understand conditions this morning are challenging and disruptions on the south side but not communicating cancellations is poor form

Infini

Ohmeha wrote: »

I had a DART this morning vanish off the real time display at the station appeared to be cancelled without any announcement or anything on twitter about it leaving me stuck at the station for over half an hour.

Understand conditions this morning are challenging and disruptions on the south side but not communicating cancellations is poor form

In fairness the loss of the line south of pearse as well as well as repeated points freezing up at connolly messed up a lot of things.

Communication aint great I agree even staff are struggling at times to get updates.

Jamie2k9

goingnowhere wrote: »

The body catcher under the front gets triggered by the snowfall and stops the tram.

The CRR has given an exemption to allow this to be disabled in snow so unclear why things are so bad.

Well since December things have been bad. Yesterday morning started off with no service south of Sandyford or between Belguard/Saggart. They ran at around 15 minutes (10 normal) between Saggart/Tallaght to the Point which is good but could of been better. Very few excuses for not operating the 10 minute freq between Point and Tallaght/Saggart.

Yes yesterday morning there may have been points issues at the deport. The half hourly service today wasn't at all acceptable.

Only logical reason I can think of is they expected demand to be lower but far from ideal service.

IE 222

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Well since December things have been bad. Yesterday morning started off with no service south of Sandyford or between Belguard/Saggart. They ran at around 15 minutes (10 normal) between Saggart/Tallaght to the Point which is good but could of been better. Very few excuses for not operating the 10 minute freq between Point and Tallaght/Saggart.

Yes yesterday morning there may have been points issues at the deport. The half hourly service today wasn't at all acceptable.

Only logical reason I can think of is they expected demand to be lower but far from ideal service.

A more frequent service would of been over kill. City was a ghost town this morning and that was due to business been shut not a lack of transport. Providing more services is encouraging people to make unnecessary journeys which completely contradicts the advisory been issued and potentially leading to major issues.

The funny thing is that most of the people complaining and quizzing the lack of services wouldn't of used them either way.