Irish Rail to Increasing Journey Times from Sunday

Jamie2k9

From Sunday most services into Heuston will be slowed down and have up to 10 minutes added to journeys. The website indicates the changes will apply when the full Intercity schedule resumes and be applied to service not operating currently also.

Instead of using the last year to address timetable issues they have just thrown a few minutes here and there on various services without addressing the issues and got the seal of approval by the NTA.

They have also failed to provide 7 days notice of schedule changes.

Examples:
17.00 Heuston-Cork +7 minutes
06.15 Cork-Heuston +4 minutes - remember the big deal they made out of 2h15m service and how they wanted it faster!
05.30 Limerick-Heuston +5 minutes
17.05 Heuston-Tralee +10 minutes
05.30 Galway-Heuston +5 minutes
18.35 Heuston-Waterford +9 minutes
18.25 Waterford-Heuston +8 minutes - this one is the strangest, idling in Kildare to catch up with timetable then cautioned at Park West as the Portlaoise commuter hasn't clear the section ahead almost daily.

On the positive side they haven't slowed down Limerick-Waterford or Ballybrophy

Not good for a company who will struggle to get passengers back and then most likely charge them more for longer journeys.

Ireland trains

Also not good as I believe line improvment works have been ongoing.
Havn't heard one word of protest anywhere and it it pretty disgraceful that they are continuously allowed get away with this.

donvito99

What is the reasoning for this? Additional services requiring more conservative timetabling or an attempt to improve time table performance by moving the goal posts?

Jamie2k9

donvito99 wrote: »

What is the reasoning for this? Additional services requiring more conservative timetabling or an attempt to improve time table performance by moving the goal posts?

The timetable performance was very good. There are small issues that would perhaps require additional time however most of these issues would be fixed with a full timetable review not just adding time. The blanket approach to increasing most services is not good unless they provide an actual reason. The fact extra time is not provided consistently across services on particular routes suggests a long period of engineering works is not the cause.

They are moving the goal posts because they can get away with it.

Jamie2k9

Frist day and dozens of trains on all routes departing stations up to 4 minutes ahead of the new scheduled times. Looked at a sample of Galway/Waterford and Limerick services.

Hope not to many "essential" workers put out by the shambles because its only going to get worse from Monday!