https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/Timetable-Consultation-2024
Connolly to Wexford/Rosslare has been a nightmare the new 18.28 train is often late by around 30 mins then there is a delay at Bray for the DART from Greystones and another delay waiting at a station for the Northbound train from Wexford.
The morning train from Wexford "arrives" at 08.47 and now the Belfast leaves at 08.50 so an even longer wait for the next Belfast train which was 40 minutes late last week crossing the border.
Drumconda is a pretty significant trip generator - DCU, airport buses
I don’t think that it’s a case of them trying to increase the loadings.
It is a reflection of the reality that the 09:00 ex-Sligo does carry far more people during the summer and always has, and there were massive complaints about people having to stand on it from as far out as Longford I believe, until they made the decision to switch the sets around for the summer a few years back.
While it’s not great for the commuters on the earlier run, the reality was always that the numbers on that service dropped during the summer months, and any standing would be for a far shorter period on that early service than the later one.
They didn’t have the stock to increase both unfortunately.
With the intermediate cars being rolled out hopefully that will be a thing of the past.
No ones complaining (well, not much), about Standing room only in a crowded moving commuter, its about the TRAIN standing (or sitting?) stationary outside the station, for ten minutes or longer, while you're standing, or sitting, reading your... Stationary stationery I guess.
They run them into 7 from Drumcondra every day. That’s just part of normal operations.
I was responding to the specific post that I quoted, which was complaining about that issue.
There certainly were complaints about that issue.
But that involves crossing the access North from 7 or 6, which is a major delay point. It isn't possible to approach 7 exclusively on the westmost track, unlike the approach from the canal line.
Do we actually have data on the lines rated by profitability. I would be very interested to see this. If not, I don't think we can assume that the Dart and Western Commuter pays its way. Although some trains are very crowded, a lot of other trains would be pretty empty.
That train used to leave from Connolly, with little to no passengers required to stand. Great service. Now they've started it from Grand Canal and it's packed full when it gets to Connolly. So it's jammed until the majority of passengers get off in Coolmine and Clonsilla. So definitely a big downgrade for me, or anyone working in the IFSC near Connolly
The original post was referring to accessing 7, from Drumcondra. You can have a train from 6 going north while bringing a train from Drumcondra into 7, but it leaves 7 blocked for longer. I presume by westmost track, you are referring to Newcomen? There was a train that used to come in from Longford, I think, that skipped Drumcondra, and went to 7 via Newcomen.
Interestingly any reference to the latest timetable revisions is gone from the Irish rail website homepage .
in terms of lines, profitibility has been a myth since the hay day of the railways around the early 1900s.
individual passenger trains might bring in enough revenue to cover their basic operational costs on the other hand but it won't be anywhere near enough to cover the line's existence never mind profitability.
the freight services out of mayo might be as much profit as you will get but again that is on a per train basis not a line basis.
Ah yes, I realise that, but it would still be interesting to see the lines ranked by losses.
Maynooth was wiping its a.., face years ago. University in one direction, city in the other, and only 15 miles of the Sligo line if you're costing line maintenance
Top tip. When rushing onto platform at Clonsilla for the Grand Canal Dock train. Make sure you don't get on the Docklands train like a dumba**….. If you DO get on accidentally, make sure you pay attention to the announcements and not "Next stop Docklands" as it leaves Broombridge…… 😀 "Wait, what?!?!"
Haha, I bet you're speaking from experience! Still, its only a ten minute stroll, or less if you stride the kilometre+ across the liffey to Gand Canal Dock, and given that the GCD train has to negotiate Connolly, Tara st, and Pearse before it, if your destination is GCD, you would be better off jumping on the Docklands train, especially if its leaving ahead of the GCD one.
You’ve got 6 stops to realise what train you are on. 😂 Some drivers make special announcements at Broombridge, and you see people jumping off. But I did hear a woman at Docklands a few weeks ago, insisting to the driver that the train usually continues on towards Pearse, after Docklands. He was apologising, but she wasn’t listening to him, when he was explaining how it wasn’t possible. 🤪
Oh it was completely my fault. Felt like a right eejit. Nice short walk to Tara Street though and I was grand
I've been getting trrains from Clonsilla for last ten years and have occasionally does this. It doesn't help when all train are 15-20 mins late that you're not sure which one has arrived at the platform.
Theres added confusion now, as a lot of trains have Grand Canal Dock as destination, rather than Pearse. People mix it up with Docklands.
Prime time done a feature on the timetable last night, must watch it on Player.
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/episode-68/SI0000000825?epguid=IH10002396-24-0068
Where are the commuter trains that used to be stabled in Bray during the day now being kept?
Yeah saw that .
One thing is, you have a politician from the northern line on the show and it's almost as if the other lines feeding into Connolly are perfect or don't exist.
They are in service.
Is it the new hourly belfast service that's causing all trains to be late?
Yes
It is a bit more complicated than that. The hourly Belfast service is not yet running, so it is impossible for it to have directly caused the problem.
What happened was that the timetables were recast to allow the hourly Belfast service to run in the near future, and it seems that the timetables were too optimistic in that they assumed that trains could faster and closer together than is possible on a day to day basis.
The hourly service is running and terminating in Dundalk while works are ongoing.
Not according to the timetable on IR, for some parts of the day, it is hourly but not for other parts.
The new timetable is running hourly to Dundalk. Bus connections to Belfast remain similar to old timetable.
Edit looks like 3 services are not running yet possibly because that needs NIR to crew. 9:50, 11:50, 13:50 ex Connolly.
Point is once cross border re-opens there will not be a major impact on the current timetable as the majority are already running.
