Irish Rail New Proposed Timetable - August 2024

to be fair intercity, suburban and others are sometimes the same operator in the UK depending on the area.
and they had their version of our august timetable but on a grand scale,
the infamous may timetable a few years ago.
things definitely aren't rosey over there either even though they will do the odd thing better, not that that excuses our **** show by any means.

Good ol British rail, that was our Honeymoon journey to Scotland in 1980. They need BR like a hole in the head. Better to put the money into contracted service subsidies, keep the fares down and encourage the numbers up on the lesser used services.

My occasional forays over there on sail rail have all been successful and very fast, though my last few were in 2019. I tend to visit the UK now with Don Coffey on YouTube, though I took a YT spin last night from Köln to Frankfurt on the ICE. 320kph At times. Jeez.

Well said. There's no doubt the old nationalised creaking BR money pit model was not viable, but a fully privatized unsubsidised model left few affordable alternatives other than private road transport. A level of hands off state intevention can have a positive effect. Not paying wage bills, but underpinning base running costs and infrastructure, and allowing diverse services to establish and grow.

I can see the benefits of the TFI model where I live, I'm amazed at the groups of people at bustops on rural roads and areas that never seen a bus in their existence. Perhaps Irish rail need some kind of internalised competitive and target based reorganisation into specific services. It's hard to envisage, yet there is an opportunity for such a model to exist, I'm sure there are people who can achieve this instead of the state just pouring money into wage claims.

They're having protests in Belfast against the new hourly Belfast service. It seems the Fenian Express is not to the liking of the residents of Sandy Row, (where else?), obviously waking then before their normal rising time of maybe 11.00, or 12.00. To counter this attack on their identity and lie-ins, they've deployed the Fr.Ted method, loyalist style, with a motley crew of apprentice boy drummers marching symbolically (or bolics with cymbals?) alongside virtual trains.

The 'Irish News' up there has some interesting comments

https://archive.is/q669t

I'm assuming though that disruption to their commute to, er, 'work' is not an issue for most of these lads, as the welfare office is just around the corner.

There's no doubt the introduction of the service is heavily politically motivated, and the sacrifice of the Dublin commuters was considered necessary collateral damage for the rushed introduction. I'd be curious to hear SF's take on this on the hustings, though they've never knocked on my door in all their years.

The Portlaoise Heuston commuter doesn't get much of a mention on this thread. As someone who lived in London up to last year I cannot get over how bad announcements both at platform level and on the trains are. It's pot luck if the blind or deaf get on or off the correct train or station.

Add to that, services are consistently late since the new timetable was implemented. You could very easily get on an intercity train given how fecking useless the platform announcements are. In addition information screens at some stations like portlaoise are non existent. It's a total shambles.

Yeah, and a service is not "late" in the stats unless it's more than 5 minutes late. Which is annoying when the services are always a couple of minutes late anyway.

Have to say, the 19:17 to Maynooth did actually depart at 19:17. But that required a late platform change for the Howth DART.

Also bear in mind the stats relate to the arrival time into the terminus station. So Howth or Bray or wherever. Good chance many make up a few minutes on the far end of their journey, particularly on Dart, so you could be 9 minutes late hopping off at Tara St but it makes up 4 minutes to its destination and is deemed "on time".

I was on a dart at peak time yesterday evening that was 15 mins late. There was apologies on the public announcements "for operational reasons"

Yeah..got the Sligo train today as far as Dromod for first time ever. I normally drive but decided to test the train. We were stopped in Maynooth for 15 minutes due to late arrival of the incoming Sligo train which the driver apologises for 5 times over the intercom (once would be enough)but then we were stopped for another 15 minutes at Longford with complete silence and no apology. I arrived 35 minutes late added to the hour I needed to get a train from my suburb to Connolly to catch the Sligo train in a timely manner. I could have done door to door in my car in just under 2 hours but using public transport took me 4 hours. Can folks understand why car is considered king?

have been catching up on this thread.

I note the comments re Connolly platforms and the constraint selling adjacent lands has caused. But it should be remembered that a large portion of Northern Line traffic isn’t supposed to be going through Connolly any more but around it, on Interconnector. The decision to forgo a massive additional capacity through the city means that IE have to make the best of bad choices, and for a long time to come.

that said, I also note Rail Users Ireland comments on Twitter as this roll out has progressed in respect of chronically late terminal departures of commuter services causing mayhem further in. Whatever about LRA or Connolly signals, what can possibly excuse day after day of late departures? Is it that drivers are not ready on time, that the trains are not ready in good time from overnight servicing, or what?

I have been on the Sligo line a lot this year, and this has not been my experience.

I do think the timings are a little bit too tight though. I have been on many trains which seem to be going at full speed, but still lose a minute here and a minute there. These minutes build up over the day due to the line being single track since there isn't sufficient recovery time built into the timetable.

On the back of your neck? Sligo train doesn't even stop at Clonsilla, but no doubt they held back the inbound commuter at Maynooth rather than letting it out ahead of the precious intercity, (Sligo not even a City).

..and after that you'll get "We're sorry to announce that the 17.00 (or so) service to Connolly is delayed by approximately 20 minutes due to earlier operational difficulties". Never let a real excuse go to waste when announcing delays.

At least they announced a delay - like I said, it's quite annoying when you can see the Sligo train is delayed, you'll know the Maynooth commuter train will also be delayed, but it's "on time" according to Irish Rail.

I saw a post on one of the Facebook groups sharing the Irish Times article on the continuing punctuality issues. I raised the idea of abandoning the hourly Enterprise but was met with the reply that IE should instead "strip out one in three DARTs" because they're blocking the other services. I suppose that depends on what your idea is of what the railway should provide. Is it a high-capacity commuter line or a lower capacity intercity one? Without quad-tracking the northern line, I think something has to give.

Ballyhaunis is not on the Sligo line though. My experience in about 40 trips this year on the Sligo line is that this has not happened, so it its not what is causing the problem day in and day out.

The problem is that even if the train is travelling at a steady 70 MPH, it is still losing a minute here and a minute there. I think another look needs to be taken at the timings. While they may work in theory, they do not work in practice. I suspect this was the the problem with the new timetable in August. It is not enough that timetables work when everything works 100%, they should have enough slack in them that they don't fall to pieces when the slightest thing goes wrong.