Portmarnock residents up in arms

devnull · 10-09-2018 5:17pm

Infini wrote: »

devnull wrote: »

Not if it's unofficial industrial action, which has been hinted at previously.

Could also be people just sick and the lack of any spare drivers showing how thinly spread staff are too.

Would this be in the same company that the staff spent a couple of years preventing new staff from completing their training whilst making extra money in overtime by doing so?

lawred2 · 10-09-2018 5:21pm

devnull wrote: »

Would this be in the same company that the staff spent a couple of years preventing new staff from completing their training whilst making extra money in overtime by doing so?

Ah heyor, don't go off joining all the dots now

ThunbergsAreGo · 10-09-2018 5:32pm

XPS_Zero wrote: »

How did this line get on before the DARTs came along?

or is that so long ago is't an apples and oranges comparason? was there a major population spike during the latter tiger era in that area?

Totally different , massive population growth since

Colonel Claptrap · 10-09-2018 6:42pm

I just missed the 18:47 northbound service from Pearse.
I have to wait 40 minutes for the next DART!

So much for a "10 minute DART" at off peak times which Irish Rail continue to call it. Ignoring the large number of stations with a 20 (or is it 40?) minute frequency.

Portmarnock has been well and truly screwed over by this timetable change. Utter shambles.

devnull · 10-09-2018 6:49pm

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

I just missed the 18:47 northbound service from Pearse. I have to wait 40 minutes for the next DART!

For some people that has been a daily occurrence for the last five years or so because the previous timetable actually left that kind of gap in the timetable in evening peak even when everything was running! At least now that kind of gap should not occur for anyone if all trains are running

Also bear in mind as I've said before, the fact that such trains are not running may not be because of lack of trains or drivers, but may be because of some kind of action that is resulting in not enough drivers being available to service the timetable, which it was suggested on here, might happen for the last few days.

Portmarnock has been well and truly screwed over by this timetable change. Utter shambles.

On the face of things Portmarnock has probably got the rawest deal of any station on the DART line, certainly, I don't dispute that, but Clongriffin got a raw deal on the old one with pretty much 30 minute frequency, since in morning peak, barely any commuters stop there, whilst the people working at Eastpoint living in Clongriffin, Portmarnock and Malahide benefit in evening peak too.

Colonel Claptrap · 10-09-2018 7:08pm

Why don't they run the Eastpoint shuttle bus into the back of the Connolly car park, enabling these thousands of workers to avail of northbound commuter services? Surely that's the fix to your problem, I would have thought?

Clontarf is not Pearse. Its on the periphery of the City Centre. It also acts a further choking point to the already strangled Connolly bottleneck. Not to mention the unscheduled (and unnecesary) Fairview stop to change drivers, chat about the weekend, and predict the score of the match tonight.

devnull · 10-09-2018 7:19pm

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Why don't they run the Eastpoint shuttle bus into the back of the Connolly car park, enabling these thousands of workers to avail of northbound commuter services? Surely that's the fix to your problem, I would have thought?

You have a very good point - however I suspect the fact is that it would substantially increase the EastPoint shuttles bus cost and they'd need to lay on more buses to do that and maintain frequency as the buses get caught in traffic. Plus there's also the question of if they could stop in the car park there without paying Irish Rail a hefty whack.

Clontarf is not Pearse. Its on the periphery of the City Centre. It also acts a further choking point to the already strangled Connolly bottleneck. Not to mention the unscheduled (and unnecesary) Fairview stop to change drivers, chat about the weekend, and predict the score of the match tonight.

Sure and I understand that, but do you agree that a 40+ minute gap in Malahide DART services in evening peak is not acceptable? Because that has been the reality for many people working in EastPoint, who then, surprise surprise, couldn't even get on a train sometimes after waiting that long, because it's totally wedged because of the 40 minute gap and every man and his dog has took that train because it's the first one in the time there were several Howths!

The best result would have been for IE to simply stop a single commuter at EastPoint between the 6.01 and 6.42 trains, however that is not something which they were open to do and obviously there is a question of capacity.

Agree about the Fairview situation as well, that's laughable but very much a union thing that should have been got rid of years ago, I've been stuck there for ages before whilst yer man chats to his colleague about everything under the sun and it is hugely frustrating.

Rashers72 · 10-09-2018 7:49pm

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

I just missed the 18:47 northbound service from Pearse.
I have to wait 40 minutes for the next DART!

To be fair DART cancellations due to driver shortages like those tonight are exceptional. IE should have stopped the Drogheda train at 19.23 at Clongriffin & Portmarnock which would have gotten you to the station at 19.40 approx. as opposed to 19.53. Customers were tweeting earlier looking for that once the notification of all the cancellations went up. Seems like a reasonable request, especially given the really bad experiences this morning.

lawred2 · 11-09-2018 8:05am

Got the 7:54 from Portmarnock this morning. Missing a few carriages and rammed at Raheny.

Colonel Claptrap · 11-09-2018 9:10am

Got the 8:14. All 8 carriages present, but they were rammed, stuffy, with condensation rolling down the windows.

A couple of tourists weren't sure where to get off - couldn't see platform names outside the windows. The PA was no help either. Deafening CCTV warnings sparsed with inaccurate next stop announcements.

Embarrassing to say the least.

PCros · 11-09-2018 9:21am

lawred2 wrote: »

Got the 7:54 from Portmarnock this morning. Missing a few carriages and rammed at Raheny.

I swapped and got the 8:14 today which is not too bad but gets tight at Killester onwards. It's much better than the 7:55.

I think if they brought back the 7:56 Commuter and 7:44 Dart that would help in the morning.

IR are getting absolutely hammered on Twitter again today.

XPS_Zero · 11-09-2018 10:42am

naughtb4 wrote: »

Totally different , massive population growth since

It may seem obvious but I recall some areas in the latter end of the tiger era just screached to a total halt, and it was the latter end where Malahide was opened.

Will someone please explain what Eastpoint is? I'm from the opposite end of the city and I've no idea what you guys are referring to?

n!ghtmancometh · 11-09-2018 10:45am

XPS_Zero wrote: »

It may seem obvious but I recall some areas in the latter end of the tiger era just screached to a total halt, and it was the latter end where Malahide was opened.

Will someone please explain what Eastpoint is? I'm from the opposite end of the city and I've no idea what you guys are referring to?

It's a business park near Clontarf, that according to some deserves service more than residents of Portmarnock.

devnull · 11-09-2018 10:57am

n!ghtmancometh wrote: »

It's a business park near Clontarf, that according to some deserves service more than residents of Portmarnock.

Actually that is not what I said or implied at all. I wasn't saying anyone deserved a service more than anyone else, simply saying that not everybody was a winner on the old timetable, because they were not and giving an example.

A large percentage of the 6,000 staff working there are supporting European markets and previously were unable to access the business park before 7.00am in the morning and they can now thanks to an earlier DART from Malahide.

In addition in the evening after the 6.01pm Malahide DART which was too early for anyone finishing at 6pm there was not another Malahide until 6.42pm, which was often difficult to board because of the big gap in the service.

XPS_Zero · 11-09-2018 11:07am

Clontarf Road is a ghost town outside rush hour, and from what people are saying so is Portmarnock (relatively speaking)

Is there not a soloution of stopping more Commuter trains at Rush hour or doing some kind of express thing with the DART which could serve both these stations? It does seem like Portmarnock is getting unusually screwed.

I recall years and years ago when I was in primary I think, they used to do a DART that went non stop between Dun Laoghaire and Bray and I think there was another that was non stop Connoly to DL, there still is one serving rush hour that terminates in DL I presume it was slotted into the timetable to take pressure off rush hour south of DL, could not something similar be done here? Would adding an express or two really slow down the 10 min set up?
Or could they not run longer sets on the Malahide route than the Howth route at rush hour so people know if they do turn up for one of the other reduced trains they will get on it?

devnull · 11-09-2018 11:13am

A single commuter that calls at all Malahide branch DART stations between the 6.01pm and 6.42pm would have solved the problem to be honest.

It wasn't a problem for the whole of peak. Just that particular time as the big gap made both of those trains hard to board as well.

Zulu · 11-09-2018 11:23am

devnull wrote: »

Actually that is not what I said or implied at all. I wasn't saying anyone ...

To be fair, I got your point.

...but, over the past few days you've doggedly been very strong representing that small cohort of passengers that use the Malahide/Portmarnock/Clongriffin to Clontarf Road. You've been repeatedly pushing them forward as a win for the new service, when in reality they are really just collateral.

To the rest of the passengers (the vast majority) who travel past that particular business park and into the city center and beyond, its tantamount to saying how great it is that the skin cancer on your forehead has been blasted off by that bullet.

lawred2 · 11-09-2018 5:19pm

1654 Connolly Dart sitting on the layby at Clongriffin for about 5/6 minutes

This timetable is working out great

Colonel Claptrap · 11-09-2018 5:32pm

lawred2 wrote: »

1654 Connolly Dart sitting on the layby at Clongriffin for about 5/6 minutes

This timetable is working out great

Must be the thousands of Eastpoint passengers disembarking.

I kid!

Praetorian · 11-09-2018 7:08pm

I don't know what the figures are like now, but when I used to catch the train, Portmarnock was the one stop where very few people got on and very few people got off compared to the other mainline stops.

It looks like a very sensible decision to me, and hopefully will reduce the overall journey times a little bit.

PCros · 11-09-2018 8:03pm

Praetorian wrote: »

I don't know what the figures are like now, but when I used to catch the train, Portmarnock was the one stop where very few people got on and very few people got off compared to the other mainline stops.

Extremely busy during peak hours both ways.

Deviso · 11-09-2018 8:17pm

lawred2 wrote: »

1654 Connolly Dart sitting on the layby at Clongriffin for about 5/6 minutes

This timetable is working out great

Same with the 18:49 from Tara Street

Colonel Claptrap · 11-09-2018 10:15pm

Irish Rail & NTA have known about the massive development potential surrounding Portmarnock station since 2013.

In fact, they even contributed to the Local Area Plan (LAP) document devised by Fingal CoCo.
Here you can see lands directly beside the station.

Highlighted yellow = under construction (230 homes to the west, 80 to the north and 150 to the east).

Highlighted green = recently built (100 homes).

The remaining section within the red boundary is designated residential zoning with lands already under the control of a developer. It's clear that the Local Area Plan was designed with the train station at its core. 1,000+ medium density housing within walking distance of a platform. It's a no brainer.

Removal of services, in particular peak services from 8 trains to 4 trains in the morning was idiotic. Yesterday and today I witnessed Portmarnock DARTs dangerously overcrowded, arrived late/didn't arrive at all, and frequency severely curtailed when it mattered most.
Imagine how bad it will be when hundreds of additional passengers are added over the next year.

Portmarnock train station is a crucial element in contributing to sustainable development. The entire [LAP] lands are within walking distance of the train station which is located immediately to the northwest of the LAP lands and provides frequent DART services to Malahide and the City Centre, suburban train services to north county Dublin and a regional service to Belfast. Direct high quality pedestrian/cycle routes and bus access to and from the station will play an important role in encouraging residents within and adjoining the plan area to use this high quality public transport service. It is an objective of this LAP to provide direct access to the train station from the plan lands in consultation with Irish Rail. It is proposed that this important connection is made via the proposed small centre adjoining the train station in the form of a new street. The early delivery of this connection is a priority.

This was a monumental fuuk up on behalf of Irish Rail and NTA. The fact they knew about and even contributed to the development plans can only be described as gross incompetence.

kingshankly · 11-09-2018 10:33pm

Praetorian wrote: »

I don't know what the figures are like now, but when I used to catch the train, Portmarnock was the one stop where very few people got on and very few people got off compared to the other mainline stops.

It looks like a very sensible decision to me, and hopefully will reduce the overall journey times a little bit.

Strange statement considering most commuter trains are now taking longer to get to Dublin despite less stops

Rashers72 · 11-09-2018 10:39pm

Deviso wrote: »

Same with the 18:49 from Tara Street

Some of the evening peak Drogheda bound trains now overtake northbound DARTs towards Malahide at Clongriffin. I initially thought it was just 2, one around 6pm and another @6.30pm. Good to see the passing loop finally in daily user after years of lying idle. And while it sounds great for Drogheda users, they have already crawled behind DARTs from Connolly, so overall journey time still very poor, and was much better a few years ago.

kingshankly · 11-09-2018 11:26pm

Rashers72 wrote: »

Some of the evening peak Drogheda bound trains now overtake northbound DARTs towards Malahide at Clongriffin. I initially thought it was just 2, one around 6pm and another @6.30pm. Good to see the passing loop finally in daily user after years of lying idle. And while it sounds great for Drogheda users, they have already crawled behind DARTs from Connolly, so overall journey time still very poor, and was much better a few years ago.

That loop was always getting used on a daily basis commuters always passed darts every day plus one enterprise passes a commuter every day also

Rashers72 · 11-09-2018 11:45pm

kingshankly wrote: »

That loop was always getting used on a daily basis commuters always passed darts every day plus one enterprise passes a commuter every day also

I knew about the single daily Enterprise pass, but aside from broken down DARTs, in all my years I never seen it in normal passenger usage. But I only pass through there 7.30-8am and 6-7pm every day. Thanks for clarifying.

XPS_Zero · 12-09-2018 12:28am

I'd never seen it in use before the 10th and I always wondered why they never did overtakes (that I saw).

Dublin Spur · 12-09-2018 3:26pm

devnull wrote: »

On the face of things Portmarnock has probably got the rawest deal of any station on the DART line,

Yep and that's all anyone has been saying.
'Progress' is not supposed to make things worse.

It looks like Malahide station is the real winner
They get the diesel trans stopping and the 10min DARTs

I can see 100s of the Portmarnock passengers starting their journeys in Malahide now. Its going to make the parking situation in Malahide farcical

howiya · 12-09-2018 3:49pm

Dublin Spur wrote: »

Yep and that's all anyone has been saying.
'Progress' is not supposed to make things worse.

It looks like Malahide station is the real winner
They get the diesel trans stopping and the 10min DARTs

I can see 100s of the Portmarnock passengers starting their journeys in Malahide now. Its going to make the parking situation in Malahide farcical

Not familiar with the dart/train but do timings allow for a one stop jaunt north from Portmarnock to Malahide to avail of the better services southbound??

In the spirit of bus connects I’m thinking

Portmarnock residents up in arms

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