Trains

Moonbeam

Sooo it is coming towards that time of year again when Iarnrod Eireann publish the time table for the coming year.
Any optimists among us thing we might get some extra capacity during rush hour or a more frequent Sunday service?
Or even better does anyone know if they are planning an improvement?

Bluetonic

There is very little that can at present be done to alter the timetable or increase capacity apparently.

Sunday trains once every hour would be nice but then again a lot of them run at low capacity most Sundays. Do they run for the sake of it at a loss to Irish Rail?

When you consider the price of the service if you avail of the tax saver annual ticket it is extremely good value for money at around 2 euro for a single trip.

Moonbeam

Nah they can increase capacity,that is if they are still using the Connolly station excuse but they need to redo more then just the Drogheda schedule to facilitate this.
It is a horrible squashed and dangerous service during the rush hours.
The Sunday evening service is the only part of the Sunday service that bothers me there is a space of 2 hours where there are no trains at all from the city.

Bluetonic

The 2 hour gaps are a bit of a pain alright, agree there.

Is the weekday rush hour service any more packed or dangerous than any other commuter service to a European capital city? Whats the standard? Maybe trains stopping at alternative stations is the answer.

Gillo

Alternate stations would work for the majority of people, but there a a small number of people who do commute between stations, so it may cause headaches also. Are there any more trains available that can be put on in the mornings/ evenings?

Sunday service is also crap, could definitely do with more evening trains.

darraghjm

i don't think they can put on any more trains in the morning or evenings, but maybe if they stopped sending the dart out 1minute in front of a train it might not be as bad.
i don't know how many times i've been waiting for a train in pearse only for it to be delayed for 2minutes and a dart go out in front of it causing more delay.

Rashers72

Lots of delays every evening this week so far. Most days are better though.

But I do think they could do the following with minimal cost, improving customer service:

1. Run a 5.30am service into town.
2. From 7pm, split the 8 carriage services into two 4 car services, and run them every 30 mins till midnight. Same diesel costs/depreciation, just 1 extra driver.
3. Do the same on a Saturday - there are some big gaps out of town late afternoon on a Saturday.
4. And on a Sunday - even once an hour.
5. For the last 2, if they done that every weekend for the months of Nov + Dec, people might actually start shopping in Dublin city centre.

re: Off Peak Travel
Generally, the same day adult single/return fare is expensive, compared to most cities in Europe. Also, look at London where with the Oyster card, children travel free with their parents after 9.30am and all the time at weekends, I think.

Irish Rail ticketing has been the same for the last 10 years that I've used the service, with one common trait - increasing prices. They need to think outside the box, and start doing something to fill the off peak services. If they reduced the prices for these services, can you imagine the positive impact for everyone?
But as long as they remain in the dark ages, with a Minister for Transport who could not care less, we'll be stuck with the same poor service.
No doubt the unions will be blamed for restrictive work practices, or something like that.
But to end on a positive. Up to 2008, their annual ticket price was very good value if you travelled in from Balbriggan/Skerries.

Mark200

If it's a problem with low capacity on Sundays, then they should reduce the amount of carraiges. Say split a train that'd run once an hour in half, and run half the carraiges at one time, and the rest of the carraiges a half hour later. You don't need more carraiges, you just need an extra drive as said above ^

The reason why very few people use the Sunday service is because it isn't reliable. If they put on more trains, despite running at low capacity, more people would use it.

I think there's a great weekday service for anyone who lives at the Raheny or Howth Junction train station. They get the DARTs to howth, DARTs to Malahide and most of the commuters to Drogheda / Dundalk. But if you live beyond Howth Junction then it's very poor.

They need to just rip apart their current timetable and start again from scratch.

But of course, they're getting loads of money from rush hour and charging people to just park at their train stations (!!) so why would they care? Why would they run trains at a loss for a while to provide a reliable service that people can use? They won't.

So no, I'm not optimistic.

Moonbeam

Here we go -

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2009/Dublin%20Dundalk%2009.pdf

Gillo

Appears to be pretty much the same, although I've only looked at the peak times.

Pity there's not an earlier train in the morning.

Darts are well off the time schedule in the last few weeks:(

dubliner9

Hi,

Does anyone know how long does it take to go to train stn from drogheda st by walk.
are trains on time?

Thanks in advance.

Helix

dubliner9 wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone know how long does it take to go to train stn from drogheda st by walk.
are trains on time?

Thanks in advance.

train station to drogheda street could take 3-5 minutes depending on how quickly you walk

trains are roughly on time most of the time

dubliner9

Helix wrote: »

train station to drogheda street could take 3-5 minutes depending on how quickly you walk

trains are roughly on time most of the time

Hi Helix,

Thanks very much for coming back to me.Do you know how far is the train station from IDA industrial estate,Ballbriggan.How long does it take to walk to railwaystn from there.

Thank you.

Moonbeam

Maybe about 15 to 20 minutes.Depending on what part of the estate you are in.
The industrial estate is at the start of the town and the train station is a bit nearer the other end.

Helix

yeh id say 20-25 minutes, depending on where you are in it and which way you go. different points in it would mean different routes to the station would be quicker

dubliner9

Helix wrote: »

yeh id say 20-25 minutes, depending on where you are in it and which way you go. different points in it would mean different routes to the station would be quicker

I'm going to work for arvato digital services.Its near the church on dublin street.Does it take 20 mins to walk from dublin street to rail station.I live in city centre.

Thank you.

Helix

just under 20 minutes id say. its about 5 minutes from where i live and it takes me around 10-12 mins to the train station

dubliner9

Thanks a million for your help Helix.