New 29k colour livery

Five Lamps

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Not really, one is called DART and has it's own branding name where as the 29s are no longer in Commuter branding as it's gone and everything bar the DART and Enterprise is Irish Rail branding, yet to the casual commuter on the platform a 29 DMU and DART look exactly the same in the new livery. DARTs stop at every stop on the DART line, 29s only service the "Commuter" stops.

Happened a last month on a train I was on. I young girl ended up crying and panicing because she got on a 29k at Maynooth assuming it would stop at Clonsila as 29s usually do. But on this occasion the 29 was on a Sligo service doing the job of a 22k ICR. People don't read signs, so there first hand is the problem. She started banging on the drivers cab door to get the train to stop and I ended up having calm her down and giver her my phone to make some calls from.

At the end of the day, has to check that they are boarding the right train. People do read signage ... otherwise they wouldn't get to where they were going.

My point is that all trains used to service the Dublin commuter area should be the same colour irrespective if they are electric or diesel - put them under the DART brand.

Captain Chaos

icdg wrote: »

Even on the DART not all services take the exact same route. If one only relies on the train colour and not the destination board, as the OP hypothesises, why do we not have a glut of people trying to get to Howth ending up in Malahide and vice versa?

You'd be amazed. I use the DART alot and get asked questions by random strangers almost every day. Alot of times they can't find their way out of Howth Junction station despite the tone of new sings that are all over the shop

Captain Chaos

Five Lamps wrote: »

My point is that all trains used to service the Dublin commuter area should be the same colour irrespective if they are electric or diesel - put them under the DART brand.

The only reason the DARTs stay in Dublin is because of the OHLE system that keeps them there. Due to operational flexibility and maintenance the 29s and 22s can end up almost anywhere on the network, it's virtually impossible to confine common set units to the Dublin region only.

An example, 22 ICR sets 1-6 are fully equipped to fill in for the Enterprise and work north of the boarder without another driver present, but they can be anywhere on the network and not in Dublin or Drogheda if needed in a hurry. NIR have a similar settup with C3Ks, set 1-6 are fitted with CAWS to work in the south if needed and NIR manage to get these sets at short notice to fill in due to their smaller network and fleet size.

Jamie2k9

An example, 22 ICR sets 1-6 are fully equipped to fill in for the Enterprise and work north of the boarder without another driver present, but they can be anywhere on the network and not in Dublin or Drogheda if needed in a hurry. NIR have a similar settup with C3Ks, set 1-6 are fitted with CAWS to work in the south if needed and NIR manage to get these sets at short notice to fill in due to their smaller network and fleet size.

NI's operation is centered in Belfast so much easier to have sets within 45-1 hour of knowing the problem with the enterprise. Your probably talking at least 2.5 hours to get stock into position down here.

Also since the 22 changes Connolly is mainly made up of 4 coach units with a handful of 3 set to increase capacity on some services.

end of the road

maybe if the ICRS wern't all used on commuter routes the sets equiped for northern operation could be where possible kept close by to operate the enterprise, the fact that passengers on what is technically an international train service have to put up with suburban railcars if there is a failure on the dublin side is a shambles and a discrase that theres no excuse for but i suppose whatever is operationally convenient for IE, isn't it true passenger numbers on this service are down or at least not as good as they could be? well apart from the M1 this probably doesn't help at least with first time travelers, at least with rosslare we know were the runt of the litter and aren't entitled to the same standards of comfort or anything as other long distance routes so no point there but with the enterprise, IE need to show these passengers respect and provide them with a decent replacement if the proper stock has a problem