DART Driver Recruitment

strandroad

dublindiehard wrote: »

From those comments, it's fairly obvious that you are someone who lives or commutes via the centre to the Southside and do not get the DART on the Northside.

Reliability on the Northbound sevice in evening peak has been nothing special recently and capacity leaves a lot to be desired and driver changeovers happen there on a regular basis.

Most people I know who get the train northbound in the evening just would be happy with providing adequate capacity on the train they travel on.

That's correct. Southside line is much less complex it seems. On my route taking the Dart is completely uneventful (apart from last year's signal fault issues, fixed since) but taking the bus rarely goes without encountering one or more of the issues mentioned, and these would be QBC or Network Direct optimised routes.
I do hope that with the resignalling and frequency improvements things will improve across the network of course. If Dart runs so frequently it becomes more reliable in that it doesn't matter which scheduled Dart it is anymore if you know there'll be another one in 10 minutes.

Captain Chaos

Even now at 17:00 at Connolly going north bound there is a 6 and 4 car DART after each other 10mins apart and that is not enough with crush loads still happening. Some days its a 4 and 4 10mins later but not good enough. You need an 8 and 6 there 10 mins apart.

Mahogany

Also, is this a 10 minute service the Greystones service or just Bray?

goingnowhere

Bray

loyatemu

Mahogany wrote: »

Also, is this a 10 minute service the Greystones service or just Bray?

Single line to Greystones - absolute best they could do is 20 mins but even that would be unrealistic as it would require fast reliable turnaround at Greystones 100% of the time. The current 30 min frequency to Greystones is as good as it is ever likely to be without huge extra investment.

end of the road

loyatemu wrote: »

Single line to Greystones - absolute best they could do is 20 mins but even that would be unrealistic as it would require fast reliable turnaround at Greystones 100% of the time. The current 30 min frequency to Greystones is as good as it is ever likely to be without huge extra investment.

such investment needs to happen though when funds allow. that stretch of line is ridiculously slow. there needs to be a couple of passing loops fitted where possible at least.

loyatemu

end of the road wrote: »

such investment needs to happen though when funds allow. that stretch of line is ridiculously slow. there needs to be a couple of passing loops fitted where possible at least.

Adding a loop around Bray Head would be incredibly difficult and expensive - a more realistic improvement would be to double the line between Greystones and the first tunnel, but even that's awkward as the first few hundred metres north of the station are in a rock cutting. Neither of these would make the service any quicker either.

Can't see it happening - huge expense, only really Greystones commuters benefit. A cheaper option to add capacity would be stable a couple of Darts overnight in Greystones so they could run several in a row in the morning rush hour (& vice versa in the evening); currently all Darts have to come out to Greystones in the morning before turning around and going back in. Or add some extra Wicklow commuter services, but these would interfere with the Dart scheduling closer to Dublin.

end of the road

loyatemu wrote: »

Adding a loop around Bray Head would be incredibly difficult and expensive - a more realistic improvement would be to double the line between Greystones and the first tunnel, but even that's awkward as the first few hundred metres north of the station are in a rock cutting. Neither of these would make the service any quicker either.

Can't see it happening - huge expense, only really Greystones commuters benefit. A cheaper option to add capacity would be stable a couple of Darts overnight in Greystones so they could run several in a row in the morning rush hour (& vice versa in the evening); currently all Darts have to come out to Greystones in the morning before turning around and going back in. Or add some extra Wicklow commuter services, but these would interfere with the Dart scheduling closer to Dublin.

to be honest, so be it. the current situation of other trains crawling along or other places not being able to have more services because of the dart cannot continue indefinitely if we want for example our longer distance services to survive. same with the suburban diesels. they are supposed to be a fast reliable alternative to road transport. so the choice is, find a solution or wait until they become possibly irrelevant?

trellheim

because they are being sneaky and trying to use a more frequent service to justify investment.

Heisenberg1

end of the road wrote: »

such investment needs to happen though when funds allow. that stretch of line is ridiculously slow. there needs to be a couple of passing loops fitted where possible at least.

Greystones only needs a shuttle service at best and they can connect in with trains in bray.

end of the road

trellheim wrote: »

because they are being sneaky and trying to use a more frequent service to justify investment.

i hope to god your right and they get it. for all our sakes

gooddarts10

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Very informative post and thanks for it but from Irish Rails point of view would it not be better to get the medical done first instead of wasting €70k on someone if they are found to have health issues that are found in the medical that make them unsuitable for the job?

You have to pass a medical as part of the initial selection process and then pass another at the end of your training