Dalkey to Greystones - Major Rail Alterations Due to Fire

Jamie2k9

Working class heroes wrote: »

We posted at the same time.
So it’s just a matter of the DART been prioritized and be damned with the Rosslare services?

Nothing new about that!

punisher5112

Can't understand why rosslare can't run from bray or greystones and leave the rest of the line for a much higher frequency an much faster dart.

Speeds need to be increased.

Working class heroes

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Nothing new about that!

Should be fun when the 10min Darts are up and running.

Rashers72

Just to say from a customer perspective this is a nightmare on the ground since Sat. Huge issues with communication and lots of confusion on the ground. Each day I hope it will get better but it does not. IE Twitter only responding to a small % of complaints. Those early running Darts got a lot of airplay - it was if the drivers were operating to a different timetable?. Entire suburban network all the way to Dundalk experienced delays tonight due to this signalling issue. But the majority of customer complaints relate to poor communication all within the control of IE.

dublinman1990

While hearing that the relay room at Bray being completely destroyed and having to be entirely replaced with a new brand equipment; it sounds like these extensive repairs at Bray are going to become an expensive & recurring trend as we progress through the summer.

It there was any extensive damage noted to the relay room. I would assume that this type of work would not finish by Sunday at least. I would say that these repairs will go on for much longer than deemed necessary. This fire has taken place at the possible worse time during the summer period when most students in school & college will be finishing up for their summer holidays.

There are also some major summer events that take place at Bray in July like The Groove Festival at Killruddery House & The Bray Air Display that takes place along Bray Seafront which is only minutes away from the DART station itself. I have been to that Air Display along the seafront a few years ago. The sheer numbers of people who attend it every year in Bray is quite simply unbelievable from a spectator point of view during that last weekend in July. It recorded figures of 140k spectators for the 2 day event last year which simply is mind boggling numbers. If this issue of doing repairs and testing for the new signalling equipment after recovering from this major signal fire at Bray continues on at a very slow pace; it will become a serious problem for them if they do not progress them very quickly for all of the people who would attend these events every year.

IE need to make some serious progress on this repair & testing work very quickly if they are aiming for at least early July to get them completely finished. Otherwise a lot of transport chaos will ensue if people who attend the events would have to go to Bray either by using the bus, taxi, private car or by walking to Bray if they were still open to the public. I also don't think that these people would contend with the idea of being offered a limited shuttle DART service from Connolly Station to Bray while rolling along the tracks with non functional signalling equipment going from Dalkey to Bray.

If the promoters of these events decide to cancel or have contingency arrangements in place for these events this year well then this would a let off for IE's point of view. However IE cannot be seen to be sitting on their laurels while these repair works goes on indefinitely for a significant amount of their time. These events are also quite critical to businesses around Bray because they bring in quite a bit of money & footfall into the town during these July weekends. I don't want to see these events getting cancelled if that option was used as a last resort.

I would like to see any updates on how the peak service DARTs at Bray are coping so far with the restrictions in service during Monday & Tuesday. Any updates on bus services being provided between Rosslare - Bray - Dublin during the peak times will be helpful as well. Thanks.

EDIT:

Someone made a comment on thejournal.ie about the condition of signal relay room in Bray. I will post it up here if that is ok.

all the cables(in the 100’s)that are used to control all the signaling equipment including safety critical components have been destroyed and in some cases melted together. Cables have to be cut away in damaged area, traced to confirm which cables are which before being jointed together and tested to confirm they are working. On top of this the area is only big enough for 3/4 people to work and the air is fairly toxic with fresh air being pumped in. So maybe it isn’t as simple as people might think

loyatemu

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I would like to see any updates on how the peak service DARTs at Bray are coping so far with the restrictions in service during Monday & Tuesday. Any updates on bus services being provided between Rosslare - Bray - Dublin during the peak times will be helpful as well. Thanks.

I went for the replacement bus for the Gorey-Dundalk service this morning (train normally departs Greystones at 0752). This train is usually standing room only before it even gets to Greystones. 3 coaches were waiting, one going to Dun Laoghaire, one to Connolly, not sure where the other was going. I think passengers for Bray were being told to use Dublin Bus.

I got on the Connolly bus, only about 8 people on it when it left, perhaps a lot of passengers from further south have switched to Bus Eireann. The driver then decided to go via Sandyford and Goatstown so we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic, seems bizarre considering theres a bus lane along the N11. Eventually got to Connolly at 0930.

The J Stands for Jay

I decided.to.get the coach to dun laoighaire to get the dart to Pearse. Big mistake as there was some sort of fault that meant the train was delayed leaving. Got to Pearse around 9.45. only an hour later than the regular train service...

punisher5112

loyatemu wrote: »

I went for the replacement bus for the Gorey-Dundalk service this morning (train normally departs Greystones at 0752). This train is usually standing room only before it even gets to Greystones. 3 coaches were waiting, one going to Dun Laoghaire, one to Connolly, not sure where the other was going. I think passengers for Bray were being told to use Dublin Bus.

I got on the Connolly bus, only about 8 people on it when it left, perhaps a lot of passengers from further south have switched to Bus Eireann. The driver then decided to go via Sandyford and Goatstown so we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic, seems bizarre considering theres a bus lane along the N11. Eventually got to Connolly at 0930.

That is ridiculous, who the hell told him to go that way.

Please complain about that one.

Contact Chris Rafferty in Irish rail.

He is the manager over the rail.

Working class heroes

loyatemu wrote: »

I went for the replacement bus for the Gorey-Dundalk service this morning (train normally departs Greystones at 0752). This train is usually standing room only before it even gets to Greystones. 3 coaches were waiting, one going to Dun Laoghaire, one to Connolly, not sure where the other was going. I think passengers for Bray were being told to use Dublin Bus.

I got on the Connolly bus, only about 8 people on it when it left, perhaps a lot of passengers from further south have switched to Bus Eireann. The driver then decided to go via Sandyford and Goatstown so we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic, seems bizarre considering theres a bus lane along the N11. Eventually got to Connolly at 0930.

That’s 3 different routes in 3 days.

punisher5112

Working class heroes wrote: »

That’s 3 different routes in 3 days.

Can't understand how one would think going through goatstown would be following the dart line.

Straight in the N11 all the way.

At least if he went the blackrock way it still would have been bad but more bus lanes to the city after that.

Make sure if getting again state it to the coach driver.

Go by loughlinstown hospital straight to city and stay clear of cherrywood also as it's a nightmare.

trellheim

If its a brand new relay room they are going to have to do full scale commissioning again, do IE have enough S&T engineers in house to do it quickly , thats a lot of testing and validation

dublinman1990

loyatemu wrote: »

I went for the replacement bus for the Gorey-Dundalk service this morning (train normally departs Greystones at 0752). This train is usually standing room only before it even gets to Greystones. 3 coaches were waiting, one going to Dun Laoghaire, one to Connolly, not sure where the other was going. I think passengers for Bray were being told to use Dublin Bus.

I got on the Connolly bus, only about 8 people on it when it left, perhaps a lot of passengers from further south have switched to Bus Eireann. The driver then decided to go via Sandyford and Goatstown so we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic, seems bizarre considering theres a bus lane along the N11. Eventually got to Connolly at 0930.

Do you know the name of the bus operator that was used for your bus into Connolly this morning? I know it's not Finnegan's because they only operate a limited bus service between Greystones & Bray DART Station. Also not using the N11 to go into the city centre is pretty stupid. Unless the driver had no other choice to go & pick up his passengers in Sandyford & Goatstown because it was probably part of his normal bus route into Dublin city centre.

The usual rail passengers on the Rosslare line could have used either Bus Eireann or Wexford Bus to get in & out Dublin during this disruption at Bray.

loyatemu

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Do you know the name of the bus operator that was used for your bus into Connolly this morning?

Wexford Bus. He initially got in lane to go into the industrial estate at Sandyford before veering into the straight-through lane at the last minute. Then he went through Goatstown, down Beaver Row and Anglesea Rd and Ballsbridge. Pretty much the last route I would have chosen to avoid traffic.

punisher5112

That's not Wexford bus route, was it on private hire.

loyatemu

punisher5112 wrote: »

That's not Wexford bus route, was it on private hire.

yes, of course, it was on hire to Irish Rail.

thomasj

Irish rail are saying there will be nothing south of dalkey this weekend to undertake testing to establish if normal services can resume next week.

punisher5112

loyatemu wrote: »

yes, of course, it was on hire to Irish Rail.

Driver is either new or wanted to be very late getting back

Rashers72

thomasj wrote: »

Irish rail are saying there will be nothing south of dalkey this weekend to undertake testing to establish if normal services can resume next week.

I would expect a significant negative customer reaction to that announcement. Large international sporting event in Aviva bound to be impacted. I seen photos of the crowd chaos in Dun Laoghaire station last weekend after Red Bull event. I hope IE get seriously organised before this weekend. They only had 2 days notice to put plans in place (or 'not' as was the case last weekend). But plenty of notice this time.
Dublin Bus should have spare capacity for the weekend so once they approve the overtime we should get plenty of cover. Again very unlike last weekend.

Infini

Rashers72 wrote: »

I would expect a significant negative customer reaction to that announcement. Large international sporting event in Aviva bound to be impacted. I seen photos of the crowd chaos in Dun Laoghaire station last weekend after Red Bull event. I hope IE get seriously organised before this weekend. They only had 2 days notice to put plans in place (or 'not' as was the case last weekend). But plenty of notice this time.
Dublin Bus should have spare capacity for the weekend so once they approve the overtime we should get plenty of cover. Again very unlike last weekend.

In fairness the match in aviva wont be directly affected thats in Lansdowne not down where the signals have been damaged.

The problem of course is that the work crews's can work as fast as possible but considering the whole relay room got utterly gutted by this it takes a significant amount of time since I would only imagine some of the equipment isnt exactly off the shelf and would require ordering custom parts. Then it has to be probably programmed and properly tested as well.

Hopefully with any luck the line will be back in action by next week at least.

punisher5112

Rashers72 wrote: »

I would expect a significant negative customer reaction to that announcement. Large international sporting event in Aviva bound to be impacted. I seen photos of the crowd chaos in Dun Laoghaire station last weekend after Red Bull event. I hope IE get seriously organised before this weekend. They only had 2 days notice to put plans in place (or 'not' as was the case last weekend). But plenty of notice this time.
Dublin Bus should have spare capacity for the weekend so once they approve the overtime we should get plenty of cover. Again very unlike last weekend.

Totally up to nta and drivers are short especially at weekends.

They didn't even have extras to cover last weekend.

Stephen15

punisher5112 wrote: »

Totally up to nta and drivers are short especially at weekends.

They didn't even have extras to cover last weekend.

Perhaps they could get privates helping out too with ex DB buses. I know when the Luas was down there between Red Cow and Saggart they had privates and DB running shuttles.

Privates using ex DB buses would be preferable if numbers are high as coaches wouldn't be suitable.

devnull

Who is operating the rail replacement buses?

Stephen15

devnull wrote: »

Who is operating the rail replacement buses?

A mixture of various different private operators

Rashers72

Interview with Barry K on Newstalk earlier. Ivan Yates show. Sorry no link and did not hear. Wonder did Ivan ask him about all the communications issues?

dublinbuster

punisher5112 wrote: »

Totally up to nta and drivers are short especially at weekends.

They didn't even have extras to cover last weekend.

expected to be a scorcher this saturday, good luck getting drivers to work their day off or OT

punisher5112

dublinbuster wrote: »

expected to be a scorcher this saturday, good luck getting drivers to work their day off or OT

I wouldn't.

L1011

Bernard Kavanagh operating lots of the ones I've seen in Connolly anyway

thomasj

Good news folks , Irish rail have tweeted that FULL services resume tomorrow morning on the affected area.

http://www.irishrail.ie/news/service-alert