Irish Rail - Credit Where it's Due

devnull · 11-02-2015 07:49PM #1

Seeing as I had a go at them about handling disruption late last year only fair I give them praise where it is due and it was tonight. The disruption tonight with the signal failure at Howth Junction was handled VERY well at Connolly and staff were only too keen to help.

Kudos also to the woman doing the announcements on the PA at Connolly, her announcements are far clearer, detailed and helpful and sincere sounding than anyone else who I've heard do them. The rest of the station and PA staff could learn a lot from her. She is a breath of fresh air.

Coupled with better and more cute ticket checks, longer staffing hours at stations and the fact someone seems to be finally fixing the 8600 Passenger Information Systems, Irish Rail seem to have started the year quite well. I hope they can keep it up.

goingnowhere · 11-02-2015 08:35PM

No announcements anywhere else, huge gaps between trains and when trains showed up 4 coaches

Disgrace.

Shmah · 11-02-2015 08:45PM

Didn't have quite the same experience myself. I asked the irish rail employee tasked with filling in the information on the whiteboard on the concourse if he could tell me if trains were running past howth junction and got "sure I wouldn't know, ask someone else". Super helpful!

coylemj · 11-02-2015 08:59PM

As with the station name signs, complete inconsistency as usual from IR.

Captain Chaos · 11-02-2015 09:46PM

goingnowhere wrote: »

No announcements anywhere else, huge gaps between trains and when trains showed up 4 coaches

Disgrace.

4 coach DARTs during rush hour are still all too common. They should be a thing of the past at this stage but the fact they have fitted grab slings to most of the 8100s shows they are more than happy to run short cattle trains.

Also tonight I got a very late running ICR from Connolly to HJ in 7mins!! It's amazing what they can do with no timetable padding and a badly routed DART in front of it. No messing about over the points leaving Connolly and on to fairview, the driver had the hammer down from leaving Connolly. I don't remember be rocked around so much on a train in recent times, it was a great run and that's how it should be all the time, not the usual 15min for a non stop run in notch 2 all the way.

Hilly Bill · 12-02-2015 12:15AM

Shmah wrote: »

Didn't have quite the same experience myself. I asked the irish rail employee tasked with filling in the information on the whiteboard on the concourse if he could tell me if trains were running past howth junction and got "sure I wouldn't know, ask someone else". Super helpful!

I have doubts about that to be honest. My opinion only mind you.

dublindiehard · 12-02-2015 08:00AM

The 4.40pm from Bray is also now 4 cars, along with the 5.10 and leaving people behind at city centre stops on occasion. Friend of mine waiting at Clontarf has been unable to board either of those trains to Portmarnock and now gets a DART to Howth Junction and changes.

schemingbohemia · 12-02-2015 10:19AM

How many signal failures at Howth Junction did that make in the last 12 months? There is something seriously awry in Signalling in Irish Rail the past 2 years.

At Pearse at 510 yesterday, one announcement 10/15 minutes after I arrived apologising and stating clearly that the next train was going to Bray when the displays had been announcing 2 trains in a row going only to Dun Laoghaire.

dublindiehard · 12-02-2015 10:30AM

The ones that happened weekly from September till November/December that happened at the same time each night were fixed by a software update I believe.

This was the first one since then, which is a fairly good run.

I know that woman you mean, she normally announces the intercity trains in Connolly as well. She is excellent. They should get here to record announcements for the whole network.

dublindiehard · 12-02-2015 10:31AM

You should know by nnow that any display on irish Rail should be taken with a pinch of sale. And if it's on an 8600 class train, any display or PIS information should be taken with a double pinch of salt.

foggy_lad · 12-02-2015 10:36AM

dublindiehard wrote: »

You should know by nnow that any display on irish Rail should be taken with a pinch of sale. And if it's on an 8600 class train, any display or PIS information should be taken with a double pinch of salt.

Last week I checked the displays in Connolly and the times displayed in the main concourse and on the displays on platforms 1-4 were 3 minutes ahead of the times displayed on platforms 5-7! People were running along platform 4 to get trains that they could never catch or were already gone!

Passenger information whether in stations or on train systems is not a strong point.

dublindiehard · 12-02-2015 10:39AM

I think some of it is down to the equipment to be fair, the fact that an 8100 always knows where it is going and always has working screens and the fact the 8600s rarely do is a testament to that.

foggy_lad · 12-02-2015 10:48AM

dublindiehard wrote: »

I think some of it is down to the equipment to be fair, the fact that an 8100 always knows where it is going and always has working screens and the fact the 8600s rarely do is a testament to that.

Often the ICRs and the 29000s don't have displays working or the announcements are a bit mixed up. Once the train goes where it is supposed to in a reasonable time though the passenger information system(PIS) is not a priority.

Decuc500 · 12-02-2015 10:53AM

As far as I can make out there are two trains in the whole of the evening rush hour serving the Northside that are longer than 4 carriages! Everything else is a cost-saving 4 carriage dart. They keep on saying they are monitoring the numbers but they clearly aren't. People are being left behind all the time.

Also in yesterdays shambles my dart to Howth was cancelled with absolutely no reason given. How does a points failure result in trains actually being cancelled?

I won't give this company any credit until the 4 carriage trains in rush hour are lengthened but it's been 3 years now and counting.

loyatemu · 12-02-2015 02:39PM

I had the opposite experience yesterday:

On a Greystones bound train, pulls into P1 at Bray and we're told to get off and go to P2.
Everyone treks over the bridge and gets on the train at P2, 5 minutes later a barely audible platform announcement tells us all to get off again.
Half the people get off, the other half stay on. 5 minutes laters an Irish Rail guy arrives and makes an announcement on the train PA and the rest get off.
Meanwhile our original train on P1, displaying "Destination Greystones, Next Station Sandycove" pulls off in the direction of Dublin.
Eventually a Dart for Greystones does arrive, but as usual the standard of passenger information from Irish Rail is abysmal.

(I note also that the interactive LED maps on the newer Darts, which never worked well, have now been covered over with static cardboard maps - more money well spent there Irish Rail...)

cython · 12-02-2015 05:08PM

foggy_lad wrote: »

Often the ICRs and the 29000s don't have displays working or the announcements are a bit mixed up. Once the train goes where it is supposed to in a reasonable time though the passenger information system(PIS) is not a priority.

Two prime examples come to mind - most 29ks trains on the Maynooth line seem to have a glitch whereby the automated PA will "progress" early, and before stopping in Castleknock will announce that the next station is Coolmine, which is one further out, for those unfamiliar with the line.

Then there was the service (some years ago now, admittedly) on the same line that used to announce that it was travelling to Limerick Junction after Leixlip - that's some some Harry Potter **** right there!

Shmah · 12-02-2015 08:12PM

Hilly Bill wrote: »

I have doubts about that to be honest. My opinion only mind you.

Ok so. I was there during my brief conversation with the irish rail employee so can clarify for you that your opinion is incorrect...

Hilly Bill · 12-02-2015 08:32PM

Shmah wrote: »

Ok so. I was there during my brief conversation with the irish rail employee so can clarify for you that your opinion is incorrect...

Was this chap in an Irish rail uniform?

Shmah · 12-02-2015 09:12PM

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Was this chap in an Irish rail uniform?

He was indeed. And writing information on a whiteboard in the centre of the concourse.

Hilly Bill · 12-02-2015 10:46PM

Shmah wrote: »

He was indeed. And writing information on a whiteboard in the centre of the concourse.

Very strange that seeing its done before they bring it out, unless it was just being updated . I know the lads very well and its not something they would say. Every single one in there would have pointed you towards someone that could give you an answer to your question and the person at the white board would be one of those that would have the answer.
He would have told you what the story was based on the information available to him.

There isnt a hope that you would have been told ""sure I wouldn't know, ask someone else".

foggy_lad · 13-02-2015 12:57AM

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Very strange that seeing its done before they bring it out, unless it was just being updated . I know the lads very well and its not something they would say. Every single one in there would have pointed you towards someone that could give you an answer to your question and the person at the white board would be one of those that would have the answer.
He would have told you what the story was based on the information available to him.

There isnt a hope that you would have been told ""sure I wouldn't know, ask someone else".

Maybe on this occasion it was not done before they brought the board out on the concourse? also Shmah has stated the person was an irish rail employee three times, I don't understand how you who was not there can be so sure Shmah is wrong? you seem to know lots of Irish rail employees and their procedures so you might know who else apart from staff would be writing on an Irish rail information board?

Hilly Bill · 13-02-2015 02:30PM

There is a lot of things you don't understand on here Foggy.

schemingbohemia · 13-02-2015 04:25PM

The two of you are as bad as each other, one sees no evil, the other sees evil everywhere......

Hilly Bill · 13-02-2015 07:31PM

I see dead people :-)

foggy_lad · 13-02-2015 07:36PM

schemingbohemia wrote: »

The two of you are as bad as each other, one sees no evil, the other sees evil everywhere......

well balanced then:D

schemingbohemia · 18-02-2015 04:13PM

Was at Dalkey Dart Station last night and a guy was having trouble buying tickets on the machine (station not manned). It was only allowing him to buy a return - no single tickets at all. Anyone seen this happen before?

Hilly Bill · 18-02-2015 11:58PM

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Was at Dalkey Dart Station last night and a guy was having trouble buying tickets on the machine (station not manned). It was only allowing him to buy a return - no single tickets at all. Anyone seen this happen before?

Did he press Train tickets and then the first letter of his destination and then select a single ticket?

Irish Rail - Credit Where it's Due

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