Originally Posted by Inniskeen (Post 67437)

You say passenger numbers cross-border are down - hardly a surprise given the three month closure of the line at Malahide. Before that the largely gratuitous disruptions associated with the Tolka bridge renewal and the so called DART upgrade project severely depressed weekend business due to the tsunami of weekend line closures. Add to that the laughable management and scheduling of services between Drogheda and Dublin and I think Irish Rail might well be in the picture when it comes to accessing the performance of the Enterprise service.

As regards cross-border numbers my understanding is that there has been a modest recovery in usage unlike many other routes that are either gently or preciptively declining.

As regards being a glorified commuter service what do you imagine the Galway, Waterford, Rosslare, Limerick and Sligo services are ? Whar about the 0505 from Cork or the 1900 or 2100 services from Heuston. More glorified commuter services perhaps ?

Yes the Irish Rail mantra is that all the problems with the Enterprise are the fault of NIR - as a regular user this is not my experience. While there are issues with the coaching stock from time to time, the Enterprise sets are probably the most intensively used rolling stock in the country, one set making three return Belfast/Dublin trips each day. While the ride quality is often poor (especially south of the border) it is not generally inferior to the Mk4s on the Cork line. Ambience wise (somewhat subject on my part) the De-Dietrich coaches are way better than the Mk4s.

Irish Rail are, I understand, responsible for locomotive maintenace. Not sure of the ratio of coaching stock issues to locomotive/head end power failures, but suffice it to say that locomotive failures are orders of magnitude more common than when the service was powerd by 071/111 class locomotives.

To be a bit more positive there has been a noticeable improvement in punctuality in recent months due to a number of factors including a large reduction in the number of slacks south of the border and some shift in the Irish Rail's slowest train first policy.

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 67434)

Seat reservations are available, a ticket is never a guarantee of a seat.

Originally Posted by dowlingm (Post 67977)

how much space does the generator take up in an EGV? Could bikes be carried inside it for instance?

Originally Posted by ACustomer (Post 71560)

The original Paris-Lyon TGV sets were built between 1978 and 1984, and are still going strong with at least one mid-life upgrade: rolling stock that old would have our pathetic journalists going on about clapped-out trains!

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 71589)

It gets a hard time as the service is a disgrace, the worst rail service I have had to misfortune to have to use

This evening, there was not a single enterprise train of any type (even the backup train Irish Rail rolled out to replace from 16:50 failure) in motion, one broke down in Connolly 16:50, one went on fire north of Newry 18:05 and the third was abandoned in Newry 19:00, as they needed the locomotive to move the train that had gone on fire. The replacement for the first breakdown, a 29k is stuck behind the train went on fire as the 20:10 ex Belfast

I'd bet good money it was the HEP and the Mk3 gen van would have prevented this.

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 71591)

Won't be seen again I'd imagine, lots of 201's lying around

208 died in Connolly, didn't appear to be a spare locomotive available, no sign of anyone working to fix it at 6pm