6:30 Portlaoise Heuston - Cancelled until further notice
 

Title says it all

6:30 Portlaoise
6:39 Portarlington
6:44 Monestervin
6:53 Kildare
6:58 Newbridge
7:08 Sallins
7:18 Hazelhatch
7:40 Heuston

Passengers from Portlaoise get the 6:51 which makes extra stop Monestervin
Passengers from Kildare inwards 6:59 ex Kildare

Details of all cancellations http://forum.platform11.org/showthread.php?t=3790

0651 already calls Monasterevin. Additional stop has been at Portarlington (but whizzed passed us this morning - did the 0630 run?)

LC

the 0630 from Portlaoise ran this morning.

Irish Rail management issued a proposal in the last few days, serious meeting today with Phil Flynn

Bear in mind Irish Rail have been very slow to issue the proposal thats the real reason things have dragged on

It looks like something funny happened this morning. The 0640 Newbridge-Heuston service was late by 15 minutes. When it did show up it was the Mk3 set and not a 29k as it is usually. When it got to Heuston, the Mk3 set was advertised as the (delayed) 0735 service to Kildare. I think the 29k was out of service this morning (and known about in advance) and they might have used that driver to drive the 0630 service?

The 6.30 has run everyday this week....and late (no surprise there then). It was a brand new intercity train (not with the high speed engine). On monday it stopped at Clondalkin..tuesday was direct to Heuston.


Today it ran all over the shop....for hazelhatch at least

At 7.20 -Announcement said 7.18 train delayed by 15 mins due to operational difficulties.
2 mins later announcement said 7.22 train delayed by 20 mins due to technical difficulties

At 7.35 the 7.18 train rolled in with only 2 carraiges!! Packed to the rafters...most people could not get on the train. Train doors close and it pulled off.

5 mins later another new train passed through the station (no idea what train this was as I've never seen this before)...half full.

At 7.42 -Announcement said 7.43 train was delayed by 10 mins due to operational difficulties

at 7.45ish the 7.22 train pulls into hazelhatch (now with passengers for 3 trains). Again a mad scrum for the doors...i think most people got on though.

Train then stopped in Adamstown and again there was madness with people trying to push their way onto the train (understandably as they were probably waiting the guts of 30 mins for the train)

Questions I have to ask are:
1 Why send a train with only 2 carraiges at peak time?
2 Why not stop the ghost train to allow the people onto the train..IR knew trains were late..knew there was a build up of people on platforms...but still let peopl try to crush onto already full trains.
3 What were the operational difficulties??And the technical difficulties?

The 6:30 operated as a 3 coach train this morning it should have been 6 but the second set of coaches where unserviceable which may explain the cause of the delays

Had the train run on time despite only 3 coaches it would have been reasonably adequate, there where 184 seats more today than last Wednesday, so the overcrowding was a function of the delay

The second new train is the early morning train from Limerick, it has to be in Heuston to operate the 8:20 to Westport, the 7:18 has a clear line ahead so the Limerick train would lose a further 5 minutes if it stopped, resulting in a knock on to the Westport train delaying trains incoming yet further.

Once again a total mess, once the 4 track is finished 4 of the 5 trains an hour will start from Hazelhatch making what happened this morning impossible

Just to confirm we expect the 6:30 service to be cancelled again shortly, either tomorrow or Tuesday next

It ran this morning but it was a 3 car 22k set and was very late.