Why do the Cork-Dublin train have lower spec carriages than Heuston-Newbridge trains?
 

I get the Heuston-Newbridge train most mornings and I love the AC power point under the table (all carriages) but recently got the Cork-Dublin train and was very surprised not to see the same facility in the standard carriages?

Why is that I wonder? Surely the main intercity trains should be higher spec than commuter trains?

They are of a slightly older design.

There is an AC unit at the end of every carriage (across from the WC doors) and I think another one near the seats 1-8. Im not aware of any other AC unit in the main carriages but someone else maybe able to provide more information.
First does have an AC unit at every table.

Behind seats 5/6 in standard have a power socket

The Dublin Cork train is in theory designed to a higher specification than the rest of the fleet, build quality lets it down

Kildare to Cork
 

Am sure this has been brought up before but i cant find it

Would someone please give me a satisfactory answer as to why there are not more stops at Kildare for intercity trains to cork and vice versa
A driver in Heuston told me it was something to do with the model of train thats used as it takes too long to stop. Why the big population of Co Kildare has to travel to Dublin or portlaoishe to get a train to cork is unbelievable!! if they cant use the Mark 2 trains then use other ones

The cork trains would lose time by going from 90-100 mph to stopping and then building it back up again. I could see up to 5 mins being wasted.

I do find the Mark 4 stop more gradually compared to the 22000 that once the brakes are put on the speed drops very fast. Most lightly to do with the 22000 being DMU and the Mark 4 being push/pull.

The DMUs have multiple sets of powered wheels which helps with acceleration - the Mark 4 sets only have the locomotive which means the amount of power you can put on (and thus acceleration) is limited by wheelslip. Additionally there is customer sensitivity to Heuston-Cork times so it's better that other trains make the stops than the Mark 4s.

Another factor is that most people making trips from Kildare will be heading to Dublin, not Cork.

At one stage there was very heavy traffic from Kildare to provincial destinations. The current timetable doesn't really facilitate such business.

IE are still trying to stick to the original idea of having as few stops on the Cork Dublin Express as possible. IMO too many stop in Templemore, now but they are trying to provide the two hour service to as many places as they can with more limits on the resources they were envisiging back when the 22K fleet purchase was announced. We were explicitly told when the housrly service came in that we would be goign to thurles for a train every two hours to cork, cant say that is too unreasonable, same applies to kildare.

I think the Dublin-Cork trains are starting to look very shabby, A lot of the seat covers are showing loads of wear, the floor carpet is worn, none of the internal doors work any more. I wonder is there going to be a refurbishment programme and then they could retrofit power sockets.

Haven't the internal doors been removed?

To be honest, my main problem with it is the flakiness of the WiFi. You only feel about 70% confident that it will be working in your carriage.

Wellllll... I suppose someone could approach Ikea about redoing the interior like they did a Paris Metro station
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Apart from that I can't see there being money to pull the Mark 4s into dry dock just yet! Maybe if they finally found a ride quality fix at the same time?

One of the problems with modern furnishings on rail vehicles is that they tend to be selected on flammability rather than comfort grounds. In Toronto they just retired the H4 subway cars, horrible things with rattly narrow doors, rattly overhead fans rather than aircon and so on... but they had squishy seats so at least some people do actually wish they had been kept instead of the hard seats with a thin bit of fabric you get now.

i took the Mrk4 a few weeks ago and compaired to my usual 22K i found the seats to be a lot better.

the doors were there on my train, but locked open. i think removing the curtains was a bad move. that said, and i know about small tables, sests not matching up with windows and so on, but I prefer the Mrk4 anyday to the 22K comfort wise.

Talking of small tables, what is the reason for the set of seats that has a table about the size of a plank of wood? It can't be as simple as there not being room for a bigger table as when I had my laptop on it I couldn't reach it.

It's to allow easier access to the seats. Those seats are marked as priority seats

The curtains were pulled as they swayed around which contributed to motion sickness due to the poor suspension

I had forgotten about the curtains, I am glad they are gone, I hated the way you could end up with a face full of curtain if you dozed off.

Looking at the seats again, it is the armrests which are looking very bald with a lot of the nap of the material worn away, but as you said with fire retardant being the main factor, last quality was not perhaps taken into account as much.

there was a loop one could use to hold back the curtains, but classic way of IE to address the motion sickness issue.

I quite liked the curtains, they were very useful if you found yourself on the sunny side of the train.

I think on VIA Rail they have a top wire and a bottom wire so the curtain, stretched between the wires, is basically wiggled along the bottom wire to get the desired openness but never flaps.