any thoughts on the new draft timetable?
 

So does anyone here (maynooth/m3 line users?) have any thoughts on the new draft timetale for 2011?

Main points:

Maynooth services-

Monday to Friday outbound:

A few minor changes to current Dublin-Maynooth services between 5am-9am a few minutes either side. nothing major

after 9am though services to maynooth will revert to hourly starting with the 9:30 pearse Maynooth and departing at approx :40 hourly up until the 14:38 departure

after that it reverts to the current peak services starting with the 15:10 ex pearse with a few minor changes to curremt departure times nothing major up until 19:00, after that the late departures from pearse to maynooth are put back by approx 10 minutes with the 21:55 pushed back to 22:12. The last service remains the 23:10 ex pearse.

Saturday outbound:

Services to maynooth operate hourly at approx :40 starting with the 07:45 pearse maynooth up until 19:40 at which stage will revert to the current late departures (the 20:08, 21:10, 22:12 and 23:10 departures from pearse) The majority of services will depart pearse with the exception being the 15:44 which will start in connolly at that time.

Sunday outbound:

will depart pearse hourly at approx :40 (exception being the 10:30) starting with the 08:40 right up to the last train at 20:45.

maynooth line inbound
 

Maynooth Monday to Friday inbound:

Few changes to Morning peak services, a couple of minutes either side nothing major up until the 09:41 departure.

After that Maynooth line services depart hourly from pearse at :40 up until the 15:40 departure.

After that its a general frequency of 30-40 minutes up until the 21:05 after which there are the 22:05 and 23:10 departures

Also the 17:00 Maynooth Wexford will now additionally stop at clonsilla departing there at 17;13

Saturday inbound:

First trains from Maynooth at 6:58 and 7:58

After that hourly departures at :40 up until the 20.40

Last departures are the 21.05, 22.05 and 23.10

Sunday inbound:

First departure from Maynooth at 09:40

Then hourly at approx :40 up until last departure at 21:40

Off-peak services to/from Maynooth soon only hourly? Methinks I'll be getting to know Dublin Bus (and my car) a little better. :mad:

Off peak currently is a complex mess of hourly and some extra trains, but is generally only hourly

Proposed timetable is hourly Maynooth Connolly, hourly M3 Connolly with all stops served

So in reality Coolmine for example now has a train every 30 minutes off peak which is a significant improvement.

The new timetable is really good for passengers clonsilla and beyond. Okay clonsilla had a huge number of departures but they were bunched together and most going to docklands and non-stop. The new timetable is a massive improvement now that they are spread out.

Just to clarify, most (95%) of maynooth trains will operate to and from pearse with most m3 parkway trains (peak hour m3 trains will still run to docklands) to connolly

will the M3-Connolly trains serve Drumcondra?

Yes

In that case I think I'll be leaving the car on-street as much as I do now.

Basically here's my interest in this:
I live in Drumcondra and about once a week I take a late morning / early afternoon train into the city to change to a DART to go Southside. Return that afternoon or very early in the rush hour.

Trains run inbound approx. every 40 minutes or so, take it to Pearse (indoor waiting area) to wait for next DART. Not exactly turn-up-and-go frequency but acceptable. Going home, I take the DART to Connolly, as in addition to trains running (not so frequently) from Pearse to Maynooth, there is as often as not a Maynooth bound train waiting in the sheds. Never had to wait more than ~22 minutes for this connection.

But certainly a train every 30 minutes will definitely be an improvement, i.e. if I can use M3 trains as well as Maynooth ones.

The "bunching" AFAIK was to allow passenger to use Clonsilla as a transfer station, i.e. passengers going between the M3 line and Pearse/Drumcondra. I once did this going to - and from - Dunboyne.

All off peak m3 parkway trains will call a drumcondra.

M3 parkway services To Connolly (10-3 weekdays) and to pearse (all weekend services) will all call at drmcondra

Is there a link to the proposed timetable somewhere?

There is a link to the PDF file on the comments page here:
http://irishrail.ie/contact_us/conno...e_comments.asp

I wouldn't get too excited though. I used to have a great sense of expectation every year coming up to the new timetable because I had some kind of misguided notion that in return for millions of euro for track renewal, new rolling stock, resignalling and level-crossing automation that they might manage to shave 5 or 10 minutes of the Longford - Dublin running time.

Now, in fairness we do have more services so I suppose that is progress and they took 10 minutes of the 7ish AM Longford departure by making it an express, but that is the only progress I have seen in 7 years of commuting. Oh, and I can plug my laptop in now and sometimes I even get power.

Somebody once told me that they had seen a Sligo line timetable from 1906 and the running time for an express was within 5 minutes of the current value - I think it might have been 2 or 3 minutes quicker back then.

Draft timetable is here http://www.irishrail.ie/contact_us/c...e_comments.asp

As Irish Rail have been known to change the timetable best not link directly to the pdf

The average Dublin Sligo time today is less than the best time in 1973 (a significant year in terms of timetabling following the McKinsey report of 1971) which was achieved with fewer stops and on a single train only. I'd be guessing the 1900's era would have been at least an hour longer, the line was double track most of the way back then

Its easy poke fun at the journey times but the average times have come down significantly over the last 10 years and that is the really important measure. The problem currently is clearly the waits at stations to pass other trains

But may not necessarily have been as safe or comfortable and would have been less disrupted by level crossings.