05.15 Athlone to Dublin
 

As a regular user of this service I have come to notice the train is often late.If fact if I am to be picky,taking anything from 2 to 5 minutes to count as late ( which I realize IE dont !!) then the service is actually late every day.I cant understand how one of the first trains of the day to be recieved by Heuston can be late all the time other than the delay being caused by train staff.On regular occasions the train gets as far as Heuston & then sits waiting for 5 or 10 minutes on an outbound train ! Good god can IE not even synchronize the simple arrival and departure of 2 trains. Am I to assume that these delays will only get worse during the upcomming "improvement" works !

A frequent complaint from IE drivers is that the signalling dept. are responsible for this. (ctc etc.)

Well there is a lot of movement at 7:10 and the Athlone train heads to P6/7/8 you have to sit outside Heuston if any train is leaving 6/7/8 before you can arrive

It just bad planning really

Monday 5:15 was the last cravens run ever so at least the heat is likely to work from now on

That I could understand,but the 05.15 Athlone to Dublin usually docks on platform 2.This regular delay outside Heuston combined with the fact that the train seems to stop for 4 to 5 minutes at each stop usually leads to a stampede when the train eventually arrives in Dublin ! the joys of commuting !

Sorry to reopen an oldish thread but how many are using this service?

Well, ive been studying this one recently and I spoke to Mark about it and we have an update.

This train has nothing in to front of it, but is allowed, in the new timetable, a whopping 41 minutes from Sallins to Heuston. Apart from the obvious intercity padding that IE apply to what is essentially a commuter train, the only reason for the delay outside Heuston (which is now timetabled) is the fact that it has to wait for the departure of the 07.00hrs Cork train to depart, due to a track conflict. Cork train crosses the track that Athlone train needs to arrive. Pure and simple. But baloney also.

Sometimes I think that decades of under investment served us better.

This service has a good up take at Newbridge,Sallins & Celbridge.Since the introduction of the "new" timetable this train in general is running very well (kiss of death) but I have noticed that although it is leaving 10 minutes earlier than it used to it is also getting in 10 min earlier,so what happened to the allowed delay for improvement works !