Journey Times on Maynooth line
 

I was travelling on the Maynooth line this week and was shocked by the poor journey times. From Connolly to M3 Parkway the train never went faster than 45 mph. Despite the 29000 class 75 mph top speed. It reached 45 between Broombridge and Ashtown and Dunboyne to M3 Parkway. The top speed between the rest of the stations was less than 30 mph and station dwell times were more than 1 minute long despite the Maynooth train running 5 minutes late. At Clonsilla I changed for M3 Parkway. The 29000 set in the bay platform had its engines switched off and no driver was present. All passengers of the Maynooth train transferred within about 1 minute. Yet the train did not depart for 8 minutes, so it arrived at Hansfeild 12 minutes late, once again no effort was made to make up the time with the train waiting in the station for more than 1 minute without anyone getting on or off, same happened at Dunboyne.

Are Irish Rail telling drivers to eco drive. eg not to accelerate fast, not to break fast. Do trains have a limited fuel supply that drivers are forced to drive slowly to keep the train running throughout the day. Its crazy how slow the trains are driving on the Maynooth line these days. Without any track upgrades journey times could be greatly reduced.

Overall the journey had an average speed of 18 mph.

Is it possible the train was running close behind a delayed service and thus was having to run slow to avoid red signals? Unfortunately the notion that some sort of fuel saving was going on can't be dismissed, but being late has consequences too.

I don't think Irish Rail exactly bust themselves with the journey times. The 0545 from Sligo this morning was 22 minutes late leaving Maynooth (by my watch), yet arrived into Connolly 7 minutes late. This was with one scheduled stop.