[17-12-2007] Dart Delays
 

Anyone know what was going on this morning on the Dart.

Arrived at 8:44 to Clontarf Road travelling to Pearse

Next train, 21 minutes to Bray, 27 to Greystones.

Going by the PIS, the Greystones train overtook the Bray train which remained at 21 minutes.

The only hint as to why anyone had to wait was a PA annoucement because of a signalling problem in Connolly delaying the outbound train to Malahide.

Eventually the Bray train moved magically to 11. minutes while an announcement was made whilst the Enterprise passed, thus inaudible.

It stayed at 6 minutes for about 3 minute

Eventually 4 packed carriages arrived at 9:18, made a painfully slow trip to Connolly with customary train driver swap at Fairview.

Oh, and a commuter train passed going north whilst I waited in Clontarf with the front display reading Rosslare.

Will be riding my bike tomorrow.

Signal failure this morning - not as bad as the 3 hour delays on the Maynooth line 9am-12pm! Yes, 3 hours, I was told by one of the girls working with me.

Best guess is the points at the Maynooth line junction went on the blink, you can just about keep the DART line up but Maynooth is a problem, thankfully the Midland line was used to keep trains moving

Issue at Maynooth was a separate mechanical failure

Delays
 

I heard that the fire brigade were called to a train at Clonsilla at approx 10.30 am with reports of smoke issuing from beneath the train. Might explain some of the delays on the Maynooth Line !

Was on the DART this morning going between Raheny and Tara St and vice versa this evening. My god, I can not believe how slow the train goes between Clontarf Rd and Tara St. I would reckon that the train is doing an average speed of less than 10 mpg.

Heard anything else on this matter....

It is painful alright.

I board every morning at Clontarf when I am on the day shift. I guess it is understandable with the amount of lines converging on Connolly, but it is infuriatingly slow. However the driver swap at Fairview is an absolute joke. On Saturday last I was waiting on the inbound platform when I noticed an outbound Dart stopped at Fairview and the driver made his way into the depot. The train remained there for about 6 minutes until another driver made his way out of the depot and boarded the train and left.

When my Dart arrived, it also swapped drivers and made its slow progress into Connolly. Luckily for me, I was travelling to Bray on Saturday so it was refreshing to travel at much higher speeds than what I am use to when working.

However people tend not to complain. Its just the way it works. On a busy morning, and with a slight downhill gradient to the city, I will always beat the train to work on my bike.

When I was standing under a 29k I had the flaw which triggered last years fires pointed out, they fixed it so its not that. That said smoke doesn't mean fire, if the air intake blocks up you get loads of smoke

So the delays were 9am-12pm, fire brigade called out at 10.30am? Sounded like there were more than 1 factor in the problems yesterday?

Was heading home on the 18.17 Connolly Longford last night. Had just missed the 18.08 Connolly Maynooth which left at 18.20. The Longford train was not too bad leaving Connolly about 7 minutes late but it was stuck behind the delayed 18.08 and crawled the whole way to Clonsilla, arriving about twenty minutes late.

There also seemed to be problems with the Drogheda line something to do with an earlier train failure?