[Mark Gleeson]

The train in question is the 22:45 to Kildare and they need another driver trained to cover the roster changes that result in its extension to Port Laoise (further hour driving), this was not unexpected (daily driving hours and milage are restricted) and it does take 70 weeks to train a driver, thats best practice and has been subjected to safety evaluation as have the rostering arrangements, drivers don't get extra for working at night nor do they have a say when they work.

This is not a simple problem, even the off peak timetable is proving complex to arrange, it is principally designed for 9am to 4pm (since there are spare trains in Dublin) but the approach would work at a lesser scale after 7:30 as well (train fleet is then well beyond Dublin), the main criticism of the current timetable is the big gaps in the afternoon, our current draft proposal would more than double the number of trains calling at Monasterevin (and a lot of other places) and provides a clockface timetable across all routes integrating with Irish Rails proposed new Cork/Limerick timetable as well as good connections.

The principle problem is 2 tracks out of Dublin, anywhere else would have 4 tracks which solves all the timetabling ills

German railways are nowhere near as punctual as many believe