So how do Irish Rail or the NTA do market research? This is normally the first step in trying to provide a better service to a customer. If there is no way of getting the customer's opinion on whether a service is useful, then you run a very strong chance of getting things wrong.
Take for example, the delay of the 0800 Greystones departure - the single busiest train on the network. A 4 minute change might seem inconsequential but for many people, it is not feasible to regularly turn up at the office at 4 minutes past 9 for a 9 o'clock start. How does an organisation with any degree of customer focus end up producing such a change?
Constraints or not, if you can't change things for the better, then leave them be. The whole 10 minute DART thing is a wheeze to be able to have an "improvement" to point at to justify more NTA money.
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