Quote:
Originally Posted by berneyarms
The only problem with that is that looking at the current 8 morning peak inbound northern line services that arrive in Connolly before 9am, of their matching services in the new timetable three are actually unchanged, two will be faster and and only three are taking longer.
Similarly looking at the eight commuter services currently leaving Connolly between 16:20 and 18:40, of the corresponding services in the new timetable two will be faster, one will be the same, three will take a minute longer and only two will be 2-5 minutes longer.
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The existing journey times for northern line commuter services are already uninspiring having been incrementally increased in nearly every recent timetable iteration.
Of the 36 southbound trains originating at stations north of Malahide on Mondays to Fridays, incidentally exactly the same number as in the existing timetable, 13 have an unchanged or reduced journey time while 23 have an increased journey time. The greatest reduction in journey time is 4 minutes. The increases in journey times are 18, 15, 12, 7, then several of six minutes, several of 5 minutes and so on down to 1 minute. In terms of congestion penalty the worst affected trains are the 0615 from Belfast, 0755 from Dundalk, 1400 ex Dundalk and 1444 from Drogheda, all of which are 15 to 20 minutes slower than they might otherwise be.
Average speed from Malahide to Connolly in several instances is no more than 20 mph including the so called "new" express from Dundalk.
In fact the whole railway from Malahide and Howth to Greystones delivers very few services averaging more than 20 mph. The average speed of a Malahide to Greystones DART in the new timetable is 19.88 mph - less than the average speed of a LUAS between Charlemont and Sandyford !
As I have said before I don't believe this proposed timetable is operationally viable, is economically sensible or will deliver significantly more passengers to the railway. The exercise is misguided and disregards the legitimate expectations of other users and the limitations of the infrastructure. It will probably go ahead but how long it survives remains to be seen especially if it makes services even less reliable than at present.