Punctuality Woes

[James Howard]

The punctuality on the Sligo line has been absurd for more than two months now -as is the norm at this time of year. Every year, the journey time gets a minute or two longer, the prices go up by 5 or 6 % and the punctuality gets worse. And until last year, this has been while investing millions into the line. What is going on?

Miraculously, this all gets fixed over the Christmas break and everything gets back to the normal 5 minutes late or so. We go through the exact same thing every year.

The official punctuality on the Sligo line is under 80% and the real punctuality of the evening peak services as far as Longford has to be well under 50%. Maybe I get the one train that is always late, but my personal experience is under 25%.

I'm on the 1705 Connolly to Sligo departing Maynooth 20 minutes late and we'll meet the 1505 from Sligo at some random point which will as usual make every down train on the line somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes later.