[22/01/2013 AM Delays on Northern Suburban line

[Mark Gleeson]

Through Connolly DART is close to 70% of business by volume

Its the least loss making part of the business and has delivered a profit in the past. Plus its a mass transit system so holding a train to sneak a delayed train in results in a ripple which results in overcrowding situations, delayed arrival at destination and then delayed departure. On a regular basis when my morning DART is late a Maynooth train is allowed ahead of us, DART was late missed its slot

By timetable Commuter/Intercity are for the most part allocated a path which is fast, if they are late then the fun begins.

From my experience a large portion of delays on DART can be traced to an commuter/intercity delay, late Rosslare train, incoming train from Maynooth and so on. Both major delays I have had this week were directly traced to these cases.

Howth Junction works on first come first served, unless manually overridden, so first train in section gets the junction