29K still on Sligo and not even cleaned

[joey]

29k this morning back from Dublin. It's a long jaunt on a commuter train back to Sligo. Particularly when there Is a four car set of 22k stationed at Longford all weekend.

It's ok saying go for a later train but the next one is 1pm, was there ever a 1100ex Dublin on a Sunday?

[maloner]

The last train out of Connolly is 19:05 - a tad early even for the early birds... why are there no later services to Mullingar if not Sligo?

[Mark Gleeson]

That's a long story, other than to say politicians wanted to keep the 1805 express to Longford

[James Howard]

Although I no longer use it due to the discomfort level of the 29K, the 1805 to Longford is far more important to Mullingar and Longford commuters than a potentially later service. Most normal people do not finish work in time for the 1705 so the 1805 is the peak evening commuter service. There would be hell to pay if it was cancelled and saying "politicians want to keep" it means that for once in their life politicians in the area might actually be doing their job.

We already lost the admittedly useless 1817ish service from Connolly so a two hour gap in the evening Longford commuter service would be completely unacceptable and would be the best way Irish Rail could go about killing the viability of the Longford commute.

A much better idea would be to discontinue the 1715 stopping service to Longford which is of little use beyond Maynooth. The train could turn around in Maynooth and be back in Connolly in time to run a 2005 (or 2105) to Longford. All this would cost would be a couple of hours of driver time and would massively improve the service. It could potentially fill in for an existing later Maynooth service which might allow them to let another driver off earlier so it wouldn't even cost that.

[berneyarms]

It was the 18:17 that was the issue at the time - politicians insisted on its continuing to Longford instead of turning back at Enfield and operating a later service.

Cost cutting subsequently saw that service curtailed to Maynooth.

There was never a question of the 18:05 being curtailed.

[James Howard]

Getting rid of the 1817 was an eminently sensible idea. I would say that in 8 years of commuting while it was running I took it about three times. It was made even worse by the associated need to run a up-train late at night to get a set back to Dublin after they started the 0545 from Sligo.

They could do a similar optimisation as I suggested with the 1715 and seriously improve the service to commuters for a relatively small extra running cost. I do agree that the Longford commuter service (to Mullingar at least) would seriously benefit and probably attract significant extra custom if there was the option of a later service down.

[joey]

Was there ever a service ex Dublin on a Sunday between 0900 and 1305?
Given the 0900 is always a 29k it's a long time to wait until 1305 for the next, or either sit 4 hours on a bus departing at 1100

[maloner]

a 2005 (or 2105) to Longford/Mullingar would be fantastic.

I agree on the comments regarding the important earlier commuter services. If you want to go for dinner or a pint right now you are totally snookered if you miss the 17:05 - my vote would be for the 21:05

Originally Posted by James Howard

Although I no longer use it due to the discomfort level of the 29K, the 1805 to Longford is far more important to Mullingar and Longford commuters than a potentially later service. Most normal people do not finish work in time for the 1705 so the 1805 is the peak evening commuter service. There would be hell to pay if it was cancelled and saying "politicians want to keep" it means that for once in their life politicians in the area might actually be doing their job.

We already lost the admittedly useless 1817ish service from Connolly so a two hour gap in the evening Longford commuter service would be completely unacceptable and would be the best way Irish Rail could go about killing the viability of the Longford commute.

A much better idea would be to discontinue the 1715 stopping service to Longford which is of little use beyond Maynooth. The train could turn around in Maynooth and be back in Connolly in time to run a 2005 (or 2105) to Longford. All this would cost would be a couple of hours of driver time and would massively improve the service. It could potentially fill in for an existing later Maynooth service which might allow them to let another driver off earlier so it wouldn't even cost that.