Packed 4-coach 22k this morning

[finnyus]

A 4-car was introduced on the Mallow - Tralee line this morning, operating the 06:45 Cork to Tralee service.

[lambo77]

4 car 29k this evening - the 6:05.pm to Longford. Packed to Kilkock

[James Howard]

Maybe tomorrow night they'll get something off the RPSI for the run. Not looking forward to going back to 29ks for 8 hours a week

[James Howard]

I hope this is going to settle down in a bit - it is just a complete fiasco at this stage. Back to a 4 car 29k yesterday for the 1805 which suits the opposite train a bit better but not much. This morning on the quietest day of the week for the service, the 0545 from Sligo is 2x3 car 22Ks.

I really can't handle going back to spending two hours a day on a 29K. Unfortunately right now, there is no decent evening train home. The 1705 is stupidly over-crowded, the 1805 and the 1815 are 29Ks and the 1905 is just too late to be getting home.

[Mark Gleeson]

I would imagine the 18:05 will become a 4 car set. Certainly would be some standing to Maynooth but it would be about right in size terms.

[James Howard]

A 4-car 22k is perfect for the 1805 but the problem is that the same train then needs to do either the 0540 or the 0615 from Longford the next morning. 6 is definitely too much and 3 would probably do the trick. This train was 3 cars until they stopped the 1817 and it didn't need making longer at that stage as the 1817 never had more than a few dozen passengers beyond Maynooth.

The sensible way to resolve this mess would be make one or both early trains from Longford express from Maynooth and then they could get away with 3 or 4 car ICRs for that train. That would make the entire operation positive for everyone. Perhaps the sensible time to have made these changes would have been over the summer when the traffic is a bit lighter anyway but I guess the guys in maintenance wanted to take holidays.

It is senseless clattering a lightly train 60 miles from Longford to Maynooth and then having it crush-loaded from Clonsilla into town making it uncomfortable and slow for everyone. They could even do away with having the 1715 going past Maynooth without really bothering very many people and run a 3+3 or 3+4 as the 1815 and run it back up in two halves in the morning.

[Jamie2k9]

On my first 4 car set this evening and there was a very noticeable difference in breaking. Not great at coming down from 80-100 to a stop, train pushing forward, slipping back. Driver definitely applying more breaking to stop it. Now it wasn't wheel slip before anybody says it was as I was on a 6 piece set earlier and not a problem. It could just of being it didn't have one of those B1 coaches.