22K power sockets

[Ballymore]

No available working plug to be found in the front carriage of 7.27 from Mullingar this morning either. Thought it had improved over the last few days but obviously there is still a problem. Has anyone contacted IR to see what the 'official line' is?

[Mark Gleeson]

The manager involved has not responded yet

[James Howard]

Last week the pattern was that the first car was working and nothing else was. I noticed that the first car was gone on Tuesday but found the the second car is now working

I don't think it is deliberate - the trips just aren't being reset often enough. It isn't difficult to trip an rcd particularly on a carpeted floor if wearing runners. If the carriage breaker is faster than the plug one, then it they are going to trip once a week or so.

It seems to me that when a car goes, it stays gone for a week or two. I think that basically either the drivers can't be bothered to reset the trips or there is a row going on where some or all of the drivers don't consider it to be part of their duties.

[Ballymore]

No power again this morning, different carriage same story!

[lambo77]

For the last few months there has been no power at the tables on the Sligo-Connolly service. I have let the conductor know twice but nothing is ever done about it.
Was just told maintainence is not up to scratch.

Can anything be done?

[James Howard]

You can generally find power in one or two cars. This week there seems to be power on the Sligo end car on the first train up. This is an absurd situation and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the root of the problem is drivers not doing what they consider to be maintenance work.

[Thomas Ralph]

You're doing well. Normally there isn't a conductor to complain to, or he's in the other set.

[Mark Gleeson]

The story made the Irish Times yesterday after we released a press release

http://www.railusers.ie/news/news.ph...2011&no=6.html

I'm told a question has been submitted in the Dail to seek answers.

Its clear there is something quite badly wrong with the wiring setup on the trains. The problem is the circuit breaker for the middle coaches is behind a locked panel and is not visible unless the panel is opened, in the driving cabs the fuse panel is behind a perspex door behind the drivers seat so it is easier to spot. That said in general staff are not allowed to reset a circuit breaker unless instructed to do so by maintenance staff.



Please ensure you push the test button before use to reset the socket

[James Howard]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

You're doing well. Normally there isn't a conductor to complain to, or he's in the other set.

The morning Sligo up train has been a 6 car set with a corridor all the way through pretty much every morning for the last year and the conductor is usually on between Mullingar and Maynooth.

I think I've detected a bit of a pattern with Irish Rail

• Millions spent replacing rolling stock where the biggest new feature is power sockets. Power sockets don't work most of time
• Millions spent resignalling the Sligo line. No improvement in running times
• Millions spent putting in 4 tracks to Kildare. No overtaking

Could it perhaps be that Irish Rail is a little bit inefficient? Perhaps we could just buy Dick Fearn & Co a nice shiny Thomas the Tank Engine train set and let some people who care more about customers that projects get on with running the network.

[Ballymore]

No power as usual this morning - maybe if they leave it unaddressed IR think we'll just get used to it like all the rest of the things they make a hash of.
I've never seen so many employees employed to do so little :-)

Also noticed a few shattered windows in one carriage this morning (7.26 from Mullingar).

[Mark Gleeson]

The railway safety commission is looking into this as well following a complaint from us

They tend to get things sorted quickly

Advice here is simple, travel in the front coach, and tell driver at next stop, he has access to the trip switch

It is unacceptable and we have made that very clear in our press release, which did reach the Irish Times

Sadly don't know anyone in the depot in Portlaoise so we can't get an inside line. For reference I've spoken to a senior driver recently and he knew nothing about this problem despite driving ICR's all day

[Ballymore]

Power is still hit and miss on these trains. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you dont :-)

[James Howard]

It does seem a bit better over the last couple of weeks. Power seems to be working in about half of the cars on the Sligo line. But I think the improvement is just because somebody is now resetting the breakers because I've now seen the power drop out twice.

Oddly enough, on both occasions the train was stationary - once while waiting to pull out of Connolly and the second time while stuck in Enfield for an hour. Probably just a co-incidence.

[Mark Gleeson]

Don't underestimate the power of media embarrassment

Clearly something wrong and needs to be fixed

[Mark Gleeson]

Update on the power socket debacle

So by now we should all know that there are serious problems with the power sockets on the intercity fleet. Irish Rail fitted a new circuit breaker to cover this problem but this doesn't get on well with the existing sockets

1. The sockets are to be replaced

2. Pressing the test button on the current socket is likely to actually cause the power to trip out as it simulates a fault condition which the new circuit breaker is detecting and tripping out the whole coach before the socket in question reacts.

=> DONT PUSH TEST

Thanks to our friends in the Rail Safety Commission for giving us a straight answer that Irish Rail refused to give.

[James Howard]

There is definitely something badly wrong with the earthing on these cars. I took out two cars last week when I forgot my normal laptop power cable and so used my European one with an Irish adapter.

The lack of earth tripped it immediately. The first time, I assumed that it had just gone, but after I moved and the second car tripped out I decided to stop moving.

So, my apologies to anybody on the Sligo line last week struggling without power on the set with the dining car. Mea Culpa.

I've also noticed a problem with noise on my headphones when charging my phone on USB. This noise clears up if I touch the metal trim on my phone.

[peterh]

Originally Posted by James Howard

Does anybody know if there is a problem with the passenger power sockets on 22K trains? Both yesterday and today I had no power at my seat two different trains. Yesterday morning, I moved car and there was still no power.

All three cars had engines running and all lights on, and I fiddled with the circuit breaker buttons.

The last time i used the service(last July) I plugged in my DS charger and it worked. How often does the sockets now work? I rarely use my laptop or DS on these trains

[Mark Gleeson]

It depends its probably about 70-80% currently working

Its a trip switch being a little over eager to address a defect in the sockets.

DO NOT use the test button on the sockets, thats what causes the trip to happen

[James Howard]

There still doesn't appear to be much progress on this. If anything I think the tripping out has got worse - I've had power go twice in the last month while using it. But they do seem to have go a bit better about resetting them as they don't seem to stay out for more than a day or two now.

[Ballymore]

Getting harder and harder to find carriages with power. Often have to travel through 3 or 4 carriages these days.