Late Night Christmas DART services

[Inniskeen]

Why would you want to serve all stations from Connolly to Malahide ? Obvious arrangement would be a 0030 to Drogheda, non-stop from Connolly to Clongriffin, followed by a 0035 to Howth serving all stations.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Why would you want to serve all stations from Connolly to Malahide ? Obvious arrangement would be a 0030 to Drogheda, non-stop from Connolly to Clongriffin, followed by a 0035 to Howth serving all stations.

Agreed especially with a diesel, doing an all shacks service would be very slow.

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Why would you want to serve all stations from Connolly to Malahide ? Obvious arrangement would be a 0030 to Drogheda, non-stop from Connolly to Clongriffin, followed by a 0035 to Howth serving all stations.

I fully expect any such service to be DART leading, causing an outbreak of apoplexy among rail-watchers watching the diesel stumble along behind.

[Inniskeen]

Not sure what the previous post means - or am I taking it too seriously ! Still I suppose fare paying punters shouldn't be so ungrateful as to whinge about operational incompetence. Does that meet your definition of apoplexy ?

[Colm Moore]

Actually the DART should go first, followed by the Commuter, such that there is a good connection at Howth Junction. It would mean that people could get from locations other than the city centre.

[Inniskeen]

Ok, fair enough, then DART goes at 0030, Drogheda train at 0045 not the normal nonsense of DART at 0030, and Drogheda train at 0033.

Don't imagine there would be much pick-up business at the intermediate stations but yes why not provide the option. My initial issue was why stop the Drogheda train at all stations between Connolly and Malahide.

Anyway it is all hypothetical as there is no late Drogheda service, although, of course, the Malahide DART could run limited-stop to Howth Junction or do an all stations service at 0100 instead of having northbound departures at 0030 and 0035.

[Traincustomer]

The lateness of the hour that I posted at can be blamed for me not having thought it through fully!

Indeed a Drogheda train could run non-stop between Connolly and Howth Junction with the Howth-bound DART preceding it to give connectional possibilities from Raheny etc...

[karlr42]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Ok, fair enough, then DART goes at 0030, Drogheda train at 0045 not the normal nonsense of DART at 0030, and Drogheda train at 0033.

Seems someone at IE liked that idea, they have a DART-, all stops to Howth at 0130 and a Drogheda train, all stops from Howth Jnc to Drogheda at 0145. New Year's Eve.

http://www.irishrail.ie/xmasdarts

[ThomasJ]

And a 01:40 pearse to maynooth

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Not sure what the previous post means - or am I taking it too seriously ! Still I suppose fare paying punters shouldn't be so ungrateful as to whinge about operational incompetence. Does that meet your definition of apoplexy ?

You see Inniskeen, if it worked too well it might have to be done EVERY YEAR. That would never do

@James Howard: you can get a bus in Toronto at 4am and it costs exactly the same as 4pm. No "public transit sin tax" here.

[James Howard]

Not being familiar with Toronto I don't know if they have the same problems with threatening, abusive and violent behaviour late at night as we have hear but I suspect it isn't as bad.

It is common practice in Ireland to charge extra late at night to pay for security and insurance. This is done for transport, pubs and even in food outlets. This security has to be provided and so has to be paid for.

As somebody who is highly unlikely to take a late night DART, while it is nice to see Irish Rail provide it, I would rather that my already expensive commuter fare not be put towards subsidising a discount late-night DART service. I think that a 12:30 service is one thing and is close enough to normal operating hours that normal fares are reasonable as a one-off, but when you get beyond 1AM, normal price service becomes untenable really. The service this year can probably be written off as an exercise in marketing as way to generate good-will and as a way to judge the feasibility of operating such a service more regularly.

It would also be very nice to see a Friday night service past Maynooth that leaves Dublin later than 1905 but I guess we can whistle for that.

I spent several months in Tokyo about 15 years ago and even they shut down for 4 hours a night leading to quite a few mad nights out where you just stay out until the first train.

[Rashers]

Any feedback on 1st night? I went for a nitelink at 2am, and there was huge demand with completely full buses. Large queues for taxis.

[Mark Gleeson]

I will be on it next Friday hopefully