2013 Heuston & Regional Draft Timetable

[Mark Gleeson]

DART delays mainly originated from the Gorey Connolly service being late

[Jamie2k9]

Exact same problems today a little worse infact. Of course they had staff counting passengers as they boarded but just how many days will they need to count before they do something?

They had 18.25 to Portlaose on 2, 18.35 on 8 (no PA announcements but lots for 18.25 service until it left..) and 18.50 on 4 with no train on the platform.

[Inniskeen]

DART delays mainly originated from the Gorey Connolly service being late.

The Gorey service was early into Connolly !

[Mark Gleeson]

But it was 10 late out of Greystones which caused all kinds of problems

Arrival in Connolly was exactly on time, not early

[Inniskeen]

It was logged as marginally early, but on time is also a fair description. Mind you despite leaving Greystones late it would have been anything up to ten minutes early but for the DART in front. DART imposes a twenty minute time penalty on diesel services between Greystones and Connolly and in effect makes a credible service from Wicklow and points south almost impossible.

[Jamie2k9]

Looks the new timetable got off to a very good start with most Cork to Dublin services running either on time or early. The exceptions were the 0920, 1320 and 1720 ex Cork which were 5, 13 and 14 minutes late respectively.

Galway, Westport and Waterford to Dublin trains likewise generally ran on time or early, the principal exception being the 0605 from Waterford which was 7 minutes late.

06.05 Waterford-Heuston 08.11
Monday - 08.20
Tuesday - 08.50
Wednesday - 08.16
Thursday - 08.20
Friday - 08.17

Two major problems:
Waterford-Thomastown = 21 mins, timetabled to take 19 because the signiling records they use are nowhere near Thomastown same as the Realtime on website. They are just north of Ballyhale. Most trains make the time up between Thomastwon-Kilkenny as they have 2-3 mins to play around with but the 06.05 does not.

2 speed restrictions:
One betwen Thomastown-Lavistown of 40mph one there less than a week, the other being on the Dublin line at lavistown 25mph which has being in place since October and that was cleared for higer speed heading to Dublin so no mainly its a crawl from Kilkenny until it passes there which makes it very hard to complete Kilkenny-Muine Bheag in 14 minutes and other services have all 15 which works. Didn't expect it to take months to fix the alignment problem.

If Lavistown isn't fixed soon then they will have to revert to an 06.00 departure as its the only way to get in on time.

Between this and 18.35 shambles not a good week, I wonder if they will have a 6 car this evening given its a Friday know IE i expect not.

[Jamie2k9]

Mark any chance you could get IE to give you passenger loadings on the 18.30 to Galway since it started. It was literally empty leaving Heuston last night. It needs to serve Newbridge as I only realised that IE are in breach of their safety notices on the 18.35 to Waterford. Can't wait to hear there response to me on that one.

[Mark Gleeson]

As far as we are aware Irish Rail is operating all service within all current safety rules

Standing limits are not defined in any Irish or EU law or regulation and the NTA make no reference in its contracts

[Mark Gleeson]

The company is effectively bankrupt.

There is a 6 million per annum cost associated with the routine overhaul of the ICR fleet, but cutting the fleet size a saving of 3 million was achieved as a once off in 2012.

The 21 stored coaches are not certified for use as they have reached time/mileage limits.

We have discussed several problem trains with Irish Rail management, 18:35 is top of the list for resolution

[karlr42]

Will the stored coaches ever get overhauled? Or is this a timebomb as more sets are stored when they reach limits and there are no longer enough sets to operate the timetable?

[Mark Gleeson]

Overhauls are ongoing they are unavoidable they must be done, units to be overhauled are taken from the 21 stored units.

When a unit hits its mileage limits it goes into the 21 pool

[KSW]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

The Gorey service was early into Connolly !

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

DART delays mainly originated from the Gorey Connolly service being late

I thought DART trains take priority over Gorey/Rosslare services!!!