[3-12-2006] Invisible fallen tress

[Mark Gleeson]

So another disaster

So I check online and DART services are running, well Bray Greystones is out, confirm with the binoculars and the display in Pearse reads Bray 12 minutes so I set off at 16:25

Arrive Pearse 16:30 ish, and reach platform 2, plenty of staff around no one said anything

So clock ticks down and it gets to five, then a PA is made that the next northbound train would serve Malahide, the Bray train vanishes from the board 3 minutes later but seconds afterwards a DART with Bray on the front appears from Tara Street into the northbound platform where the driver dumps out the passengers and departs back to Malahide (without changing the destination blind on the back I must add)

So clearly the Bray train has been cancelled, there was no PA no notice, so a small if slightly angry group of us consisting of those waiting and those thrown off the train having crossed over head after the first IE employee we can find who is standing outside the office on the platform

Get the usual crap that he doesn't know, to which I suggest he should find out since the train didn't decide its self to head to Malahide someone made the decision but didn't tell us

The excuse a fallen tree, hmm next train 45 minutes, interesting the trees removal can be choreographed so precisely, of course the tree had in fact been removed over 2 hours before and trains where running so what do I see from the upper deck of a number 7 bus yes a train going north over merrion gates clearly the line was open it was just convenient to IE to leave us in the dark

So despite all the promises another balls up

[zag]

I had planned on picking someone up from the Enteprise on Saturday evening and getting the DART back home. Enterprise arrives late (but at least I could see the likely time from the display over the gates at Connolly) and we make a beeline for platform 6 where there is a DART due in 4 minutes. Everyone rushes up the ramp when they see a train on platform 6, only . . . . it's all very eerily quiet and the train is empty. The display says Bray 2 minutes, then Bray 1 minute, then Bray, then the train glides off in the direction of Clontarf Road. All without so much as a mumble from the overhead announcer.

At this stage I had seen a number of people asking the bouncers (something I had never seen before since I normally take the DART at commuting time) on the platform and had overheard something about the train being broken.

Display reads Bray 13 minutes. Great, maybe I would be better off heading up towards O'Connell Street and getting a bus. Just as I was about to leave (with the display still saying something like 11 or 12 minutes) a train pulls in, with people aboard. Ghosts apparently, since this train had just appeared in place of the failed one and wasn't supposed to be operating. After that, all went well and I got home, but the lack of announcements was ridiculous. This train didn't just fail and get swapped out in a second - it was known about, but nobody bothered updating the displays just in case the passengers got wind of something.

I've just realised that the train sitting at the platform must have been the previous train, and the one which arrived in with passengers must have been the scheduled one, that's the only way it could make sense.

z