[12-6-2007] Northbound DART + Commuter

[Mark Gleeson]

Not on the IE site but there are serious delays heading north a long tail back of trains to Booterstown

A train failure but no specifics

[Terrontress]

I was supposed to get the 17.22 ex Lansdowne to Drogheda. We were continually told it was to be 10 minutes, every five minutes or so, apparently due to problems with our train. It eventually arrived at 17.50 with the destination screen stating Dundalk.

The train then worked the normal 17.50 ex Pearse to Dundalk, meaning it was crowded, hot and sticky.

I am currently sitting in Donabate and every few minutes or so I can hear the speakers on the platform going "Can I have your attention please, Iarnrod Eireann would like to apologise..." in full or part before being cut off.

[Mark Gleeson]

I saw what I thought was the 17:50 leave Pearse, the display at the booking office level had the 17:50 as arrived at 17:48 with the two DART's that should have been ahead behind

It left bang on time but struggled out of Pearse as it was full

Currently delays of up to 20 minutes on southbound DART services

[Terrontress]

Woman at Donabate has got as far as to say that there was a broken down train in Connolly.

Think things seem to be running again OK.

[Rashers]

So the delayed 16.50 Bray - Drogheda caused all tonights problems. I was also planning to pick it up at Lansdowne, but when I checked the Realtime info before I left work, where I spotted the delay of 20 minutes. I let it go down to 10 minutes, but when I refreshed a minute later, it disappeared completely? I rang Pearse, who advised it was in Blackrock, but was definetly still running...No mention on travel alerts or AA.
When I go to the station the level crossing barriers were down for a long time waiting for this service, but eventually it arrived. Due to the crowds on the platform, and the canopy blocking the display, I could not see the displays, and the girl making the in station announcements had her mouth way too close too the microphone - I could not understand anything she said. Anyhow, at some point it appears, the 16.50 Bray-Drogheda became to 17.50 Pearse-Dundalk. No announcements on the train to advise passengers of the change in destination, but the display on/in the train said Dundalk.
So what happened to the real 17.50 Pearse-Dundalk service?
Another fun day with IE...oh, and of course, it was boiling hot on the severly crowded train

[ThomasJ]

the train that caused the problems tonight was infact the 17:33 bray-longford. at lansdowne road one of the brakes failed to release and it caused all sorts of tailbacks. (remember the cancellation of the 5.15 connolly-longford a couple of fridays ago- exact same problem)

in anyway, it got moving again got to connolly and failed (not sure what the problem was this time, if it was still, the brakes) the train was put out of service at connolly. i was in the train behind it, the malahide dart that skips some northside stations. it took an hour. we spend most of the time at booterstown. then also longer than expected at DART stations. It was torture!!!

[Terrontress]

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

the train that caused the problems tonight was infact the 17:33 bray-longford. at lansdowne road one of the brakes failed to release and it caused all sorts of tailbacks. (remember the cancellation of the 5.15 connolly-longford a couple of fridays ago- exact same problem)

in anyway, it got moving again got to connolly and failed (not sure what the problem was this time, if it was still, the brakes) the train was put out of service at connolly. i was in the train behind it, the malahide dart that skips some northside stations. it took an hour. we spend most of the time at booterstown. then also longer than expected at DART stations. It was torture!!!

Well the 1722 ex Lansdowne would not have been affected by that so it must have been double trouble!

[James Shields]

The 18:40 Connolly-Drogheda was a couple of mins late leaving Connolly, seemed to crawl through the Howth Junction area, and was about 10 mins late arriving in Drogheda.

[MOH]

I got a northbound DART from Blackrock at 17.11, which I think was the last train out of Saigon, as shortly before it arrived displays for all subsequent trains changed to 'Delay', and they announced that the Drogheda train would be "delayed to due a technical failure", with no indication of how long.

Bad organisation on IE's part, as usually I seem to be on the first train affected by failure. Ye missed me today, ha!!

[Mark Hennessy]

I arrived at Pearse at 1900 oblivious to all of this. The 1900 to Maynooth was only 9 mins down but there was no one left to catch it!
Most seemed to have left for the buses or docklands.

There was an 8 coach 2900 set in Connolly P7 dead when our train got there.
It pulled off southbound at 1920.

[ThomasJ]

The passengers from train were probably transferred to another train or the half six departure ex pearse to Maynooth waited for it.

[Rashers]

It was reported in the Indo today that both the Drogheda and Maynooth 29000 series services encountered problems last night, leading to 40 minutes delays to northbound DARTs.
So if the 16.50 Bray-Drogheda became to 17.50 Pearse-Dundalk, I assume the set that was due to run the 17.50 Pearse-Dundalk service was put on as a special around 17.40/17.45?

[ThomasJ]

i get more and more confused by this:

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...os-700907.html

Train breakdowns lead to rush-hour chaos
By Brendan Farrelly
Wednesday June 13 2007


TWO commuter trains travelling just minutes apart on the same stretch of track broke down causing rush-hour chaos for thousands of travellers last night.


The 4.50pm Bray to Drogheda train was only between Shankill and Killiney when it developed a technical fault.

The 5pm Bray to Maynooth train travelling behind was then hit - as were all DART services on the north bound track.

The problem with the Drogheda train was fixed within about 15 minutes but it ran into more trouble further down the line when it encountered a signal fault that delayed it for a further 10 minutes.

The Maynooth train was slowly following behind and just as it began to pick up some speed, it too was stopped by another problem - a brake fault as it neared Lansdowne Road station.

Meanwhile, large crowds began to build up on platforms along the line.

Iarnrod Eireann put other commuter trains into Pearse Station to bring people to Drogheda and Pearse.

But it was north-bound DART users who had to endure 40 minute delays. A spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann later apologised for the problems.

So what happened to the Longford train?

I thought that was the problem train