iridium
20-10-2010, 20:11
Perhaps it's a bit too early to be complaining about this, as it's only been three days, but I'm finding the amendments to the timetables which came into effect on Monday are not doing much for me.
For example: The 06:35 Limerick - Dublin used to be scheduled to depart Portlaoise at 07:55 and arrive in Dublin at 09:00. In actuality it would frequently arrive 5 to 10 minutes earlier than this.
Now it is supposed to depart Portlaoise at 07:47 and arrive in Dublin at 08:55. I don't know about anyone else, but finding an extra 8 minutes at that hour of the morning is quite a challenge for me! But each day so far this week I've managed it, only to find the train still departing Portlaoise at its old time, and arriving in Dublin between 6 and 18 minutes late. Hardly what I'd call improved punctuality. This morning we were actually looped to allow trains coming from Galway and Cork to overtake us, as a rather frustrated sounding driver explained about the new timetable and it's aims to improve punctuality, which was fairly amusing.
So, what chances of getting the old timetable back? At least that one seemed to be working. Or at the very least getting Irish Rail to schedule their trains so they don't need to loop commuter services to allow Intercity trains through? It's not like our train was particularly in the way, it doesn't stop again between Portlaoise and Dublin anyway.
For example: The 06:35 Limerick - Dublin used to be scheduled to depart Portlaoise at 07:55 and arrive in Dublin at 09:00. In actuality it would frequently arrive 5 to 10 minutes earlier than this.
Now it is supposed to depart Portlaoise at 07:47 and arrive in Dublin at 08:55. I don't know about anyone else, but finding an extra 8 minutes at that hour of the morning is quite a challenge for me! But each day so far this week I've managed it, only to find the train still departing Portlaoise at its old time, and arriving in Dublin between 6 and 18 minutes late. Hardly what I'd call improved punctuality. This morning we were actually looped to allow trains coming from Galway and Cork to overtake us, as a rather frustrated sounding driver explained about the new timetable and it's aims to improve punctuality, which was fairly amusing.
So, what chances of getting the old timetable back? At least that one seemed to be working. Or at the very least getting Irish Rail to schedule their trains so they don't need to loop commuter services to allow Intercity trains through? It's not like our train was particularly in the way, it doesn't stop again between Portlaoise and Dublin anyway.